O2 ashamed of offshore CS, pretending to be in the UK

[Ben]

Well, this is rather disappointing!

Yesterday I was using O2's web chat to port a number in. It's an excellent service. I complimented Angela, my agent, on the help she had given me and asked, out of a sudden bout of curiosity, where she was based. That's when it got a bit weird; she responded that she wasn't allowed to tell me that...

Today I have received the porting confirmation email from O2, and it contains my agents name on the submission to the porting team. But it's not Angela. It's Pooja. Her surname is on there too, but I'll not write that here.

I feel sorry for Pooja that her employer is so ashamed of her location and culture that it feels it necessary to employ this 'cover up' to make her name palatable to the British. This experience has churned my stomach somewhat... it makes O2 come across as rather deceitful. Faking a UK customer service experience is completely unnecessary, all that matters is that the service is excellent - which it is.

Whoever came up with this charade should be fired.

[hecatae]

so, how many Angelas exist on the o2 webchat, is she permanently online 24 hours a day...

[Ben]

I've used the service several times since switching to O2 and, as far as I can recall, all of the agents have had thoroughly British names.

I don't believe I've seen 'Angela' before; so it's not like 'Angela' is some pseudonym that represents O2's online support and is manned by a behind-the-scenes team. I think each agent has a 'secret agent' British name they use when logging into web chat.

[Hands0n]

O2? Deceitful? Heaven's above! Who'd have thought?

Well, who, apart from me? :)

[ferret1979_1]

Don't O2 claim to have UK based CS.

I did read somewhere else that web chat was actually outsourced.

I don't know if its done to hide the fact its an offshore call centre.

[hecatae]

Pooja may live in the UK, is it outsourced to Bradford?

[miffed]

I reckon she just didn't want you stalking her ! :)

Shame if true, as I don't think anyone has a problem with offshore call centres simply because they are offshore call centres !

[Hands0n]

... I don't think anyone has a problem with offshore call centres simply because they are offshore call centres !

Actually :) ... I do. I hate the things with a complete passion. Not only are they systematically and reliably a complete failure but they also do away with UK jobs that rightfully belong here. We cannot keep sending our work off-shore with complete impunity. The impact to society is profound and deep.

Outsources are just that. They are not, despite the sales pitch, suitable for taking up your business. They are not bankers, MNOs, insurance companies or anything else. Outsources are there to sell their services first and foremost, to maximise their profits, just like any other business, even if it is to the cost and expense of your own firm's PR and reputation.

History will judge outsourcing as a 20th century folly.

[miffed]

Really ? I suppose I agree with what you are saying. but I don't feel thats a reason to hate the call centres themselves , the idiots that hire them perhaps ?
What IS a perfectly legitimate reason to hate them is not being able to communicate with them and not getting your problems solved in a timely manner (or even at all) ... this is where I feel the hate comes from. If CS is outsourced , but impeccably effective (as per Ben's recent case) then although the problems you outline would still be present, I doubt we'd hate them so much , or even give it much thought !

[Hands0n]

Thats the thing though, its the outsourcing the does the damage. No longer is the call centre centred around technical excellence. Instead it is a facsimile of the former insource, typically with no expertise, hence the need for scripts that attempt [and fail] to catch all the exceptions that may occur. The service level and effectiveness inevitably worsens and customer dissatisfaction is assured. Problems that should be simple to resolve turn into epic fails.

Five minutes spent on Twitter is enough to reveal the repeat failures that occur on all of the network operators outsources.