Stop Offshoring
Wednesday, October 19, 2005
I recently saw this article about customer dissatisfaction with Indian call centers used by Lloyds TSB.
The complaints aren't anything new - I've experienced more than my share of inept offshore customer service people. What was interesting is that the company in question, Lloyds TSB, seems to not care about how frustrated their customers are. Is that how greedy corporations are nowadays? It's all about making a buck!
Steve Tatlow, assistant general secretary at Lloyds TSB Group Union, said: "The survey confirms what we have known all along. That staff dealing with customers day in and day out are having to deal with considerable customer hostility at having their accounts handled abroad.
"The results show that whatever Lloyds TSB might say about the customer service provided by its India operation, hordes of customers are complaining across the UK each and every day of the week.
"Senior Management will have to make a choice. Either to continue with cost cutting in the teeth of customer opposition to its offshoring plans, or else refocus its strategy towards putting customers first."
Monday, October 03, 2005
Why does it seem like I don't hear as much backlash against offshoring as I did a year or two ago? Have offshoring opponents been beaten into submission so much that they don't have the effort to put up a fight anymore?
The more I read about offshoring nowadays, the angrier I get. Mostly, what I'm reading about are Indian firms that trumpet their success and speak arrogantly about how they conquered their western counterparts. Take this ZDNet article, for example.
Offshore outsourcing has started a revolution in IT services that will see the big Indian vendors rise to the top and some of the established western players disappear, according to the head of one of India's biggest IT companies.
Speaking to silicon.com in Dublin, chief executive of Infosys Nandan Nilekani, said customers are no longer prepared to accept the "old way of doing things" when it comes to outsourcing. "This is irreversible and it is causing a churn in the market. When the dust settles there will be a new set of leaders," he said.
It irks me to no end, knowing that we helped build these Indian powerhouses through our stupidity (well, not ours, but our stupid corporate leaders'), and now the Indians are rubbing it in our noses.
