Deborah Hill Cone’s editorial this morning is a pointed reference to customer service and the loss of the “customer is always right” mentality.
Deborah bemoans the poor service she received from Telecom in here recent house shift. She also identifies the recent trend of blaming outsourcing – Telecom contracts out its wiring work and also some call centre operations.
Deborh’s comment are especially relevant given the recently released book Wikinomics and it’s call for a global, interconnected and, to a great extent outsourced, economy.
Now I’m a fan for the WIkinomics premise but not if it results in disenfranchisement of customers. While it matters not at all where your call centre is physically placed, or who pays the wages of the guy running the phone wires into your house, it does matter if these operatives let down the service levels that you have promised your customers.
So corporates – outsource as you like, it’s not necessarily a bad thing – but just remember that the customer doesn’t care who does the work – they just want it done promptly and correctly. If their wish is not achieved… you know who they’ll blame.
