 |
| |
|
 PDF
FORMAT |
Is
India a Good Call?
By Paul Hudson
Much has been written about the
rapid development of Indian call centres. Opinion
ranges from those seeing it as a threat for UK jobs
to those that see it as an opportunity for cost saving
and investment. Much of this debate has centred on
the market dynamics and the investment put in by the
Indian operators. However, little has been written
on how the customer rates the service, which will
ultimately decide the outcome of the debate.
In a comparison of two equal centres,
one in the UK and one in India, performance was remarkably
similar. Overall, callers rated the UK centre at 58%
whilst rating its Indian equivalent at 53%.
A commonly held view is that customers
donØt want their query about their electricity bill,
the water supply or even council tax payments to be
answered by someone in India. The reality though is
far from this. 22% of people could identify that the
agent had an Indian accent and 17% thought it was
a regional English, Irish or Welsh accent! Therefore,
78% were not aware that the call had been answered
in India.
As expected, on the calls where
an Indian accent was identified, performance was rated
much lower at 44% compared to 57% where no accent
was identified. This was mainly the result of clarity
and understanding, where 11% stated that the use of
language and grammar marred their understanding during
the call. Accent does therefore have an impact on
the customer experience but with only 1 in 5 of people
recognising it and similar ratings for the two services,
there is unlikely to be a wholesale reaction from
the public.
In terms of delivery, the agents
in the Indian centre appeared to rely more heavily
on the support of their computer system and less on
personal knowledge, leading to a more standardised
a less personalised response. Both tailoring and care
were rated lower for the Indian centre compared to
the UK one, which scored 71% and 70% respectively
while India scored 60% in each case.
These findings are entirely expected
given the differences in the system support and lower
levels of experience in dealing with the enquiries.
Should these two issues be given the same attention
as they have in the UK then you would expect the performance
gap to narrow. In areas less affected by systems,
knowledge and accent such as friendliness, the gap
between the two centres narrows to 7%.
Considering the stage of development
that the Indian centres are at, these comparisons
demonstrate the potential of the region. Given the
relative depth of experience and investment in the
UK, the results show what could be achievable in India
if more time and resource were invested. The region
would seem to be at a similar stage of development
to the UK a year or so ago. They are probably therefore
further ahead on the learning curve than many might
have expected.
Teleconomy have just launched a
wide spread study that will analyse the current UK
call centres in depth, exploring customer expectations,
cross-sector performance and the impact of multi-media
contact on caller expectations. For more information
on how to become involved through funding or sponsorship
then please contact us.
If there is further interest in
conducting a more widespread comparison with India,
covering a range of different call centres then
please contact us here.
|
FEEDBACK