Train Your CSRs - First in a Series

A tale showing the importance of a) having customer service reps who speak the same language as your customers, and b) training them before you let them loose on customers.


Our company bought two Dell computers recently. When I set up my computer I had chosen Canadian English as my language preference; this resulted in my keyboard converting to the French layout. In case you don’t know, the letters are in different places. For instance, if you type the “Q” key and your computer thinks you are typing in French, an “A” will appear on your page. Type “W” and you get a “Z”. Type “M” and you get a “?”. You get the idea, I’m sure. .

We had paid for three year’s worth of support, so I called the help desk to find out how to keep the Canadian version of English spell check having without having contend with a French keyboard layout.

I was told to change things back to US English and that would sort out the keyboard. No problem.

“Now what?”, I asked. I was told that I didn’t need to do anything because U.S. and Canadian English are the same.

I explained that there were many words that Canadians and Americans spell differently, so I wanted to use the Canadian English option. I was then told, in very broken English, that I was wrong and that the Canadian English option was only for people in Quebec who speak French. “Well, that makes no sense,” I thought to myself. Hmm. I tried another approach only to get a similar response.

Although I was now starting to become frustrated, I kept cool. Well, maybe I started to move into warmer emotional territory, but I know I was still being polite. Trying yet a different tack, I asked if he knew how to have both an English keyboard and an English option that was not American English.

I think he was trying to be kind when he patiently (and somewhat patronizingly) explained that it wasn’t necessary because American and Canadian English are identical.

One last time I tried to explain that there are many differences between the two. I was in the process of asking for a supervisor when he interrupted to say, “Madame, you need to understand about how English is working to know what I am telling to you is true.” I didn’t know whether to laugh or to cry.

Instead, I hung up in frustration. Between the hold times, the double verification procedure and the inept answers, I wasted over 20 minutes getting nowhere. I had to call back twice more before I got my answer.

If Dell had trained its reps better (i.e. gave them the correct info, or taught them to pass a customer on to a more skilled rep when facing a problem they are unable to address), the company would have saved itself over 30 minutes of customer rep time, plus nearly 60 minutes of 1-800 long distance charges.

And I would have been left with a much better impression of Dell.

According to a December 16, 2003 BBC News article (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/3323243.stm) Dell had started moving many of its call centre jobs back from India because of “alleged complaints over Indian accents, and problems over solving technical queries over the telephone. There have also been claims by some analysts the move is a temporary one until more overseas staff are trained.”

That was nearly 7 years ago. More recently there have been stories about the efforts Dell has taken to improve its customer service. The fact that Dell is/was aware of the problem, yet seems to have made little headway in truly resolving the matter, sends the message that customer service is not really a big priority for them. Maybe acquiring and maintaining new customers isn’t either!