April 12, 2007

Outsourcing Customer Service Is A Mistake

I am completely fed up with 1and1, the company that hosts one of our web sites and email.

Don’t you hate it when you call customer service or tech support and someone answers with a strong accent and a fake American name?

These are the same people that when they ask my name and I say, “Doug”, they ask me to spell it. Are you freaking kidding me? Of course, I then have to spell “D-o-u-g” seven times and receive a follow up email later to “D-o-u-g-h”.

How can companies not understand that this is a major mistake?

Here is what I entered into the customer service form after a very disappointing experience speaking with 1and1.com’s “technical support”:

tech-support.jpg

By the way, if you haven’t seen the episode of 30 Days (great show on FX produced by Morgan Spurlock who made the Supersize Me documentary) called “Outsourced”, I highly recommend it.

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Life Technology

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Date

April 12, 2007

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admin

Comments (1)

  • LynDel April 21, 2007 

    Ditto to your sentiments exactly ~ only I would like to expand that to include:
    May I speak to someone who speaks English fluently?
    May I speak to someone without an accent?
    May I speak to someone who completely understands the English Language?
    If you employ someone at any drive-thru window/service in the United States, it is imperitive that you only staff those services with the above qualifications. It is also necessary that you train thos employees to speak clearly and disctinctly.

    After living in Southern California and Arizona for the last 10 years, it is no longer the exception, it is the RULE, that every single drive-thru and drive-up service (banks included) have staffed those services with heavily -accented, non-English speaking employees. And, like you, Doug, I’m finding more and more “customer service” representatives can’t understand English, don’t speak it fluently, are hard to understand, etc. And this on American soil.

    I’m with you, Doug. It is very frustrating.

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