Hey CFO, where will you outsource to now?

July 20, 2010 at 10:22 am | Posted in Business Intelligence, for External Relationships, for Internal Relationships, Offshoring, Relationship Analytics | Leave a comment
Tags: agent empowerment, cultural differences in offshoring, customer-service experience, offshore call center locations

One of my most-memorable offshore customer-service experiences involves a Fortune 100 direct-to-consumer computer company.  My power cord had stopped delivering power to my laptop, making it a fairly large (and expensive) paperweight.  I called the toll free number, ordered a new power cord, validated my shipping address and willingly paid for express delivery. 

A few days later, still without a power cord, I called the customer service number and was swiftly routed to an agent in the Philippines.  Apparently the power cord had been delivered to my previous mailing address, 1,200 hundred miles away.  I explained the urgency of this matter and after a period of absolute and deafening silence, the agent wondered if I could pick it up at my old address.  Really?  How far do you think 1,200 miles is?  Eventually he recovered to cite the company policy for returns and exchanges (not really applicable to the situation at hand) and then swiftly transferred me to a supervisor.

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