Have you ever called in for customer service and been greeted by someone who barely speaks your language? Many consumers today have, since many U.S. operations have exported their call center function overseas to save money.
Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri, the "Show Me" state, wants the government to show her constituents some new jobs -- perhaps at call centers. She is drafting legislation that would require call center agents working beyond U.S. borders to reveal exactly where they are located.
"I don't know about you, but I have called for help sometimes and I can't get them to tell me where they are, (in cases) when I've been frustrated because there's been a language barrier," said McCaskill during a news conference on the floor of the call center at Missouri Book Services in Columbia. "I think (the legislation) gives a boost to American-centered call centers because I think most Americans would prefer to use a call center that's located here in the United States," she told the Missouri News Horizon.
Calling On Talent
McCaskill told her listeners that the number of call centers in Missouri has declined from 13,000 in 2007 to 9,000 today. She points to call center outsourcing to foreign countries as the culprit.
"These are good jobs, and as we are trying to grow jobs, if we can do something that's not expensive that helps promote jobs growth in America, I think we need to jump on it," McCaskill said.
Outsourcing is big business . The Philippines contract center industry alone grew 15 percent annually from 2006 to 2010, according to a recent market report from the Contact Center Association of the Philippines. The industry there is expected to grow in the next five years, climbing from approximately $6.2 billion in revenues in 2010 to about $14.7 billion in 2016. And that's just the Philippines.
"Depending on the company, there's been a lot of interest in bringing call centers back on U.S. shores, for the most part because there's been a real problem with talent retention overseas," said Rob Enderle, principal analyst at Enderle Group. "When you get someone trained in English and trained in the technology, they often get a higher paying job at some other company."
A New Movement?
Call centers have been a hot topic in recent months. In a move to sweeten its T-Mobile acquisition proposal, AT&T in August promised to bring back to the United States 5,000 wireless call center jobs that are currently outsourced to other countries, if the deal goes through.
What's more, AT&T said the 5,000 new wireless call center jobs would offer among the nation's most highly competitive wages and benefits. The company did not say where those jobs would be located, but the announcement was the largest commitment by an individual American company to bring jobs back to the U.S. since the economic crisis began in 2008.
"Customer satisfaction scores tend to go up when you have domestic talent as opposed to outsourced talent, and customer satisfaction tends to lead to better customer retention," Enderle said. "So there are a number of other reasons beyond legislation to actually bring call centers back to the U.S., which is probably why AT&T doesn't have a problem doing that."
Sunday, October 2, 2011
Netflix Apology Pours Salt on Price Wound
Some might call it pouring salt into a wound. Netflix CEO Reed Hastings apologized for how he handled the price increases on the company's service, but his words seem to be akin to picking a scab.
Hastings started out his apology with candor, admitting he "messed up" and owes everyone an explanation about why Netflix was separating its DVD and streaming services, and the price changes that go along with that move. He then went into a long explanation that started back with AOL dial-up and Borders bookstores and noted how these companies made mistakes by moving too slow.
Hasting's error, as he sees it, is not communicating well enough during the company's rapid evolution. Now, he's trying to do what he believes he should have done from the get-go: communicate. But customers don't seem to be buying the spiel.
Foot in Mouth
"I also love our streaming service because it is integrated into my TV, and I can watch anytime I want. The benefits of our streaming service are really quite different from the benefits of DVD by mail," Hastings said. "We feel we need to focus on rapid improvement as streaming technology and the market evolve, without having to maintain compatibility with our DVD by mail service."
Hastings went on to say the DVD by mail service was getting re-branded as Qwikster. DVD members will now have to go to qwikster.com to order discs -- and now, the addition of video games -- by mail. The name was chosen because it refers to quick delivery. Netflix will be reserved for the streaming service.
That complicates things for Netflix subscribers, who now have to subscribe to two separate services that are no longer integrated. If you subscribe to both services, and if you need to change your credit card or e-mail address, you have to do it in two places. Similarly, if you rate or review a movie on Qwikster, it doesn't show up on Netflix, and vice versa.
Angry Movie Fans
For this, Netflix is charging consumers more than before. Qwikster unlimited DVD-only plans in the U.S. are $7.99 a month for the one-DVD-out-at-a-time plan and $11.99 for two DVDs at a time. The unlimited-streaming plan will remain at $7.99 a month. The price for getting both unlimited streaming and unlimited DVDs will be $15.98 a month.
"You're diluting your brand with 'Qwikster,' you've financially drilled and disrespected your customer base with the cost increases, and now you are making it harder for them to manage their queues and basically charging them for it," Ross Brandt commented. "My personal solution was simple: delete DVDs."
Hastings started out his apology with candor, admitting he "messed up" and owes everyone an explanation about why Netflix was separating its DVD and streaming services, and the price changes that go along with that move. He then went into a long explanation that started back with AOL dial-up and Borders bookstores and noted how these companies made mistakes by moving too slow.
Hasting's error, as he sees it, is not communicating well enough during the company's rapid evolution. Now, he's trying to do what he believes he should have done from the get-go: communicate. But customers don't seem to be buying the spiel.
Foot in Mouth
"I also love our streaming service because it is integrated into my TV, and I can watch anytime I want. The benefits of our streaming service are really quite different from the benefits of DVD by mail," Hastings said. "We feel we need to focus on rapid improvement as streaming technology and the market evolve, without having to maintain compatibility with our DVD by mail service."
Hastings went on to say the DVD by mail service was getting re-branded as Qwikster. DVD members will now have to go to qwikster.com to order discs -- and now, the addition of video games -- by mail. The name was chosen because it refers to quick delivery. Netflix will be reserved for the streaming service.
That complicates things for Netflix subscribers, who now have to subscribe to two separate services that are no longer integrated. If you subscribe to both services, and if you need to change your credit card or e-mail address, you have to do it in two places. Similarly, if you rate or review a movie on Qwikster, it doesn't show up on Netflix, and vice versa.
Angry Movie Fans
For this, Netflix is charging consumers more than before. Qwikster unlimited DVD-only plans in the U.S. are $7.99 a month for the one-DVD-out-at-a-time plan and $11.99 for two DVDs at a time. The unlimited-streaming plan will remain at $7.99 a month. The price for getting both unlimited streaming and unlimited DVDs will be $15.98 a month.
"You're diluting your brand with 'Qwikster,' you've financially drilled and disrespected your customer base with the cost increases, and now you are making it harder for them to manage their queues and basically charging them for it," Ross Brandt commented. "My personal solution was simple: delete DVDs."
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)