My own most recent experience was based on reporting a problem with my network drives to the IT support desk run by my company.
Three rings and the phone is answered. Then the automated voice kicks in. "Thanks you for calling Service Line. Calls may be recorded and monitored for our joint protection". What! Joint protection? Are they afraid of getting embroiled in some kind of mis-selling scandal. I work for the damn company. I just want someone to help me find my network drives.
Then the human element kicks in. And I can't understand a word the guy says. His voice is so strongly accented that I have to ask him to repeat what he's said several times. Eventually I work out that he's telling me to switch off my machine and reboot. No diagnosis. No fact finding. Just turn it off and reboot. and because my experience has been so rubbish to this point I can't be bothered to argue. It's just too painful.
Against what my instincts tell me, I reboot. Still no drives.
So here's where my head is at over this.
- I have very right to expect the person at the other end of a help desk telephone to be able to understand me, and for me to be able to understand them. Frequently this is not the case in the interactions which occur with offshored employees.
- I have every right to expect the other person to be helpful and interested enough to actually try to find out the problem. Now this can fail in any country and in any culture. But how much more likely are people to throw in the towel if from the start there's an obvious communication difficulty?
- I have every right to not dread calling a held desk. But I do dread calling my company's IT help desk because my experiences of it have been so awful.
Someone, somewhere has seen a cost saving on a balance sheet as a result of outsourcing this help desk. It's a short term decision. The actual costs are hidden, and measured in frustration, failed interactions, timely and potential expensive workarounds, multiple service calls to fix things that should have been fixed first time round, and UK based employees who feel that their lives just got a little harder and more complicated for no obvious reason.