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.

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.

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

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.

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!)