Delta Air Ends Use of India Call Centers By Paulo Prada and Niraj Sheth. The Wall Street Journal, Vol. CCLIII, No. 90, Saturday/Sunday, 18-19 April 2009, p. B1.

Delta Airlines, which moved some of its call center work to India following 9/11 in an effort to cut costs, is now bringing some of that work home. According to the article, over first few months of the year Delta stopped routing calls to centers in India. The advantage of off-shoring this type of work is that “Call-center representatives in India earn roughly $500 a month, or about one-sixth the salary of their U.S.-based counterparts.” However, the article points out that Delta is not pulling back its call centers in Jamaica and South Africa, countries where complaints have not been as high.

Is this the end of globalization? Hardly. This is merely a company recognizing that saving salary costs is not there is to running a good business. As Delta’s chief executive, Richard Anderson said, “Our customers are not shy about letting us have that feedback [low tolerance of call centers in foreign countries].” Globalization is not about sending everything offshore but about sending things offshore that can be done more effectively offshore. Call centers are not always the best things to offshore.

It is unlikely that I will ever buy a Dell computer that is not in their XPS line simply because of the support I get from them. I am able to talk to intelligent people, in my native language, who understand what they are doing. Too often the foreign call centers are merely low-level representatives who do nothing but read scripts presented on a computer screen.

Part of the outrage is the language barrier. I’m not sure I agree that is the major problem. I have been able to understand most of the people in India I have spoken with but they do seem to miss some expressions. My complaint is that they are typically of very little help. It is only after being elevated several levels that I am able to get someone who can solve my problem.

This is a smart move by Delta and others will hopefully follow.