Call center agents in Asia...

yep, that's right. but asians, specially filipinos learn fast and can get their way with it. i have been in a call center for several years and i did enjoy my interaction with these customers no matter how frustrated and angry they are. i've learned so much from them too.. may it be bad expressions or swearing..LOLz. there will always be a language barrier but there are ways to make it seamless. so even if these customers yell at you or curse you, they still need your help and at this point, you know better than they do. i have learned that, it's not what you say... but HOW you say it.

The trouble is the accents. People think that we, lets say in Canada, assume that we think they live in the same province as we do, or at least in Alberta, British Columbia, or Ontario. However we know they are phoning from a foreign country and we get wary because what if something goes wrong. They know basic English and not the nuances of us who learned our English since we were quite small, so they may not understand what we mean. My particular credit card company uses an overseas call center and now if I am late a couple of days, there is an extra charge on it, because the girl, who was from India, did not explain it properly. I think if you own a call center, they should not pretend to be from the country they are presumedly in.