Outsourcing Call Center Jobs To India Leads To Bad Customer Service
We live in an extremely politically correct country these days, which means anyone who even mentions anything negative about someone different (like negatively pointing out a foreign accent), or criticizes someone for their inability to speak the language properly, he or she is immediately labeled as prejudiced, racist, or somehow inciting hateful views. I’m truly none of those things, but I feel a personal finance blog platform is as good as any to express my own personal views about my own experiences on the matter. While I was born overseas, I came to the U.S. when I was only 2-3 years old, so I’ve pretty much grown up as an American and learned to identify strongly with the crux of American culture and its values. While a key component of American culture is the ability to embrace diversity and appreciate differences between different types of people, both foreign and domestic, there are some circumstances when I greatly prefer the services of a fellow American.
This preferential situation comes up whenever I call a live customer service help line. When I pick up the phone and make that affirmative decision to seek help via a toll free telephone number, my reasonable expectation is that I will reach someone who can communicate with me in an intelligible way, and help me resolve my consumer business problem quickly and efficiently, so that I can go along my merry way. It’s bad enough that I often have to spend 30 minutes or more waiting on hold before I can talk to a live technical support representative, but these days, it seems when I finally reach that live person, he or she turns out to be completely unable to communicate with me using comprehensible and discernible English.
I Can Deal With Difficult To Understand Accents In Real Life (By Using Hand Gestures), But When It Happens Over The Phone, The Conversation Can Get Comically Tedious
I am terrible when it comes to understanding different accents. Even British English accents trip me up on occasion - but at least it is somewhat closer to American English in terms of speech and pronunciation, albeit a bit more deliberately pronounced I suppose. While I can understand the different types of American English accents such as a southern, Boston, and even accents that distinguish different races and ethnic groups prominent in this country, I still have frequent difficulty understanding the cultural nuances and accents that aren’t considered mainstream American English. This difficulty in understanding foreign accents is most pronounced and debilitating when it comes to conversations over the phone with someone from another land, especially when I find my phone call re-routed to some outsourced call center located overseas and wind up with a customer service rep who speaks with a thick accent that I simply cannot understand despite my best efforts.
While in a real life conversation and business work setting, heavy accents aren’t as significant a detriment as there are other methods of communication such as using writing and through natural hand gestures to punctuate one’s point, in the world of customer service telephone calls, this type of linguistic verbal diversity is a significant detriment and handicap. When it comes to customer and technical support help lines, communication and speed are two important elements to a quick and satisfactory resolution of the problem at hand. There are plenty of jobs where having a perfect American English accent is not crucial and one can get away with not having otherwise perfect American English, but a position as a customer service call representative that caters to Americans is not one of them. The job absolutely demands that the agent be able to communicate with the language of the target country. Is that really too much to ask? Oftentimes in such scenarios, time and patience are limited luxuries. In such situations, having a thick accent is a very undesired handicap to have, particularly when the issue needs to get resolved quickly over the phone in a short period of time without the benefit of time to get to know each other. This is the biggest problem many customers such as myself are having with companies that continue to outsource their customer service call center jobs overseas to English speaking, but heavily accented countries like India.
Facing An Indian Customer Service Representative With An Incredibly Thick Accent Is Like Talking To A Brick Wall - Nothing Gets Through, and Time Is Wasted
When American call center customer service jobs are outsourced to other countries, I think it’s reasonable to expect the call agents that will be handling the calls to be trained to speak in proper America English. However that is not always the case. Especially when it comes to Indian call centers, the accent is often an interesting mish mash of British English, local Indian dialect, and butchered American English. What often comes out is an unintelligible murmur, resulting in humorous and frequently embarrassing exchanges between the rep and the customer.
A few years ago, I bought a Linksys wireless Internet router, but had major trouble setting up my wireless connection. I kept losing my wireless internet signal and so I embarked on a customer service phone call quest to solve the problem. I dialed the company’s 1-800 number and was promptly connected to an agent. Little did I know, but my call from Maryland, USA was instantly routed thousands of miles across the planet to a different time zone to a call center in India. Immediately when I heard the agent’s accent, I knew it was going to be a long day. It started as soon as my phone rep introduced herself with a thick Indian accented “Hello”…followed by a …”my name is Mary”, a presumably English name moniker chosen by the Indian customer service rep for the convenience sake of their mostly American clientele instead of compelling them to remember a more difficult Indian name. For the next 60 minutes, I struggled valiantly to understand her words and sentences. I tried to remain polite and understanding, but I kept asking her to please repeat herself, much to my continued embarrassment. Every sentence on her part would be followed by a “What?” on my end, or would be followed by a momentary pause as I scratched my head and tried to figure out what she was trying to tell me.
After a while, I could tell she was getting fed up with having to repeat herself after every instruction, but then what was I supposed to do? I desperately tried to understand, and I really did try - but it was a constant guessing game on my end. I simply could not comprehend the Indian customer service representative’s thick Indian English accent. At the end, I got little accomplished because she and I were simply unable to communicate. I found myself spending more than an hour repeating her own words back in my vain attempt to make some linguistic sense. Eventually I had to give up and seek help from another customer service rep. The next rep’s Indian accent was just as thick and I ultimately had to call back several times before I finally found an agent who’s accent was more bearable. But the experience left me with a very negative view of the company and their irresponsible cost cutting efforts to send customer service jobs overseas when the work could be better handled here.
American Companies Who Cater To American Consumers Should Seriously Re-Consider Their Indian Outsourcing Strategy Or Face Consumer Backlash In The Long Run
This is a serious problem that many major American companies who choose to outsource their call center jobs to low cost foreign countries will ultimately have to face. Customers such as myself may eventually take our customer service frustration out on the company and defect to one of their competitors. Based on some news reports I’ve read, many companies that have attempted to outsource their customer service functions abroad have not realized the cost savings they expected, discovering that there are hidden costs that far outweighed the potential savings in labor expenses. Oftentimes, due to significant customer complaints about difficult to understand customer service representative accents and great differences in culture, companies have had to expend significant amounts of additional money to train the agents on proper American English and terminology. Ultimately some of these outsourcers have brought those type of jobs back in-house and back into the country.
Faced with backlash from customers like myself who have great difficulty understanding heavily accented Indian English, some companies are actually taking the next logical alternative step by shipping the work over to other moderately English speaking countries, like the Philippines. As a former U.S. controlled territory, the Philippines at least offers a more Americanized work force with a better understanding of American culture that can potentially offer employees with lighter accents. There will still be an annoying accent to deal with, but at least the twang, so to speak, will be significantly less painful to understand than that spoken in India.
There are currently also signs that the trend toward outsourcing call center jobs to low-wage countries like India or even the Philippines may be slowing down. Research shows that some call centers are most effective when staffed by Americans and there is at least some growing attempt to keep jobs here. I’ve noticed that many companies are now trying to keep the bulk of their daytime customer service call center jobs in the United States where the calls can be handled by American English speaking agents. For customer service lines that provide 24 hour coverage and take on evening calls however, some still get routed overseas to places like India, but many daytime calls are now being mercifully handled by call centers in the U.S. At least that’s what I noticed recently when I called my cable internet provider’s help line several times recently. When I called during normal daytime office hours, I got a service rep that spoke perfect English, but at night, I basically played the ole accent guessing game, doubling and even tripling the length of time spent trying to resolve my problem.
For those of you out there who are embarrassed to admit but also have difficulty understanding accents, I recommend making your 1-800 customer service and technical support phone calls during the day. Sure that means using up your precious anytime wireless phone minutes, but you stand a much better chance of reaching someone in this country than if you called after hours.
July 31st, 2008 at 3:29 pm
Crap…………. U really have a lot of time to waste (Look at the lengthy email u have typed in)………… U just have a mind block……. get over it…….. Grow up!!!
July 31st, 2008 at 3:34 pm
Is this a spam comment? Sometimes I just can’t tell….but writing these articles, or “emails” as you put it, is my part time/full time job. I don’t see it as wasting my time thank you very much. And I’m already all grown up.
August 1st, 2008 at 11:57 am
When I called Verizon’s help line at my job last year, the whole thing was very unpleasant. First, despite being…Verizon…they had a very bad connection. There was literally static. Second, the rep had a very thick accent. And third, I have a very mild hearing impediment. It’s so small that I only have to ask “What” maybe 5 or 6 times a day. I don’t even need a hearing aid. But with the thick accent and bad connection, I could hardly tell what was going on.
I only have trouble communicating with accented patrons at work if they don’t speak much English at all…in that case it’s the English, not the accent. But over the phone it’s a nightmare.
It’s not something I need to “grow up” from, it’s just like if the customer support were offered in Spanish or Danish…I can’t understand. The onus is on the company providing support to provide support that the majority of customers can understand.
August 1st, 2008 at 11:59 am
Adding…just like I’d never provide Spanish telephone support, even if I became pretty fluent. My Spanish accent will never be easy and straightforward for a native-speaker to understand. It goes both ways but right now the focus is on India, since that’s where most of these call centers are.
August 1st, 2008 at 12:45 pm
What a terrific and well-balanced article on something that it is indeed, difficult to talk about, without feeling horribly guilty and racist…but that genuinely IS a problem!
I work in IT…and have many Indian (and Russian and Irish and Thai and Iranian and Chinese and African and various other ethnic groups) working with me…and some speak beautiful English, with charming and musical accents…others speak English that is difficult to understand, but by watching them carefully, taking a few moments to process, and just guesswork, I can understand them…and still others speak English that is so heavily accented that I honestly can’t tell what they’re saying–but I always have the option of dealing with them through email, where the accent is mitigated. I admire their work ethics–I admire their intelligence and their drive and many other traits that I see are lacking in my easier-to-understand American co-workers. I am humbled that they speak another language as well as they do (with or without accents, they’re doing better than me, with my high school French and Spanish!), and fascinated by their bravery, in going to a foreign country to work.
I enjoy the diversity–BUT–I feel very strongly that ANYONE who works primarily on the phone (which certainly means call centers!) should speak the native language of their primary customer base clearly, and should have a decent understanding of the cultural expectations of the country they’re likely to be dealing with. (And I should point out that I do not actually think all Americans would qualify for the “speaks the language clearly” requirement…and just as I think that people who can’t dance shouldn’t be hired as members of a professional dance troupe, I don’t think people who can’t speak the language clearly should be hired as customer service reps.)
A call center, or anyone providing customer service via the phone should be able to provide good customer service, consistently–and be able to turn angry, frustrated customers into happy customers. Not understanding cultural expectations will lead to making the customer angrier. Not speaking the language of the customer clearly will make the customer angrier. *Even if the problem is ultimately resolved to the customer’s satisfaction, they are more likely to remember the frustration of getting to the resolution, than the positive resolution–and that’s bad news, for the company.*
As an example…as an American, I have a cultural expectation (based on years of experience, work in call centers myself, and advice from people with more experience than myself) that a customer service representative is only able to do basic functions–and that if my problem is complex, they a) might not be able to see all the data relating to my problem, and b) even if they *can* see all the data, they might not have the authority needed to solve it…and thus, after it’s clear that they can’t help me, that I should thank them for their help, and ask to speak to a supervisor. I know that the supervisor will have additional information available to them, and will have additional authority to solve problems.
I also expect that a really *good* customer service rep will listen to me as if my problem really matters, after getting the obligatory scripted responses out of the way, at the beginning of the call, and will sound *sincerely* sorry at my inconvenience…and even explain, “Well, I’m not able to see that on your account, but let me see if I can get someone else who can help us out”–and either go ask their supervisor for assistance, or transfer me. Courtesy is not enough (as Indian customer service reps seem to have almost super-human superficial courtesy, and keep it up long after an American rep would’ve gotten quite shirty, under the same circumstances!)–it is a combination of courtesy and sincerity–with sincerity being the most important of the two. (It might not be very courteous to say, “Man, that SUCKS! No wonder you’re ticked!”, but it sounds sincere, and will make me much happier than someone reading a script, far too fast, “I’msorryyoufeelthatwayMa’am”.)
Unfortunately, this does *not* mesh with my multiple experiences in Indian call centers. (I cannot speak about other types of call centers–as I’ve only once dealt with a center I think was in the Phillipines…it was a bad experience, due to language barriers, but I don’t think one experience is enough to make generalizations. ;))
When I call an Indian call center, there is, first and foremost, the language issue–so my frustration at having to call anyplace at all, to solve a problem, is immediately increased. The overuse of scripts at these call centers is another issue–frequently, a rep will rattle off canned lines–the same lines–without any variation from it that acknowledges that they’ve already said the same thing…so not even the illusion of sincerity exists. I’m a number–not a person…and my frustration increases.
After explaining my problem, when it is clear that the rep cannot resolve it for me, I’ll thank them, and ask to speak to a supervisor–which seems to be a taken as an insult to their competency, rather than an acknowledgement that it’s time to move to the next step in the game…and I can count on having the rep to repeat the solution-that-I-do-not-accept-as-a-solution multiple times, ending it with, if I’m lucky, “…will that be acceptable, Miss?”, and if I’m not, ended with the infuriating, “…will that be acceptable, Sir?”, with me repeating each time, with increasing annoyance, “No, that will not be acceptable. Please let me speak with a supervisor!”
Finally…I will have to resort to raising my voice, and saying, “Look, I am not getting off the phone until I get what I want…and you are not able to give it to me. It is your JOB to let me speak to a supervisor, when I ask to speak to one, so PLEASE let me speak to a supervisor right NOW!”
This will result in my being put on hold for a good 8-10 minutes…whether as punishment, for being rude, or simply because it’s part of their call center training–expecting that most customers will simply hang up at that point, a supervisor will eventually come online, and I will explain all over again…and, if I’m fortunate, my problem will be resolved.
Since this is consistently the treatment I get from Indian call centers–and almost never what I get from American call centers, I chalk this up to either training differences (maybe they’re told not to let us talk to a supervisor until we get ugly), or cultural differences–I think I’m just following the next step in the game…and they perceive it as a personal affront–a sign that I am NOT playing the game correctly.
Regardless…the end result is frustration. I spent 30 minutes on the phone this morning, going through just that scenario–with the added annoyance of the rep insisting that I was NOT double charged for a service, while I insisted that I most definitely had TWO charges on my credit card statement…and then the rep insisting that I had NOT cancelled a service the previous evening, despite my reading her the email from the company that said, “Thank you for cancelling….”.
This time, there was a happy ending…the supervisor was the first person I’d ever spoken to in a foreign call center who was as easily understandable as an American…had mastered American intonations and conversational style, and was pleasant, polite, sincerely sympathetic, and agreed that yes, I had been charged twice, and that I had cancelled the service the previous night…and in 3 minutes, I was off the phone, after thanking him profusely for his help. I got what I wanted…but the pain of the phone call far outweighs the postive ending.
If outsourcing simply must happen…then I suggest that:
* all employees are carefully screened in complex situations over the phone, by Americans
* employees are properly trained in how to address their customers–understanding that excessive use of “Sir” and “Ma’am” is irritating, as are repeated attempts to pronounce a last name that they can’t pronounce–and that they are encouraged to simply acknowledge that they can’t pronounce, and go on from there
* employees are empowered to leave scripts behind, after the caller has been verified
* employees are taught what American expectations are, where they differ from their own cultural expectations,
* supervisors should be even better at all of the above than the reps–and, if possible, should be Americans themselves, or else individuals who can function as Americans
AND–the company who has chosen to outsource should post guidelines for customers who have to deal with these call centers, so that WE understand what sort of differences to expect, and can learn new strategies for dealing with them. (Ie, if there’s something I can say to a rep that makes it less offensive, that I’m asking for a supervisor, I’d be happy to say it…I don’t want to offend these people who, let’s face it, have a rotten job, nor do I wish to make their lives harder…I just want to solve my problem…and while I’ve had my share of bad customer service reps in American call centers, I’m a very nice, polite person–and I’m used to feeling like the person on the other end of the line is my friend, someone who’s there to help me…and most of the time, that’s what I get. I sympathize with them. When I hear they’re sounding tired and irritated, I say, “Gosh, it sounds like you’re having a rough day!” When they have a regional accent, I say, “Oh, where are you from?” and then ask how the weather is…or sympathize over how slow the computer is…or anything at all, to get them on my side, and willing to go the extra mile for me…but I don’t know how to do this with someone I can barely understand…or who is clearly racing through a script, and obviously not understanding the things I’m saying…so give me, the customer, some tools to achieve this!
(Ironically, I found this post, because I Googled, “how to deal with Indian call centers”–hoping that someone, somewhere, had “cracked the code”, so to speak, and could offer tips for getting the results I want. No such luck…but I enjoyed this article, nonetheless!)
August 1st, 2008 at 2:53 pm
Anti Outsourcers always find a reason to point their fingers out!!!!!! I know it makes no sense cribbin about it!!!
August 1st, 2008 at 3:38 pm
@Aurora, that sounds like a reasonable set of screening guidelines, if one has to outsource. For example, when I was working at a user testing company, I had to record all my sessions using screen and voice capture. Part of what they were concerned about was whether I spoke in a clear, easy-to-understand voice. It’s just part of the job, whether English is your native language or not. Of course, companies with fewer staffing needs can be more discerning.
August 5th, 2008 at 6:35 am
Alright, here comes a view from an Indian with a very unbiased and free outlook. I had once joined an international call center during my college vacations 3 years ago in Gurgaon (near New Delhi, India). It was only for vacations to earn some quick buck…and this BPO that I joined catered to ambulance and healthcare services in a certain part of America. I expected that the company would train me in American accent and voice modulation, but nothing of the sort happened. I was just trained for a day on how, whom and what I had to talk about. The job involved calling up hospitals in the US and asking them about patients who had claimed medical insurance for their treatment..so I never really had to face angry customers. I did not have much of a problem bringing on an American accent thanks to years of watching Hollywood movies and endless episodes of “FRIENDS” and “The Wonder Years”. Neither did the voice at the other end ever have to ask “what” to understand what I was saying…
What I’m trying to point out is certain companies who outsource tend not to focus on voice and accent training to save on costs, which harms them in the long run. I can assure you that there are some companies that train their employees so well in American accents and modulation that you wouldn’t be able to find the difference! But a majority often lack in that department which results in poor customer service.
Having read so much in the media, I understand how miffed and frustrated many of the Americans feel about this issue, especially when it also results in job losses there. But thats how globalization runs. Many American companies have set base in India and are earning great profits from India’s vast market (we might still be a developing country but have the 2nd largest population in the world, and the 4th largest economy in terms of purchasing power parity). And outsourcing is bound to grow as long as there is a vast difference between labor costs in US and developing countries.
August 9th, 2008 at 11:44 am
Here the problem is not our accent . Its the economy of the developed countries.
Have a look at this video before writing such craps.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4343898391323537541&ei=-7qdSPX2LYzQwgPY8Ygx&q=global+imbalance+and+dollar+crisis
Here is a speech from our Economist. Hope you understand his accent
August 11th, 2008 at 4:27 am
i currently work in a callcenter and i had this one horrible experience with someone who’s having difficulties pronuncing english words and constructing an english sentence.
I take escalation calls and so I did my opening spiel and that agent on the other line answered back ” AH A I’M SOWREE YOU’RE BRREAKING DA LINE” and i was like “”WHATTT????” ,pressed the mute button and laughted real hard…what she meant actually was that there’s too much static on the line.That agent is from somewhere in asia.
Imagine if you are the customer and needed help, how do you think an agent like that is going to address your concerns? You will end up calling back, crossing your fingers hoping you’ll get an agent with american accent.
I think it’s not with where you’re from, it’s with how you were trained. I think these companies should also provide their employees proper training, spend enough time training their people, monitoring their calls and providing them feedback.
August 17th, 2008 at 9:53 am
@Saarthak, you make an excellent point. We have classes in America about learning to reduce accent thickness (and video tapes) which I periodically see advertised in my immigrant-rich area. It doesn’t seem like there’s a dearth of resources or of people who will teach this kind of thing. But that might make outsourcing as expensive as “insourcing” (as it were).
September 4th, 2008 at 12:26 pm
Hi i work in a call center in Panama, and i was taking US calls but the funny stuff is that people from the US complains about Oursourcing accent when they are a country of inmigrants!!! so please, be serious!!!
September 12th, 2008 at 4:14 am
Sorry for this delayed response. In-fact, I’ve heard when it comes to write the perfect gramatical English with the correct spellings, Americans are too weak. The persons weak in writing tends to pronounce the language wrong way. It is known by whole world how Americans have polluted this language. Dude, AnywayS, Color (and not colour), Cool and many such examples can be given. We should not beleive that what we do and what we speak is perfect. Sorry for the little strong language. But, you see, language and accent changes at every mile. Even my neighbouring locality will have different way of speaking. In-stead of saying Indians cannot speak, to put it more correctly, say, we don’t understand the way the Indians speak. This, any Indian can digest. This is because the Indians are used to clean use of the language. Indian languages don’t support to skip the words within the words. About, ‘Mary’, there exists Christain in India too.
September 17th, 2008 at 10:21 pm
I don’t believe that the person who wrote this blog had any intention of upsetting other ethnicities; he was simply discussing a subject that bothers many Americans. There is no need for people of Indian decent to become so enraged about this subject… and those who are angered obviously do not understand what he was attempting to say. He was not implying that Americans speak perfect English, nor was he implying that Indians “cannot speak”… he was simply stating that an American company who caters to American consumers should consider the possibility of having American customer service representatives. The entire aspect of “customer service and/or support” is to “provide service and/or support to the customer”. It is difficult for a customer to feel as if they are receiving satisfactory customer support if there is a language/accent barrier that is hindering the support part of it. Many of the Indian customer service reps that I have dealt with have just as difficult a time in trying to understand me as I do in trying to understand them. It’s not that one of us is speaking correctly and the other is speaking incorrectly… it’s simply that it is sometimes difficult to overcome that language/accent barrier and, therefore, it changes a simple customer support issue into a matter of inability to effectively communicate with one another. If I were of Indian decent, living in India, I would hope that I could call an Indian company with an issue that I had and be able to speak with someone who understood me and who I, in turn, could also understand.
September 18th, 2008 at 12:09 am
On a side note, perhaps I wouldn’t be so eager to criticize others’ speech if I myself didn’t use correct English grammar. I find it rather amusing that someone would make a statement like “Americans are weak when it comes to the perfect grammatical English with the correct spellings” and in the same sentence that person would spell “grammatical” incorrectly. I am more than happy to help you out. I believe that this is what Suhas meant to say: (I will, of course, use proper English grammar and spelling.)
Sorry for this delayed response. In-fact, I’ve heard that, when it comes to writing in perfect grammatical English with the correct spellings, Americans are too weak. People who are weak in writing tend to pronounce the language the wrong way. It is known by the whole world how Americans have polluted this language (this, of course, being an opinion and not a factual statement since no one person could possibly know what the “whole world” thinks). Words such as “dude”, “anyways”, “color” (and not colour), “cool” and many other examples can be given. (“Color”, of course, being the spelling used in the dictionary A Compendious Dictionary of the English Language which was published in 1806 by Noah Webster. He urged that needlessly confusing words be altered (’plough’ became ‘plow’, for instance) and many silent letters (such as the U in ‘colour’) were to be dropped. This dictionary made the following changes in the English language: The orthography is, in some instances, corrected; change in the pronunciation marked by an accent or other suitable direction; and the definitions of many words were amended and improved. The original settlers to New England taught English Webster’s spelling-rules which omitted ‘U’ in words ending in ‘OUR’ (ex: honor/honour & color/colour, etc) and also promoted single consonants instead of double consonants in 2nd syllables, (ex: traveler/traveller, etc). The influence of multi-cultural immigrants to the U.S. has also meant that American spellings have gradually evolved over the centuries, becoming more phonetic than British spellings. American spellings are now becoming more universal as Microsoft software defaults to American spellings and often does not recognize British spellings. I’m sure that most of you already knew all of this though!). We should not believe (‘i’ comes before ‘e’ in believe, of course) that what we do or how we speak is perfect. I’m sorry for the slightly (not little) strong language, but, you see, language and accent change (not ‘changes’) at every mile. (I apologize, Mr. Bokare, but you cannot begin a sentence with the word “but”.) Even my neighboring locality will have a different way of speaking. Instead of saying that Indians cannot speak, to put it in more correct terms, you should say “We don’t understand the way that the Indians speak.” This would be a comment that any Indian can digest. This is because the Indians are used to clean use of the language. Indian languages don’t support to skip the words within the words. (Sorry everyone, I couldn’t correct that sentence because I don’t understand what Mr. Bokare was attempting to say.) In regards to ‘Mary’, Christianity does, in fact, exist in India as well.
I hope that this corrected version helps some people to better understand what Suhas was attempting to say. You know, since we Americans have polluted this language and may not understand what other, “more intelligent”, people are trying to say to us.
September 24th, 2008 at 1:13 pm
To the Indians who are responding to this blog. Funny how the AMERICANS and our economy is fueling your prosperity in India. I worked for Infosys so I know the Indian culture. As a senior leader in the firm I was told on multiple accounts that the men will not work for a woman. What a progressive country you have.
Secondly, I pay hard earned money for services upon which I expect customer service from an agent who understands the venacular of the country of their customer. We pay the bills Mr. Indian so we can expect excellent service.
As for your disdain for America. How about taking your jobs out of our country today? How about we utilize other countries for our low cost labor pool. Your arrogance and inability to adapt to our culture means you do not need to partake in our wealth. We are not going to change for you so I recommend you leave. A country of Christian immigrants is what we are and we are proud of it. My father fought for our freedom and for who we are as a nation and there is a new generation of people who will continue to protect our beliefs and values.
It will be a delightful day when I can pick up the phone, dial an 800 # and get a fellow American. I will gladly pay more for their EXCELLENT service versus put money in an Indian’s pocket.
By the way, forget political correctness. Many (I mean many of us) are done with it.
October 12th, 2008 at 11:54 am
I have been a customer service rep(telephone) for over 20 years. I have also done quality assurance work and taught phone skills to new employees. Americans have to stand up and stop doing business with companies that are outsourcing to India. The bottom line is this America has made it possible for American corporations to do this becuase they don’t want to pay Americans to perform decent Customer Service; alot of these companies at one point were paying illiterates and people on some kind of work release and even in some cases actual prisoners to do this work. We all know that you get what you pay for. So, when these low paid Americans just weren’t cutting the customer service mustard, these businesses then had the ammunition to run over to India where they could get the Indian equivalent of a college graduate to do the work they should have been paying their own countrymen a minimum of $15-$20 per hour(trained professionals not prisoners), could now be had for just $2.00 and hour. Even more shocking you have Americans flying over there to India teaching these Indians American dialects to try to fool you. All you have to do is keep asking questions that deviate from their scripts which they have no rebuttal for to trip them up. The worse is that they really can’t help you, there purpose seems to be more to upsell you on some other feature or item. And to all you Indian rep responding to this site…get stuffed!!!