BT slams "bigots" who abuse Indian call centre staff

BT has dismissed some of the "myths" around offshore outsourcing and claims some customers who complain about language difficulties with Indian call centres are just "bigots".

BT's chief procurement officer Meryl Bushell, speaking today at the annual Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply conference in London, said the company will continue the offshoring drive that has delivered "substantial" cost savings and improved customer service.

She said: "The savings have been substantial - in the region of 40 to 60 per cent savings on everything we have offshored."

Bushell admitted BT had to do a lot of "soul-searching" before offshoring call centre work to India but hit out at those who claim language and cultural differences in India have had a negative impact on the quality of customer service.

"International boundaries do not determine whether customer service is good or bad," she said. "Our level of customer service is at least as good and sometimes better than in the UK."

Bushell said she was shocked by some of the "bigots" she encountered when listening in on some customer calls to BT's Indian call centres.

She said: "There are some bigots who are very rude. There are times I have been ashamed to be British."

BT has been outsourcing work offshore - predominantly to India - for more than 20 years and has led a concerted drive to offshore IT work since 1995, followed by call centre work in 2000. Bushell said a lack of skills in the UK has been a bigger driver for offshoring than cost savings.

She said: "We haven't got all the skills in the UK to do all the jobs we need. I don't think we would be able to run our operation from UK resources."

Warning delegates of the dangers of offshore outsourcing, Bushell said BT is rationalising the number of Indian suppliers it uses after some bad experiences with smaller Indian companies.

"Where we have had bad experience it has almost always been with the 'tier two' suppliers," she said. "We almost exclusively work with the 'tier one' suppliers."

She also warned companies to specify requirements in fine detail to offshore suppliers, including everything from the maximum staff attrition rate to data protection and health and safety.

But during a question and answer session with Bushell, one delegate disagreed that language differences have not had a negative impact on Indian call centres and said it is dangerous to label those customers who have bad experiences with offshore operations as "racist bigots".