Overseas call centers.

Cardew

Over the years there has been dissatisfaction expressed in the UK and USA with many of the call centers based in the Far East.  I used to have particular difficulty with the British Telecom(BT) call center in India. I had problems from time to time with the line to my house which was an Open Reach problem and not BT's fault; however only BT could contact Open Reach. This entailed lengthy calls whilst the obviously non-technical operator went laboriously through their protocols. At times the difficulty was exacerbated by being unable to understand the accents. BT call centers are now only in GB and Ireland.

I read that when call centers initially went 'out East' only university graduates speaking excellent English were employed, but as the number of call centers drastically increased the net was cast wider.

I am now dealing with a Call Center in South Africa, and I read on line that this country now has thousands of call centers:

'India's global call centre outsourcing industry is under increasing pressure from offshore competitors such as South Africa where call centres serving foreign firms are high on government's job-creation priority list 

Yusuf Timol, head of economic affairs at the SA high commission in London, says:  "There  are definitely concerns in the UK around India as a customer service location. Concerns go beyond security. A big threat is dissatisfaction with customer service. Workers accents and lack of cultural affinity with UK consumers, in particular, are coming in for harsh criticism.'

Now I love the South African accent, it is music to my ears when they bleat after losing at cricket or rugby but on a couple of recent calls I could hardly understand the accent, and neither could my daughter who was listening in to the call. Also there was a lack of flexibility and apparent indifference on the subject of the calls; I have withdrawn my business.

I hope South Africa learn lessons from the Far East experience.

missile

"I have withdrawn my business." Withdrawn your business from which company?
Companies do not advertise they they have outsourced call centre to wherever. It only when one has an problem that you would contact the call centre and may have difficulties. 

JJ_Egan

I have the same problem when nice lady from Bangalore helps me fix my broken internet or Amazon Prime or bank account .

Mnoee

I really can't understand how accents can be such a big deal to some people - it's not like people from Essex sound anything like people from Birmingham, or Belfast or Bristol. Why is a Bangladesh or Johannesburg accent so much more difficult to understand than any of the above? If their English is poor in general then call centre work may not be for them, but being from the UK doesn't automatically mean someone will have an easy to understand accent. 

MACKEM99

I am amazed at the the number of people on the radio say things such as "I fink so" or I "fought so".

lincroft1710

JJ_Egan said:

I have the same problem when nice lady from Bangalore helps me fix my broken internet or Amazon Prime or bank account .

Yes I had a nice lady from Virgin Media who appeared to be calling from the Indian sub continent who when I expressed doubt that there was a problem with my internet referred me to her supervisor. Her supervisor's first words were "I am from Openreach" !!!!!

Cardew

Mnoee said:

I really can't understand how accents can be such a big deal to some people - it's not like people from Essex sound anything like people from Birmingham, or Belfast or Bristol. Why is a Bangladesh or Johannesburg accent so much more difficult to understand than any of the above? If their English is poor in general then call centre work may not be for them, but being from the UK doesn't automatically mean someone will have an easy to understand accent. 

You may not have a problem with foreign accents, but apparently it is a big problem for many people. Just google various management studies on effectiveness of call centres in UK and USA and difficulty in understanding is the major issue. e.g.

'Why Do Customers Hate Your Offshore Call Center So Much?

There’s a real language problem

UK and US companies have been outsourcing call center jobs to India for a while now and Indian call centers employees usually have a rather good level of english. However rather good isn’t good enough! The last thing customers want is to struggle with basic communication when they are trying to get a problem solved. A lot of US customers will now actually hang up if they hear that they are being transferred offshore or spot a foreign accent when the representative answers. Your customers are not being racists, they are just looking for a quick solution to their problem, they don’t want to struggle. A strong foreign accent will make the communication harder, especially over the phone when voice is the only thing people can rely on. Phone communication can even be challenging between people from the same country.

Lately, India has lost a lot of call centers seats to the Philippines where children grow up hearing and speaking American English. Accent and cultural knowledge matters! Working in a call center as an entry level employees is a far harder job that it seems for non-native speakers. It requires an excellent knowledge of another culture that even most intercultural communication experts don’t fully have.'

Mnoee

Cardew said:

Mnoee said:

I really can't understand how accents can be such a big deal to some people - it's not like people from Essex sound anything like people from Birmingham, or Belfast or Bristol. Why is a Bangladesh or Johannesburg accent so much more difficult to understand than any of the above? If their English is poor in general then call centre work may not be for them, but being from the UK doesn't automatically mean someone will have an easy to understand accent. 

You may not have a problem with foreign accents, but apparently it is a big problem for many people. Just google various management studies on effectiveness of call centres in UK and USA and difficulty in understanding is the major issue. e.g.

'Why Do Customers Hate Your Offshore Call Center So Much?

There’s a real language problem

UK and US companies have been outsourcing call center jobs to India for a while now and Indian call centers employees usually have a rather good level of english. However rather good isn’t good enough! The last thing customers want is to struggle with basic communication when they are trying to get a problem solved. A lot of US customers will now actually hang up if they hear that they are being transferred offshore or spot a foreign accent when the representative answers. Your customers are not being racists, they are just looking for a quick solution to their problem, they don’t want to struggle. A strong foreign accent will make the communication harder, especially over the phone when voice is the only thing people can rely on. Phone communication can even be challenging between people from the same country.

Lately, India has lost a lot of call centers seats to the Philippines where children grow up hearing and speaking American English. Accent and cultural knowledge matters! Working in a call center as an entry level employees is a far harder job that it seems for non-native speakers. It requires an excellent knowledge of another culture that even most intercultural communication experts don’t fully have.'

So... People in the UK can't understand Indian accents, but they're fine with American and Australian? Weird how we have no issue with different accents until they're from a low income country. 

JJ_Egan

() Weird how we have no issue with different accents until they're from a low income country.  )T hats rather  Thats rather racist .

FWIW i have problems on the phone with Glaswegians Geordies and others  . But generally i don't get many calls from Glasgow offering to fix my internet or Amazon Prime or such .

Spank

Mnoee said:

Cardew said:

Mnoee said:

I really can't understand how accents can be such a big deal to some people - it's not like people from Essex sound anything like people from Birmingham, or Belfast or Bristol. Why is a Bangladesh or Johannesburg accent so much more difficult to understand than any of the above? If their English is poor in general then call centre work may not be for them, but being from the UK doesn't automatically mean someone will have an easy to understand accent. 

You may not have a problem with foreign accents, but apparently it is a big problem for many people. Just google various management studies on effectiveness of call centres in UK and USA and difficulty in understanding is the major issue. e.g.

'Why Do Customers Hate Your Offshore Call Center So Much?

There’s a real language problem

UK and US companies have been outsourcing call center jobs to India for a while now and Indian call centers employees usually have a rather good level of english. However rather good isn’t good enough! The last thing customers want is to struggle with basic communication when they are trying to get a problem solved. A lot of US customers will now actually hang up if they hear that they are being transferred offshore or spot a foreign accent when the representative answers. Your customers are not being racists, they are just looking for a quick solution to their problem, they don’t want to struggle. A strong foreign accent will make the communication harder, especially over the phone when voice is the only thing people can rely on. Phone communication can even be challenging between people from the same country.

Lately, India has lost a lot of call centers seats to the Philippines where children grow up hearing and speaking American English. Accent and cultural knowledge matters! Working in a call center as an entry level employees is a far harder job that it seems for non-native speakers. It requires an excellent knowledge of another culture that even most intercultural communication experts don’t fully have.'

So... People in the UK can't understand Indian accents, but they're fine with American and Australian? Weird how we have no issue with different accents until they're from a low income country. 

Has it occurred to you that we have grown up with American and Austrailian accents on TV and films? Do you not think that would help us?

Mnoee

Spank said:

Mnoee said:

Cardew said:

Mnoee said:

I really can't understand how accents can be such a big deal to some people - it's not like people from Essex sound anything like people from Birmingham, or Belfast or Bristol. Why is a Bangladesh or Johannesburg accent so much more difficult to understand than any of the above? If their English is poor in general then call centre work may not be for them, but being from the UK doesn't automatically mean someone will have an easy to understand accent. 

You may not have a problem with foreign accents, but apparently it is a big problem for many people. Just google various management studies on effectiveness of call centres in UK and USA and difficulty in understanding is the major issue. e.g.

'Why Do Customers Hate Your Offshore Call Center So Much?

There’s a real language problem

UK and US companies have been outsourcing call center jobs to India for a while now and Indian call centers employees usually have a rather good level of english. However rather good isn’t good enough! The last thing customers want is to struggle with basic communication when they are trying to get a problem solved. A lot of US customers will now actually hang up if they hear that they are being transferred offshore or spot a foreign accent when the representative answers. Your customers are not being racists, they are just looking for a quick solution to their problem, they don’t want to struggle. A strong foreign accent will make the communication harder, especially over the phone when voice is the only thing people can rely on. Phone communication can even be challenging between people from the same country.

Lately, India has lost a lot of call centers seats to the Philippines where children grow up hearing and speaking American English. Accent and cultural knowledge matters! Working in a call center as an entry level employees is a far harder job that it seems for non-native speakers. It requires an excellent knowledge of another culture that even most intercultural communication experts don’t fully have.'

So... People in the UK can't understand Indian accents, but they're fine with American and Australian? Weird how we have no issue with different accents until they're from a low income country. 

Has it occurred to you that we have grown up with American and Austrailian accents on TV and films? Do you not think that would help us?

Did we? Oh OK then. There was 'Goodness Gracious Me' on the TV too, and plenty of Bollywood films exist if you care to view them.