BA Outsourced UK Call Centres

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Viewing 15 posts - 16 through 30 (of 41 total)

  • MartynSinclair
    Participant

    Amex (Plat) recently changed their call centre to the Philippines. My issues are:

    1. The phone lines are very crackly
    2. The operators grasp of English is simply not good enough – everything needs to be repeated and spelt out.

    I very politely request to be transferred to Brighton and the operator will always put me through, I have now been given a direct way of contacting Brighton.

    I think overseas call centres will work if the phone lines are of a high quality and they are staffed by people who understand English as a first language…


    capetonianm
    Participant

    Charles ….. you know the rule about when you’ve dug yourself into a hole, stop digging!

    Nobody said ‘call centres in India are not the same standard as UK based ones’. (In fact, the calibre of people working in Indian call centres is often superior, but it can be really hard work dealing with them.)

    What was said was this : “The levels of exasperated rage generated in the US by Indian call centres have caused many companies to switch” and it’s a fair comment, not a racist one.

    “BA like any company has a responsibility to its shareholders to maximise fiscal performance while maintaining customer satisfaction.” They are demonstrably not succeeding, not least because the two objectives are mutually conflicting. I happen to be a BA (IAG) shareholder and I strenuously avoid flying with VY and IB, and prefer to avoid BA. I don’t think the shares have done very well either but I admit to simply holding them in a portfolio and not watching the price or dividends very closely.

    I think overseas call centres will work if the phone lines are of a high quality and they are staffed by people who understand English as a first language…

    Exactly, which is why South African call centres are generally very good, and there are two in particular which I speak to quite often and which are excellent. It’s quite odd though that sometimes when I’m in CPT, I call a UK number and my call routes back to CPT to someone in an office within line of sight of where I’m sitting!


    Charles-P
    Participant

    Charles ….. you know the rule about when you’ve dug yourself into a hole, stop digging!

    Where’s the fun in that 🙂 I think I hold the ‘moral high ground’ here so intend to continue to pull at this particular thread.

    “The levels of exasperated rage generated in the US by Indian call centres have caused many companies to switch” and it’s a fair comment, not a racist one.

    I think it has a racist overtone.

    staffed by people who understand English as a first language

    So like many Indian people then ?

    Have a nice weekend everyone, I’m off to fly my PC12 to Milan for a wedding.


    capetonianm
    Participant

    “I think I hold the ‘moral high ground’ here”
    … and I think you don’t so we’ll have to agree to disagree!

    “I think it has a racist overtone.”
    Ditto!

    “staffed by people who understand English as a first language
    So like many Indian people then ?”
    That was thought provoking and I thought you were wrong, so I checked. According to Wikipedia (just happens to be the easiest source, I know it’s far from infallible), only 0.02% of the population of India speak English as a first language.

    Fly safe and have a good weekend in Milano.


    Charles-P
    Participant

    only 0.02% of the population of India speak English as a first language

    True out of the total population, although that percentage rises remarkably when we look at those people who have at least a degree level education and call centres in India (in general) only employ higher educated people. Don’t get me started on the reality of a world were someone works hard to obtain a degree and then realises a call centre job is better paid than say a career in Engineering (the reality in parts of India).


    FDOS_UK
    Participant

    [quote quote=808212]Clearly I have opened a can or worms here !

    It is interesting to note that nobody commented on the fact I also wrote that BA like any company has a responsibility to its shareholders to maximise fiscal performance while maintaining customer satisfaction. If I were a BA shareholder I would regard the board as having done exactly that by adopting a well proven strategy.

    [/quote]

    I didn’t bother responding to that, as until there is an official annoucement and more details are known, there is nothing to comment on.


    FDOS_UK
    Participant

    [quote quote=808226]

    Charles ….. you know the rule about when you’ve dug yourself into a hole, stop digging!

    I think I hold the ‘moral high ground’ here so intend to continue to pull at this particular thread.

    “The levels of exasperated rage generated in the US by Indian call centres have caused many companies to switch” and it’s a fair comment, not a racist one.

    I think it has a racist overtone.

    staffed by people who understand English as a first language

    So like many Indian people then ?

    Have a nice weekend everyone, I’m off to fly my PC12 to Milan for a wedding.

    [/quote]

    You come across as deluded as VintageKrug/Sergeant Major used to.

    There is no racist undertone in this thread, the only questionable content is yours.

    I hope you are better at flying, than you are at debating.


    JAXBA
    Participant

    Hi sgvancouver, good to hear from you. I was in JAX and although it started as an outsourced centre, it became operated by a wholly owned subsidiary of BA in 2001 (BA didn’t buy the contractor, just took on the employees). By the time I joined in 2004, it was Flytele, which was BA – but BA’s way of playing a shell game I suppose, so they could pay less than NYC, HOU and YTO.

    I was in Rates and worked with people in NYC and YTO. I knew you guys and hated to see you go. Eventually our turn came too of course when we closed in December 2013… 🙁


    Charles-P
    Participant

    FDOS UK. I’m sorry young lady I had no idea we were debating. Let me know next time.


    neilsoaj
    Participant

    Hi Everyone as the originator of the thread i was looking at it from a BA UK staffing POV and how this would show through if they didn’t feel they belonged to BA but to an independent company

    Perhaps best summarising it this way Money Saved v Benefit passed to customer v Public perception and morale


    FDOS_UK
    Participant

    [quote quote=808269]FDOS UK. I’m sorry young lady I had no idea we were debating. Let me know next time.

    [/quote]

    Let’s just agree you have no idea, maybe you had too much vintage shampoo?


    FDOS_UK
    Participant

    [quote quote=808268]Hi sgvancouver, good to hear from you. I was in JAX and although it started as an outsourced centre, it became operated by a wholly owned subsidiary of BA in 2001 (BA didn’t buy the contractor, just took on the employees). By the time I joined in 2004, it was Flytele, which was BA – but BA’s way of playing a shell game I suppose, so they could pay less than NYC, HOU and YTO.

    I was in Rates and worked with people in NYC and YTO. I knew you guys and hated to see you go. Eventually our turn came too of course when we closed in December 2013… ?

    [/quote]

    Welcome to Business Traveller, JAXBA. I’ve read your posts on Flyertalk and hope that you will be able to share your knowledge here, too.

    1 user thanked author for this post.

    maxgeorge
    Participant

    At the risk of releasing another torrent of invective denouncing my racism, an addendum to capetonian’s post about South African call centre staff’s excellent command of English is that many of them are “Cape Coloureds” ie Afrikaans-as-first-language speakers.

    But nonetheless obliging and readily understood.

    No exasperated rage there, then.

    Verskoon my, dames en here…


    MartynSinclair
    Participant

    @Charles-P, it depends on how you measure the most effective way to deliver profit to the shareholders..

    Do happy and contented (or indeed very contended) passengers, buying more of the product provide more or less profit than cost cutting measures such as moving a call centre offshore..

    I also don’t think the bias is due to racial stereotype, its more about the difficulty in communicating with people. On your approach into Milan this evening, if you were faced with a controller whose English could be misunderstood due to his accent – would you consider yourself racially biased or annoyed at how someone with such a strong accented spoken English could be employed as an ATC controller..?

    Hope you enjoy the wedding and safe flying…


    capetonianm
    Participant

    many of them are “Cape Coloureds” ie Afrikaans-as-first-language speakers.

    Before someone buys a first class ticket (it’s nearly full, not many tickets left now) on the outrage bus and says that calling them ‘Coloureds’ is racist, may I point out, as anyone who’s been to South Africa will know, that they call themselves, and proudly so, Cape Coloureds. They are a mix of the Dutch, Portuguese, and others who came to the Cape and slaked their carnal lust with the local ladies. They are an odd mixture, some have Portuguese names and blue eyes. They speak a (sort of!) Afrikaans and a very distinctive English. As maxgeorge says, very pleasant, quick, and obliging.

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