Off-shore telemarketing is being used primarily for in-bound customer service related projects.  And, it continues to be used mainly by large companies with huge in-bound needs.

The reason, of course, is the lower costs involved for off-shore services.  And in order to establish a large off-shore call center, the promise of  long lasting, huge projects are needed and only very large companies can guarantee that kind of contract.

But one complaint about using off-shore call centers that continues to plague these companies is the language barrier.  Sure, India and the Phillipines have English speaking populations.  But the accent is often so unclear to the American ear that the customer has difficulty getting his needs met.

Large busniesses such as Microsoft and Dell, for example, are apologetic.  Continual refresher English courses are part of the training these off-shore telemarketers receive.  And American phrases and trendy words are being inserted into part of the responses.

But still, lamentably, complaints are high regarding the language differential.  The problem for the customer is that they have no recourse.  Large companies are not offering another option.  So, for now, off-shore services are cheap and that’s more important than periodic complaints about unintelligible English…