India Outsourcing to --- the U.S.?

India's thriving outsourcing business is so successful that some companies are actually outsourcing their outsourcing to other countries like Mexico, Canada, Romania and -- someone should be with Lou Dobbs when he hears this -- to America. Uh huh.

According to The New York Times, one Indian company says they are considering opening outsourcing offices in Idaho, Virginia and Georgia to take advantage of "states which are less developed." Ouch! Could that be an international bitch-slap? It does seem a bit loopy. Globalization meets Alice-in-Wonderland. This suggests that when you call your neighborhood bank about a wayward check, you may actually be talking to someone in Idaho by way of Bangalore, India. Why, you may ask, doesn't the bank let you call straight to Idaho and bypass the hissing long-distance frustrating chat with some polite guy who is doing his best to understand your vernacular-laden, stressed-out rant? The standard reply you usually hear from the outsourcer is "Those people don't cost us very much so we can pass the savings on to the customer while we thrive as a result. Everybody wins." Maybe.

There's could be a micro-trend in the making towards businesses keeping customer service in the U.S., paying prevailing American wages and also thriving. NetFlix, the movies-by-mail people, has decided to IN-source their customer service center to a new huge 24/7 Oregon call-center in Portland, Oregon. Why Oregon? Because, NetFlix says, Oregonians are polite and nice to others. And indeed, they are. Netflix is also saying something important to the business community. Connecting with customers pocketbooks is a good thing but connecting customers with an understanding and helpful human experience on the other end of the phone is a better thing. It is the significant differentiator in the market place. We live in a digitally-paced, voice-mailing, outsourced world where get-it-now-and-get-it-cheap is the prevailing mode. Somehow business has forgotten the old Fats Waller song, "It Ain't What You do, It's the Way That You Do It."

So, if our customer service call now takes us to polite and friendly Oregonian or Idahoan by way of India, then maybe it's not so loopy after all. They just have to get rid of the distracting long-distance hiss on the line.

Comments

[Purple Girl]

We have all been victimized by the Walmart mentality.WE used to hear- Buy American. Now there no American companies avilaible to buy from. We were gutter by greed, not just the CEO" but by our own wanting to save another $0.30, so we can not feel guilty about the $60,000 we just spent on the SUV. Penny wise but pound foolish.

[TucsonEd]

I am an Earthlink Subscriber. One two occasions I have tried to call Earthlink to resolve problems. The 1st occasion was when my hubby lost his ATM card. I went on line to notify them that I need to give them a new payment source. They could NOT or did NOT want to understand what I was telling them. I tried calling, same thing. It was incredibly ridiculous. We just wanted until payment was denied then Earthlink came looking for a payment and changed it then.
The 2nd time I tried to deal with the India call center, my webmail kept giving me an error message and tellng me to call customer support. Same joke.... couldn't or wouldn't understand what I needed. It was less frustrating to just find the fix myself. I've written to Earthlink both times telling them how UNsatisfied I was with my experiences but they continue to outsource us poor saps.

[mrcontinental]

Must be the backlash from customers refusing to cooperate with the outsourced Indians.

And how can this model be profitable with the added layer by way of India? Madness!

[ORSunshine]

As a native Oregonian, I find this post quite refreshing. And as a oft-frustrated customer of any myriad of companies who have outsourced their customer service, I'm elated to find out that maybe some companies are figuring out that American customers really are unhappy when they call and get someone named "Mike" in India who asks ridiculous base-level questions and isn't really interested in helping you (why would he be for less than $1.00/hour).