Now don't think of myself as a xenophobe, but I would prefer to have someone at a call center that can speak and understand english beyond reading from a script. When it comes to credit cards and banking, I would prefer not to be giving critical information to call centers in India and Asia...(two of the three or four top hacking countries).
I don't mind the giving info out, because let's face it, practically anyone can access our info at any time if they're motivated. But you're right about the language barrier. I've had conversations that drag on and on with people in call centers simply because they don't understand what I'm trying to tell them is the issue. If you're going to provide customer service, you should be able to easily understand and be understood by the people you're talking to. That's just common sense. But common sense often gives way to the bottom line, hence the overseas call centers.
It's not just the bottom line. It's that people complain about it but don't do anything about it. TD, are you gonna yank all your money out of what is obviously one of the big multinational banks and put it in a local credit union? No? Neither do most other people. So we get overseas call centers.
Technology will save us though. I've started favoring providers that have chat service. I don't even care if it's a bot, as long as the bot understands, "connect me to a representative." That way I don't have to try and understand anyone's accent.
Not that I'm bad at interpreting accents. I can speak Spanish functionally, and my boss is from India, so I get practice. But still.
