racoma.com.phJ. Angelo Racoma on technology, economics, writing, problogging, and getting things done

My mother has been banking on the Virtual Assistance business for some time now, having helped set up a VA outfit for about a year, and then setting out on her own. And so I’ve decided to graciously turn over my prized WorkSmartr brand for a ridiculously discounted price of $10,000. And so after laughing myself all the way to the bank, I assigned the fix-up of the site to my own VA (whom I pay a paltry $20 per hour), and so WorkSmartr.com has been reborn.

Mum offers various services, like administrative assistance, telephone support, research, transcription, data processing, and even the infamous outbound call assistance from our friendly Elbonian telemarketers.

So if you are in need of virtual assistants, do pay them a visit. Oh, I do sometimes consult with them, when it comes to the more technical stuff.

One of my favorite writers and bloggers, Joel Spolsky writes an interesting piece on customer service. He says you won’t have to deal with irate customers, chargebacks, and bad reputations if you find solutions to problems early on, so you solve these at the root, and not when everyone and his uncle is already calling in to complain about lousy service. He also says that if you go to great lengths to please your customer, the return will be tenfold (or more).

We treat each tech support call like the NTSB treats airliner crashes. Every time a plane crashes, they send out investigators, figure out what happened, and then figure out a new policy to prevent that particular problem from ever happening again. It’s worked so well for aviation safety that the very, very rare airliner crashes we still get in the US are always very unusual, one-off situations.

One striking statement Joel makes is that in-house customer service is best, because outsourced customer relations management will not be able to adequately address issues at the source having no direct ties to whoever is developing the darn thing. Joel even specifically mentions the Philippines (along with Bangalore).

This perhaps will get negative feedback from those in the BPO industries, particularly those in my country. Believe me, I have several friends and relatives who work in call centers and other BPO firms, and I can say it’s been a boon, especially to people here looking for a decent living. They’re sort of the dream jobs of this generation.

However, I do agree with Joel that there’s something wrong with the concept of outsourcing customer relations. You’re basically letting someone else be the spokespeople of your company to the public. Never mind hiring PR firms for marketing. Never mind blogging about your stuff ‘til kingdom come. If you don’t handle customer concerns personally then you’re probably only able to address their concerns on a superficial level. Then the problem will keep on happening, again and again, like a weed that will keep on growing unless you grab it by the balls roots and burn it to ashes.

Take for instance this recent issue with HP support that Technosailor Aaron Brazell wrote about. What about the PLDT CSR swearing incident? These things give your company a bad rap. And even if it’s only one customer that you end up losing, it’s the loss of goodwill that will ultimately kill your business one way or another.

So what saves you more money? Being stingy with costs but losing a bit of customer trust? Or being all out with customer relations and gaining more clients because of goodwill? It depends, of course, but it matters when it comes to what image you want your company to project.

One good solution would be to offshore, but still keep development and customer relations teams within the same company. Or perhaps you can be selective with the concerns that can be handled by the offshore customer service centers (like billing or other minor, non-critical stuff).

I’m not against business process outsourcing. Believe me, I consider BPO as a Godsend, too. I’m in sort of an outsourced business myself, since I blog for foreign-own sites and blog networks (which is in a way different from outsourced customer relations). But it’s a reality that companies and BPO providers will have to contend with sometime.

There are more. Joel writes seven—no eight—steps to remarkably good customer service. Read on. I hope you enjoy.

Remember, greed will get you nowhere.

It’s bad enough when your utility’s customer service desk lines are dead in the middle of a crisis. But what if your call actually comes through? And what if the customer service rep you’re talking to panics when you become assertive in making your complaint? What if he/she swears at you?

This was exactly what happened with PLDT’s helpdesk in this incident as cited on Jepoy’s Captain’s Log. You can download the WAV file here. It’s either recorded by the caller or this could have been from the call center’s archived calls.

Here’s the skinny:

• The caller was complaining about his DSL service being down for a full day.
• The CSR says the tech department cites software updates for the downtime, and the client should expect the service to resume after a day.
• The client asks for a rebate for the two days downtime, but the CSR is reluctant.
• The client says he doesn’t want to pay for service not rendered, and utters a swear-word (not directed at the CSR).
• The CSR responds, swearing at the client.
• Client gets angry—while still calm—at the CSR for cussing.
• CSR pleads for the client not to get angry, claiming she did not swear.
• After the client reminds her that she indeed cussed, she responds she only said that because the client swore at her.
• Client says he just swore in general, but did not direct it at the CSR. Client asks for a supervisor.
• CSR panics and cries. She then disconnects the call.

Busted!

The client was able to get the CSR’s name, during that time she had not realized her mistake of cussing at the client. I’m not sure what happened to this call center employee, but I’m pretty sure either PLDT had this on record (call centers do record calls) or the client sent in a copy along with a complaint.

Toxic

I don’t think the CSR intended to swear at the client, though. Maybe the cussing was an automatic reaction from hearing a swear word uttered—things like this could happen when one is under pressure, and when arguing. From stories I’ve been hearing, call center conditions are quite toxic, especially with the shifting (which changes every few weeks or so), six-day workweeks, and the generally poor labor conditions in the Philippines.

Now I understand things can get pretty stressful in call center situations, especially if the client the CSR is talking to is quite stupid and couldn’t tell a cupholder from a CD-ROM tray. But this is different. And a company’s helpdesk still does not have the right to swear at clients making legitimate complaints.

The helpdesk rep should have at least had the presence of mind to remember that she’s on the job and that she’s carrying the company’s reputation in her dealings with clients.

At the very least, the PLDT call center has probably been employing poorly-trained helpdesk personnel. Complacency? I guess so. Being the largest telecom network in the country, PLDT must have been sitting on its laurels and thinking customer service isn’t a priority.

Update

On afterthought, I don’t think anyone has bothered to verify this incident with PLDT. For one, I don’t think I heard the word PLDT anywhere—the CSR just said “welcome to DSL helpdesk.” And it’s even possible that this was not a call in the first place, and that the conversation was simply recorded for the purpose of discrediting a company.

Does anyone have direct contact to PLDT higher-ups or at least the company (or department) that manages its call center/s? Any information would surely be helpful.

Yes, there is a clamor in the Americas against business process offshoring, particularly because many believe that the jobs that Americans should be holding are gradually being exported to the low-labor cost countries in Asia and Eastern Europe. Techdirt reports on an initiative in the US Senate that would require offshored contact center representatives to disclose that they are outside of US soil.

The Senate Commerce Committee is considering a bill that would require foreign call center workers to disclose that they are in a different country. It’s not clear why this is necessary or what such a rule would accomplish. Outsourcing call centers isn’t illegal, and it shouldn’t be the position of the government to try to shame companies that do it. Most likely, the bill’s supporters will claim that consumers have a “right to know”, though no such right exists. While some have complained about language problems with the foreign staff, this problem will take care of itself, as companies won’t keep using call centers that mess up transactions.

So if this pushes through, then does this mean less intensive trainings on accent neutralization and geograpy are required? I mean, contact center agents are trained to practically pretend they’re Americans (or Brits, Spanish, or whatever), in terms of accent and knowledge in geography and culture. If they were asked required to disclose their actual location, then most of this would be rendered moot!

At any rate, one would tend to wonder whether moves like these are aimed at discouraging companies from offshoring contact centers and other business processes–or a “transparent protectionist scheme,” indeed, as Techdirt opines.

Inq7 Infotech reports that a local labour group has condemned the call center industry for allegedly exploiting Filipinos, giving them much lower wages than US counterparts.

KMU Spokesperson Prestoline Suyat said in a statement that Filipino contact center agents are paid much lower wages than their US counterparts, pointing to exploitation by multinational firms.

He noted that entry-level workers have an average salary of 15,000 pesos while their US counterparts earn nearly 40,000 pesos per month.

The Filipino contact center agent’s salary also falls short of the 19,950 pesos monthly living cost.

Dude, that’s why they’re offshoring to our country! Imagine if we were to charge them US$50,000 annually apiece–the standard or even the minimum wage for a tech/support worker in the US–then surely no one would bother to outsource here.

IMHO, even a salary of PhP 15,000 is a good enough start. Heck, I started out at about PhP 11,000 monthly when I was an economist with Government–and that was a highly sought-for tech position (yes, I was envied by my batchmates who were then still finishing one more semester before graduating).

I’m not saying we should ignore the plight of our working class (who toil and toil, and don’t even get their full salary’s worth, as the taxman collects his ~20% for pocketing by Mr. Congressman). I’m saying that KMU is too quick to point its finger at the BPO industry as society’s ultimate evil–as most progressive groups are wont to, IMHO.

Also, I would think that those in the contact center industry who are smart enough would consider their current state as temporary. I know a handful of people who used their experience in call centers as stepping stones to better career paths later on. So even if they are indeed “dead-end jobs” (a claim that to some extent, I do agree with), they are not a dead-end for those who know when to move on to better things.

Contact centers are the rage nowadays. They’re like IT jobs a decade ago, and nursing jobs abroad at the turn of the century. Where else do our compatriots turn to for jobs? With everybody–left, right, and center–bickering and clamoring for their 15 minutes of fame, our economy is always at the brink of collapse.

By the way, a great alternative to working at call centers, IMHO, is career problogging. Writing about three blogs for an established blog network will give you about twice the average compensation (as cited above) for work at a call center. That’s without the perks and benefits though (i.e., the free coffee, massages, health plans, and make-out rooms). But who needs perks when you get to have cold cash in your hands? You do get to spend on your own perks!