[mattchew]

Your experience is different than mine. I usually have an acceptable-to-good experience when I call a credit card company, which happens often enough. I have always gotten excellent phone service from my car insurance company (Progressive). YMMV I suppose.

A medical call center like the one described in the article doesn't need to be a cost center. I could easily see them being run as standalone companies.

[tptacek]

You're right. I've gotten good results from Progressive. That's my one example.

The issue isn't so much that it's impossible to run a quality call center. It clearly isn't. The issue is that call center economics are rigged to favor operations that poorly serve customers.