To my fellow entrepreneurs and all other business folk,
Thank you all for contributing to this tread, as it was a great read. I truly believe I came away from it knowing a little more about Pakistan’s stance on the Call Center (CC) environment/industry. I’ve enjoyed the ideas given here and believe that with the right effort and sensible enthusiasm we could see Pakistan heading in the right direction.
Of course, I can’t step away from here without adding my .02 cents.
My experience isn’t as vast as those I’ve seen here. I’ve only been apart of the US CC environment since before college and upto now, approx 6 years. I’ve occasionally kept up to date about the industry in Pakistan to see what’s going on. The major fault I’ve noticed, and heard, is that of proper training. Of course there is the usual accent issue as well.
Every CC is selling themselves via their employees to the end user. The end-all of this game is simply customer satisfaction. Of course you must have stable data connections, financial backing, articulate and visionary management, etc… But all that and more is to provide the customer with the best experience. If the people in US received better service from Pakistani CCs, compared to India for example, then you would hear about it in the papers. If companies knew that they would receive better service, stable service, proper adherence to industry standards and security, then they would be jumping on rickshaws to build a presence in Paki-land. (can I copyright that?)
However, as far as the customers are concerned, it’s all the same. India and Pakistan have no distinguishable features. When I call customer support, I receive the same awkwardly speaking robots on the other end of the line. There is no fluid motion or human interaction. I would be better off pressing buttons and listening to a computer speaker telling me what to do.
I believe that knowing our weaknesses is the only way that we can improve. There are many articles in tech journals about the worries and problems associated with foreign CCs. I’ve always wondered how many CC owners read those and act to change their environment before they get swept under like last nights left-overs?
Anyways, this is always a heated debate for me which hasn’t ended and probably never will. Also, I’ve already written enough for a small play so I’ll wind it up.
By the way, if I’ve offended anyone that wasn’t my intention and you may get your chance to scream at me in person. End of March… coming to Paki-land. Desi food, here I come!
Good luck to everyone on your endeavors.
-dhagheem