We are all familiar by now with the phenomenon of outsourced call centers handling marketing, customer service, and technical support calls for thousands of American businesses. Advances in telecommunications technology make it as easy to have 1-800-BUY-DELL connect to a depressing shack in Bangalore as a depressing office park in Tupelo. Logistical costs are greater but more than offset by depressed foreign wages.
The change has hardly been seamless for American consumers. India-based call banks have become a cultural punchline dotting media commentary, films, sitcoms, and hacky stand-up comedy routines. Aside from bringing the usual nativist prejudices out of the woodwork, there has been some legitimate backlash. First, being as frank as possible, intelligibility can be an issue. Understanding someone who learned English out of a textbook speaking with a heavy Indian accent over a 6,000 mile connection on our cell phones as we walk down a noisy street is often difficult. Non-native speakers staff these call centers after being rapidly crammed with colloquial American English at the behest of foreign employers, putting the people on both ends of the call in an uncomfortable situation. Second, some American customers resent the farming out of what were once American jobs – shitty jobs, but domestic shitty jobs.
Companies using South Asian call centers have attempted to compensate in the most awkward, ridiculous way: by pretending that the employees are American. We've all been on a tech support call which began with a young man whose accent is heavier than Apu from The Simpsons introducing himself as "Hello, my name is Brian." My favorite personal experience involved an AT&T DSL service call two weeks ago in which the obviously Calcutta-based representative introduced himself as "Todd McIntosh." I had to restrain myself from telling "Todd" that if he's a third-generation Irishman in America than I am a native Hindi speaker named Jagdish. The second most popular tactic is forcing phone reps to read even more American colloquialisms off of a script.
In whose interest are these charades? American callers, of course, are not fooled. It remains immediately obvious that we are speaking to someone in India. If anything it is slightly more offensive to imply that we are stupid enough to think that "Brian" or "Heather" are speaking to us from Iowa – not to mention how offensive it is to make the employees conceal their identities to appease an American audience. Neo-colonialism indeed.
Patti says:
Yeah, I flat out called "Thomas" a liar when he picked up the phone at Capital One. First, I have yet to meet a person born in India named Thomas, and second, I have yet to meet a person named Thomas who has not introduced himself as Tom. He transferred me to Shandina in the States rather quickly. Should she have introduced herself as Shannon? I was just happy to have a decent connection after being on hold for 20 minutes.
It starting to bother me… the first thing out of a person's mouth is a lie. How are we to trust ANYTHING that we hear in this conversation?
David says:
My wife can pick a Filipino accent out, easily. But, despite the fact that she's a bright woman who has heard English all her life, she might very well hear an Indian accent and think it's British. Or a Finnish accent and think it's Portuguese. And it's not just her, … so often I've had people ask me "where's that accent from?" that I figured it was an uncommon skill of mine.
So I think a large fraction of he population doesn't feel insulted by the lies about where the helper's from. A large percentage is just frustrated if they don't get the help they need or, as you pointed out, can't understand it. Now, mind you, incomprehensibility comes from more than just accent.
[The funny part is that some of these call centers apparently hand out a Reagan-one-sheeter about current events, so the tech support rep can make you feel reassured with "That Oakland Raiders game was really thrilling, wasn't it?"]
ladiesbane says:
And I sit among coworkers who, if told that the rep's name is Mohanlil, completely stall. "It's WHAT? Mo-Hahn-Leel? Is that a girl's name? What kinda name is that?" — and meanwhile, the rep who is supposed to log a minimum of 650 incoming per day has just had his quota blown.
New Mexico is the Quebec of the Southwest — supposedly bi-cultural, definitely NOT multi-cultural.
Indira says:
Haha, my father managed an outsourcing firm in India and he has some interesting tales to tell. All employees are required to take classes that "teach" the American accent. It was hoped that this, along with the name change, would make outsourcing as seamless as possible for Americans. Indians don't think this is "lying," we just think it's part of good customer service. But yeah, thanks to my dad's work, for a week or so, I forced all my Indian friends to call me Natalie! I could never master the accent, though. Good times.
Kulkuri says:
Back in the 80's the local phone company decided to combine the repair line calls to one office. Instead of calling the local office in town,we were routed to an office in another part of the state hundreds of miles away. One time I had a problem with the phone and called for repair service. The person that answered kept asking for a street address and I kept telling her that I live out in the country and there are no street addresses. If I had been able to call the local office they would have known just from the name or the phone number where the location was. Needless to say it was a very frustrating time.
Ted B says:
And now they're outsourcing mental health calls.
I was feeling depressed the other night, so I called "Lifeline," and got a call center in Afghanistan.
When I said I was feeling suicidal they got excited and asked if I could drive a truck.