The wolf is in the henhouse... because he sounded like a hen.
This is a portion of a discussion from another site. It's about customer service call centers in India... Here's what someone had to say in response to "Bill" who complained that Indian phone operators were lying about their names (in italics). My response follows.
sushila wrote:
Bill - just to clarify - people are not made to "lie about who they are"...it's actually part of their training in India - believe it or not - it's a whole new industry back home (my home ie) - entire training institutes have sprung up where they teach Indians to speak "American" - change their name to one that's easily recognized by Americans etc..someone with my name (eg.) would just be shortened to Sue but complicated non-translatable Indian names (of which there're zillions) would be changed to Jill, Jane and Mary etc.As for the outsourcing issue - guess I've just been lucky - I've never lost a job because of this - maybe it's because I've been working mostly on govt. contracts. [smilie:Errmmm...]
Lastly - it's funny about the language problems that many have complained about when dealing with Indians - I have come across very few people here in America who have even a modicum of the communication skills that many of the Indians I know have - so if language was the sole reason why there must be no outsourcing then there really is little to choose from... [smilie:Smile]
Guess it really all boils down to where you get the most bang for your buck - [smilie:Shocked]
Here's my response:
I will admit that American isn't exactly the same language as English, and that many Indian people speak English better than most Americans. However, what you're saying is that people, who aren't forced to, but decide to lie about their names and fake their accents are just doing the same thing everybody else does, so it must be ok? A whole industry has sprung up to teach people how to deceive others and this is seen as a good thing? And then if they learn to do it well enough, they can come over here and work for our government?! Sorry to be blunt but I have a problem with that. Is this the price of capitalism?
I support the progress that the world is making in international commerce. I think it will likely be the force that finally brings humanity together in peace, but I would rather speak to a 'Mohinder' who's honest with me and trying his best, than a 'Moe' who isn't Moe, but plays one on the phone.
Please comment,
Jasmine
2 comments:
Consider it as part of their customer service - they want to be as comprehensible as possible - I've had tons of people stumble over even my name so often that (most reluctantly) I've had to tell my American friends/colleagues to call me "Sue"..you certainly wouldn't want to be calling up customer service and being confronted with a name like "Godhandaraman" or "Parathasarathy" etc..Similarly, the American ear is singularly untrained to recognize other accents (yes - I know there're exceptions as elsewhere) but for the most part the call centres back home are only trying to ease the whole process for the Americans....lastly, this is a request made by the Big Chief of the companies themselves...so yes, they need to follow the directives of their employer...
"Supposedly" the AmeriSpeak and the easier name is to help the caller bypass all these extraneous formalities and get to the nitty-gritty - the actual problem itself..which's where the most time should be spent..
Lastly - even if you take a high moral road about this, you have to remember that it's a job...something almost handed on a platter to these call centre kids...most of them don't even make it to college anymore because it's easier to just don a fake accent and name and make some pretty decent money...I disapprove strongly but then don't know if I'd have been able to resist it were I still in India and ## years younger...
Consider it as part of their customer service - they want to be as comprehensible as possible - I've had tons of people stumble over even my name so often that (most reluctantly) I've had to tell my American friends/colleagues to call me "Sue"..you certainly wouldn't want to be calling up customer service and being confronted with a name like "Godhandaraman" or "Parathasarathy" etc..Similarly, the American ear is singularly untrained to recognize other accents (yes - I know there're exceptions as elsewhere) but for the most part the call centres back home are only trying to ease the whole process for the Americans....lastly, this is a request made by the Big Chief of the companies themselves...so yes, they need to follow the directives of their employer...
"Supposedly" the AmeriSpeak and the easier name is to help the caller bypass all these extraneous formalities and get to the nitty-gritty - the actual problem itself..which's where the most time should be spent..
Lastly - even if you take a high moral road about this, you have to remember that it's a job...something almost handed on a platter to these call centre kids...most of them don't even make it to college anymore because it's easier to just don a fake accent and name and make some pretty decent money...I disapprove strongly but then don't know if I'd have been able to resist it were I still in India and ## years younger...
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