outsourcing
I don't begrudge the fact that outsourcing happens. Yeah, it causes job loss, but if they can do it cheaper then so be it. Yay capitalism. ;) What I do begrudge is how it is implemented.
To the companies outsourced to: Teach them English and work on accents. I have no problem with someone not sounding exactly like me, but if I can't understand half the words you're saying then we have a problem. The opposite is true too. If you can't understand me, either because of my accent or because you don't have a secure grasp of the language, we have a problem. Even one of my co-workers who has a decent accent agrees with me. Even she can't understand many of these people and she's from the same country.
To the companies doing the outsourcing: Remember that "you get what you pay for". That and maybe "try before you buy". If I have to spend twice the time chasing down problems, correcting misunderstandings, or whatever, then are you really saving anything?
I do feel somewhat bad for some of the support people I deal with in other countries. They get just as frustrated as I do with not being able to understand. Plus there is the cultural aspect of, for lack of a better term, "pushiness". Americans are pushy. We're arrogant. We can be rude. We also tend to simply repeat ourselves louder when we're not understood. I do my best to not be/do any of these, but even then it can be a relative thing. If you're uncertain or come across as "weak", it delivers a bad message. I'm not sure I can trust what you're saying. I'm not saying you have to know everything, but let's figure out how to get to the bottom of things.
Over the past few days I've been dealing with my company's outsourced support. It is a classic case of "It worked one day and not today." It is also a classic case of "We didn't change anything." The language barrier has come into play a lot. Technical expertise has come into play a lot. Useless methodology has come into play. At the end of every day I get a call from the support group saying that they are going to route the problem ticket back to us ("Detroit"), or try to close the ticket. ("Nothing has changed, so it must not be broken.") I've let them transfer it back to us a few times and then I route it right back to them the next day. Yesterday I finally said "No, I'm leaving it open and I'm not letting it be re-routed." I explained my stance. Silence. Finally after a long pause the girl says, "Yeah, ok. Thank you." and hangs up. I put the phone down and said out loud, "You don't have a clue what I just said." I had reached my limit.
We will see what today brings us. As is typical, the onus is on us to fix their problem. We're proven that we haven't changed anything and that something else has changed. I appreciate that this is tricky and we're all a bit out of our league. In the end, I don't really care. I'm paying you to support me. Do your job.
There is a lot more to the rant, but I'm done... for now.
To the companies outsourced to: Teach them English and work on accents. I have no problem with someone not sounding exactly like me, but if I can't understand half the words you're saying then we have a problem. The opposite is true too. If you can't understand me, either because of my accent or because you don't have a secure grasp of the language, we have a problem. Even one of my co-workers who has a decent accent agrees with me. Even she can't understand many of these people and she's from the same country.
To the companies doing the outsourcing: Remember that "you get what you pay for". That and maybe "try before you buy". If I have to spend twice the time chasing down problems, correcting misunderstandings, or whatever, then are you really saving anything?
I do feel somewhat bad for some of the support people I deal with in other countries. They get just as frustrated as I do with not being able to understand. Plus there is the cultural aspect of, for lack of a better term, "pushiness". Americans are pushy. We're arrogant. We can be rude. We also tend to simply repeat ourselves louder when we're not understood. I do my best to not be/do any of these, but even then it can be a relative thing. If you're uncertain or come across as "weak", it delivers a bad message. I'm not sure I can trust what you're saying. I'm not saying you have to know everything, but let's figure out how to get to the bottom of things.
Over the past few days I've been dealing with my company's outsourced support. It is a classic case of "It worked one day and not today." It is also a classic case of "We didn't change anything." The language barrier has come into play a lot. Technical expertise has come into play a lot. Useless methodology has come into play. At the end of every day I get a call from the support group saying that they are going to route the problem ticket back to us ("Detroit"), or try to close the ticket. ("Nothing has changed, so it must not be broken.") I've let them transfer it back to us a few times and then I route it right back to them the next day. Yesterday I finally said "No, I'm leaving it open and I'm not letting it be re-routed." I explained my stance. Silence. Finally after a long pause the girl says, "Yeah, ok. Thank you." and hangs up. I put the phone down and said out loud, "You don't have a clue what I just said." I had reached my limit.
We will see what today brings us. As is typical, the onus is on us to fix their problem. We're proven that we haven't changed anything and that something else has changed. I appreciate that this is tricky and we're all a bit out of our league. In the end, I don't really care. I'm paying you to support me. Do your job.
There is a lot more to the rant, but I'm done... for now.