« slogans run | Main | are biographies organized by author or subject? »

April 4, 2005

taking it up (with) the back office

maybe it's the result of our new world economy—the pervasiveness of a complete lack of empathy for the customer by corporate America.

f&ck the old adage "the customer is always right."

today, the customer is 'the bane of someone's existence,' the reason for why they're...

...home late. stressed out. have a headache. addicted to alcohol. drugs.

there's a fundamental disconnect between customer and proprietor—for them, it's about making millions quickly not achieving market share. dealing with customers on a one-on-one basis just isn't profitable these days it seems--club stores, super centers, outsourcing, for example.

and Bush wants to run Public Education like a business?

i digress.

my point: where the f&ck does the buck stop?

for sure, not any one place anymore. and, if it does, it doesn't without first going through India.

seems in today's global economy, someone's made a case for why corporate America—not the customer—would be better served if only they could just find a way to outsource customer service. outsource, that is, to foreign countries. actually, customer service is considered a "back office operation."

two major services on which i depend outsource their "back office operations" to India: Citibank and American Express.

i recently had to deal with Citibank via India.

delightful New Dehlians, for sure. but, from my experience, taking it up with the back office hurt like hell! i believe they don’t know shit about banking. what's more, CS reps i spoke with showed absolutely no empathy for my situation.

and get this! a recent WAPO article reported that "Call center executives and industry experts say abusive hate calls are commonplace, as resentment swells over the loss of American jobs to India.

"According to a survey in November 2004 by an Indian information technology magazine called Dataquest, about 25 percent of call center agents identified such calls as the main reason for workplace stress. The survey said the calls often were 'psychologically disturbing' for workers.

"The vast pool of low-cost, English-speaking and tech-savvy Indian workers has attracted back-office service operations of companies such as American Express, Sprint, Citibank, General Electric, Ford, Hewlett-Packard, IBM and firms that process U.S. tax returns and welfare benefits.

"Some of the offices serving these companies hold stress-management workshops, set up gyms and pool tables, and even offer classes in meditation, breathing techniques and yoga."

jeezus! pool tables, of all things! that sure explains a lot--mainly, how i got my balls broken real good by those 'back office' Citibank folks in India this week.

i plan to change banks and research all current and future service providers with whom i do or plan to do business. any company i discover that out sources 'back office operations' can kiss my back office while i out souce my needs elsewhere--preferably to some mom & pop stand that still believes the "customer is always right."

Posted by chadblake at April 4, 2005 4:53 PM

Trackback Pings

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.donblake.com/mt/mt-tb.cgi/42

Comments

Post a comment