Incompetent Knows No Borders

First, let me say I'm a huge fan of free trade and I love the idea of competition worldwide in the market. I know there are people in other countries who do amazing work and are extremely intelligent individuals.

All of that being said, it almost always ticks me off when I call a US company who has outsourced their tech support overseas. Why is it that I cringe as soon as they answer the phone? Am I racist? I really don't think I am. But I do have strong adverse reactions to incompetency. A support person whose first language is not the same as their customer's immediately has one big thing working against them as they attempt to be competent in helping their customer. All that means is that they need to work extra hard to be helpful. It's probably unfair, but it's not impossible to overcome that barrier. That's just the way customer service works.

One of my coworkers who travels a lot broke his computer again. Of course, with tech support in my background, I'm the tech girl for the office. So, I called Dell to find out if it's covered under warranty and then schedule the fix. The lady who picked up the phone would talk to me for about two minutes, then put me on hold for about 20 minutes at a time while she "tried to transfer me" or tried to "get a ticket number." The end result was two hours on the phone and uncertainty as to whether or not Dell was actually going to fix the laptop.

Now, the dude who does warranty fixes for Dell called me this morning to schedule the fix and my conversation was a night-and-day difference from the phone conversation I had earlier. I could tell he had an accent and wouldn't have known he lived in Colorado Springs unless he told me (which he does and he did). This fella was helpful, got right to the point, and even rearranged his schedule to fit in mine, even when my only conflicts were lunches or coffees out with friends. When I asked him to repeat his name so I could write it down, he said, "Rolf ... R-O-L-F ... like in the Sound of Music, without the uniform!" He said he was a rare breed -- a legal German immigrant. I don't care where he was from, he was competent and helpful and I appreciated his call.

It's amazing how easily a client's opinion about a company can be swayed by negative or positive experiences. I hope every experience I create for customers is a positive one that leaves people saying, "She's competent; her company must be competent."