International Call Centers
By Alphasee
@Alphasee (389)
United States
February 5, 2007 6:19pm CST
Okay, so recently I tried calling the linksys technical support only to be put on hold by "technician specialists" who spoke very poor English. Now, this is not slander on Indians, or people of India, but c'mon? How can it be support when the language barrier is immense? Colossal! For example, when they don't understand who a "deaf person" is, or even how to form a proper response, it gets very intimidating at times, and almost threatening. Once again, no offense, but look at here on mylot. There is quite a few individuals from India (and more so than the US), and I've noticed that the "language barrier" does become quite evident when some of them post. I just wish there was more your or I could do to solve this problem. Should we just let it be, or should we say something in a polite and reasonable fashion that allows the person to learn? Or do you think they'd even care??
I want to be able to understand them better, and I think those people also want to be able to understand us better. What should I do?
2 people like this
3 responses
@JMPILAPIL (503)
• Philippines
7 Feb 07
If I'm in your situation I would probably hung up the phone in a polite manner then I'll call back the same number again until I found somebody better. There's a chance that somebody from US might answer. The number of call center in India is higher compare to what we have in my country (Philippines) so there's also a chance that somebody from the the Phil. might answer as well (if linksys has an account here).
I'm confidently telling you this because I have friends who are working as technical support representative and their english is good. I have also tried applying with severeal of them but I failed because the standard is very high to be qualified. American accent is required most of the times.The quality of training is very good that's why companies won't let go of their trained employees easily because they invested a lot of money for their employees' training to neutralize their accent and to forge them as a customer oriented representative of their respective companies' account.
Whew! sorry for the long and almost irrelevant part of my response.
Have a nice day!
2 people like this
@Alphasee (389)
• United States
7 Feb 07
That doesn't happen with companies like Linksys. Their only call centers are in India, and they are the only people that will answer. Also, your chances of getting through are small, because you wait on hold for quite some time as well. I don't mind when I get calls in the technical support groups in the Philippines, that's fine.
Your response wasn't even close to irrelevant, and I appreciate greatly your response. Marked as best!
2 people like this
@cranberian (52)
• United States
6 Feb 07
This is definitely frustrating sometimes, especially as another one who deals with this on a frequent basis. I don't know if there's anything that we could say on the other end of the call that would be encouraging to their language skills, other than enough people calling and expressing concern.
I wonder if when hiring these people in India, some form of English proficiency training/testing occurs. Probably, just not to an ideal level. That seems to be the issue. As you know, even English-speaking people in U.S. call centers have to take multiple language proficiency tests in order to even be hired. (At least at the one I've experienced.) It's only fair to bring anyone up to necessary par in their job skills--Indian, American, British, or otherwise.
@killahclaire (3665)
•
6 Feb 07
I think its shocking when credit card companies have foreign call centres and its not like if you dont want to use the call centre you can pop in a shop.
Orange phone company are really bad.
And my are the men always called "John"
1 person likes this
@Alphasee (389)
• United States
6 Feb 07
I know what you're talking about...Linksys has always been the worst for me...Thankfully I haven't had to deal with many credit card companies, but whenever I do, I usually get American or Canadian individuals, so it's not that bad. I'm fine with outsourcing jobs like that, but they need to be outsourced to a location that the people either know better English (higher standards), or where English is simply a primary language there.
It is getting pretty ridiculous, but I have respect for them wanting to make money.
1 person likes this
@killahclaire (3665)
•
7 Feb 07
I think to be honest t he main problem is not their english - they can say everything that is required of them and probably in better spoken in english than us but...
Im in the uk here so we have englsih, scottish, irish and welsh all phoning the same numbers for the call centres in these far off foreign countries and they probably can't get all our accents. I can barely understand some of them and the UK is tiny and i live here. Think how they must feel!!!
I still beleive though that these companies should have call centres in their own country, hiring their own citizens because how can outsourcing help our country grow???
1 person likes this
@Alphasee (389)
• United States
7 Feb 07
That's the point. Companies do it to make money, not to "help their country grow". They are looking for the easiest way to make a pretty penny, and that's about it.
As for the multiple efficiency tests, yes, they do have to take English classes, but that doesn't make anything better. They might be learning basics of a language, but they're not learning it enough. I've spoken to people who have worked for an outsourced call center for 5 + years, and they still suck at English. That's just pathetic.
If you're put into a non-english speaking country, you are GOING to learn the language very quickly. You'd think that after awhile these guys would be forced to pick up on things, but obviously not. It's frustrating sometimes when there are certain standards in the rest of the world that are met naturally, but when it comes to money, they're not.
1 person likes this
