Indian agents lose every which way

When the phone rings at 9pm and there's a long pause and lots of crackle before someone says "can I speak with Mr Naylor", you know it's an India call centre. There's an immediate reaction in me that wants me to hang up. Trouble is, when this call is from the fraud department of my bank and they want to let me know my card has been used in a fraudulent transaction, I need to speak to them.

Why has the Indian call centre industry reached this point? I think it's because customers feel no emotional link with the agent. Efficient processes (when they happen) make the agents appear curt and poor processes make the agents appear incompetent. Either way, agents are frequently accused of not listening to customers and bulldozing their way through the call. It's a no win situation.

Fixing this is not a quick exercise as it's a problem that has been compounded by the industry itself over a number of years. I think the best that can be achieved is for customers to feel neutral about the experience of dealing with Indian centres. How long it takes to get to that point is anyones guess.