Dell Doesn't Get It

Dell, a tech pioneer in every respect, is charging $99 per year for access to support agents who "speak American". So there is now a price on "free" tech support. Sanctioned xenophobia. At a time when the world is getting smaller and flatter, this marks a low point in cultural sensitivity and signals a disturbing trend for the support industry. Shame on you Dell. Shame on us for driving Dell to this.

Bob Kaufman, Dell spokesman, said "this illustrates Dell's commitment to customer choice." I disagree wholeheartedly. A commitment to customer choice would be offering premium support for a premium price. A premium price for a "premium accent" is a choice nobody should get.

The problem is not offshore support agents and it's typically not their accents. The problem is offshoring for the wrong reasons - volume and cost savings - instead of the right ones - quality, specialization, and breadth of coverage. The wrong business drivers lead directly to poor service quality and unfair associations between service levels and language skills.

I'm not condoning the outsourcing of American jobs. Quite the opposite. I'm mourning Dell's brazen disregard for market forces that otherwise require our education system and tech leaders to keep up with the rest of the world. The message this sends is that mediocrity is ok if you "speak American" - a gross insult to every American support agent.

At Aeroprise, we provide (excellent, responsive, intelligible) support from our office in Bangalore. I can say with 100% confidence that geography doesn't make good service, training and corporate culture do.