Outsourcing guides?

[Nizanko]

I heard a rumor from a friend at the Fan Faire that SOE is going to outsource their currently-volunteer customer service work to a firm in India, and is moving the guides to work only on duties related to quests and other non-CS responsibilities.

Anyone else hear anything about this? Anyone have any thoughts on whether this is good/bad/etc.?

[Angelsyn]

Okay... go from unpaid volunteers to paying people in India.

Not likely.

[Serenya]

They aren't outsourcing the guides. They may be supplementing the GMs (the paid CSRs) with folk in India, since 24/7 support is needed. They are changing the guide program though -- guides will be doing a lot more quests and events and less handling of petitions, so he got it half right.

[Saleani]

Guides cost $13 per month plus the retail cost of each expansion. At about 10-20 guides per server, that works out to around $4k per year per server that the guides cost per server.

There are already Indian and european GMs.

[Dunthor Warsmith]

I got the impression (don't remember from where) that future products (ala EQ2) will not have a volunteer guide program - period. Considering the outsourced hiring of GMs for EQ1 they've done lately, it seems reasonable that that is what they are planning (and now testing with EQ1) for EQ2's customer support structure. Thus, one possibility for this comment is that it was simply heard out-of-context: the speaker might've been talking about EQ2 instead of EQ1.

[Nizanko]

Well, I know that SWG and Planetside neither one have volunteer CSRs, and that SOE (and LucasArts) was unwilling to have a volunteer CSR program for those games because of the potential legal issues that stemmed from that old AOL lawsuit.

Anybody know what happened in that lawsuit, btw? I never did hear a resolution, so I'm guessing either it is still ongoing or they settled quietly.

[Sanna]

Originally posted by Saleani
Guides cost $13 per month plus the retail cost of each expansion. At about 10-20 guides per server, that works out to around $4k per year per server that the guides cost per server.

Uh?


-- Sanna
that is Sannaese for 'if the are volunteer, how are they costing SOE any money at all... please explain further my good man...'

[Saleani]

Sanna, guides don't pay the monthly fee and get expansions free. If you look at it from the viewpoint of a bean counter, the subsidy provided to the volunteers is income lost. While the labor of the guides is basically free, the other things that guides get is not free from Sony's point of view.

[Cantatus]

It was GMs that were outsourced to India (if I recall.) There was a press release issued about this when it happened, so it's probably still somewhere on EverQuestLive.com.

[Itek]

Originally posted by Saleani
Sanna, guides don't pay the monthly fee and get expansions free. If you look at it from the viewpoint of a bean counter, the subsidy provided to the volunteers is income lost. While the labor of the guides is basically free, the other things that guides get is not free from Sony's point of view.

NO.

NO, no, and again... NO.

guides do NOT... let me say that again... DO _NOT_ get expansions free.

They get to enter the non-CS-restricted zones by downloading them. The GUIDE ACCOUNTS are expansion enabled. The GUIDE ACCOUNTS are TOTALLY SEPERATE from the PLAY ACCOUNTS.

I was a guide. I did NOT have Kunark. I WAS called on to Guide in Kunark zones, but I could NOT play in them till I bought the expansion.

Also someone said that they had heard that EQII and following will not be volunteer supported. True. This decision was made and carved in stone back in 2002. The EQ Guide program is the last Verant/SOE Guide program.

And with the advent of "outsourced" CS-staffing the Guide program is, so far as a former guide can tell, being shifted (I said SHIFT-ed) over to being what used to be called "The Quest Troupe" in that they will have lots more time to run "dynamic quests" as they will be handling fewer and fewer (and eventually zero) petitions.

(Someone said the Senior Guides had lost the command to change first names. *tremble* That would be scary. And the handwriting on the death warrant for the Guide Program would be clear.)

Plus, for the true bean counters one must understand that the vast majority of Guides don't subscribe month by month. So the $13/month number is high.

And most guides buy all the expansions. (For their play accounts. I was a freak. I had Velious for a year before I bought Kunark.)

And most guides have at least 2 close friends they play with on their play servers. And most guides are a POSITIVE retention factor. (Higher guide program numbers leads to higher customer satisfaction leads to higher subscription renewal rates.)

Then there is the timing factor. Guides don't get EQ -free- so much as they are not charged for renewal during their time as a Full Guide+. But apprentice guides ARE charged renewal rates. (I got re-billed during my apprenticeship, and so did other apps.) And the subscription "renewal" date is not extended for the time that one is a Guide. After I left the guide program after just over 3 months a mere 2 months later my 6 month subscription (which I had paid during my apprenticeship) lapsed and had to be renewed.

For the ones that didn't catch it.... SOE didn't lose a penny having me be a Guide. (And the washout rate for new apps and guides is horrific. Attrition at the Normandy invasion wasn't that bad. Heck Custer's Last Stand is a decent comparision. 90% of Guides last less than a year.)

[Furyrpied]

(Someone said the Senior Guides had lost the command to change first names. *tremble* That would be scary. And the handwriting on the death warrant for the Guide Program would be clear.)

Not true.... my wife plays and on of her good friends had "Beaverlover Lickinglizard" as his name...

Yeah.. bad name choice but meh...

He is now called Yeaba Lickinglizard

Quote from Beaver befor they changed his name:
"But my online best friend is Canadian! I love Beavers! Really!!"

Yeah.. they didn't buy it either.

[Itek]

Furry-

Um... was it a Sr Guide or a GM that did the name change? I haven't been a guide for a while and was just stating what someone else (in this or another thread) had said about Sr's no longer having the power/authority to change first names. If they are wrong I'd be more than happy. Nerfing the Sr. Guides isn't something that I'd be pleased to see. (As you can tell from the quote from me you gave.)

[Kcalehc]

Uh?


-- Sanna
that is Sannaese for 'if the are volunteer, how are they costing SOE any money at all... please explain further my good man...'

Volunteer does not mean 'Unpaid'. it simply means they do what they do of their own volition, ie they are not forced. (eg Soldiers who are not conscripted are 'volunteers' but they still get paid!!)