Customer Service from India

On the one hand, I know that the job the company outsourced offers a way out of poverty. With over 1 billion people crammed into the country there is a lot of that in India. I know that "Sharon" (who doesn't live in Smithville Indiana, as it is made to appear) has a job opportunity from outsourcing that allows her to not be one of the millions who are starving, begging, or living and dying in dirty gutters as seen on late night TV. Yes, that late night TV, or even those tear jerking Newsweek articles, which makes us all feel guilty. We look at it, and send our $2.50 a month, or slam our fist down, and say "Somebody ought to do something about that!"

Little do we realize that even as we might be angry about disappearing jobs at home, the jobs over there really do make a difference in the suffering of millions of people. It is actual effective action that gives "Sharon" and "Josh" the opportunity to live decent healthy middle class lives minus suffering, lesions, and illness. All it requires is a little patience from us.

On the other hand, customer service shipped overseas is awful. Really, really awful. This awfulness can be broken up into two parts.

Language

Customer Rep Powerlessness

On the language side, I can't count how many times I've heard from well meaning English speakers "I'm not trying to be racist, but I can't understand a word they're saying on the phone and it makes it really hard to complete my business."

Grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation not only tip me off that Sharon isn't from Iowa, but makes it really hard for me to know if she's asking for my name or email address, and if she's getting my account number right. I have also noticed something that others not trained in linguistics may not catch: No matter how clearly they speak, sometimes customers feel that the agents are rude or abrupt.

Language is much more complex than putting the basic vocabulary words in grammatical order. Vocabulary choice and vocal tone are loaded with social connotations that are booby traps for those not nuanced in the language. It maybe forgivable when someone who isn't a native speaker trying to get on a bus seems rude or picks the wrong word, but when it comes to customer service, where the nuances of polite and firm language are critical, it can be a deal killer for both parties.

Take prosody for example. This is the rhythm of a language. Put the emphasis on one part of a sentence and it indicates disapproval-another part and it sounds like the person cares. This does happen in English. In fact, it's such a subtle thing that you may not even know it just occurred. Reps who aren't native speakers sometimes can't figure out why the customer seems offended, and you can't figure out why they're being so rude!

Word selection is also a minefield. Connoisseur, -phile, and lover all have different connotations, which are flexible depending on what other words they accompany. A bibliophile is different from a pedophile-so is a daycare worker who says she is a kid lover.

Consider the difference between an agent who says abruptly:

"Ma'am, I know you say that this is our error but you have overdrawn your account. This is unacceptable to the computer's system. The account will have to be shut down immediately to do anything with it."

vs. gently and warmly saying:

"Ma'am, I hear you say that this is a computer error on our part. I apologize but the system won't allow me to access the records first with this overdrawn balance. Unfortunately, I'll need to shut the account down first to reset the system. The good news is that I can then access the records to help us figure out the problem."

Both get the basic concept across - the customer sees an account error, the rep can't do anything until it's shut down. But one sounds as if it's the customers fault and the rep has better things to do. The other sounds as if the rep has heard and understood the customer while respectfully giving out the necessary information.

A native speaker can be chastised for not selecting words that indicate that he or she respects the customer, hears the problem, but still has to implement a specific solution, in order to look into it. They should know better, and probably do feel annoyed by the customer. For someone who's consciously focusing on basic concepts and hasn't had years learning all of the subtle nuances, ...its too tall of an order to expect them to then know all the business stuff and get all of the complexities of a language that we take for granted.

On the power side, I've found that customer reps in India have almost none of it-not even when I am transferred to a manager. I imagine that they are given strict guidelines in a book, and they have to go by that regardless of the situation. If it's not in the book its not a possibility. It's very difficult to deliver customer satisfaction or rectify problems when you don't have guidelines with which to deviate or adapt to the complaint.

I once was trying to wrap up a delinquent account (in my defense I had been ill for months and unable to work) when I accidentally gave the account number for one checking account but the routing number for a different bank. I had given it to an American operator somewhere in Chicago. When I realized my mistake, I called the customer service number back but was routed to India. I knew what was about to happen. I was told that they could not fix the routing number. I told them that the payment had to be taken tonight. If the check bounced, the account would be charged off, and the person lending me the money would rescind it. In essence, the company would never see its money because my disability had made me unrecoverable (and there was no money to give). I wasn't worried about my credit, which had already tanked, but felt a strong need to wrap up my debts. Still the rep insisted she had no way to correct the problem. I requested she check with a manager. She did and told me the same thing. I requested to be put through to the payment department. She told me that was against her regulations. I pressured her to at least check with the payment department. She put me on hold and came back and told me there was no way to rectify it.

Out of desperation, and being at the end of one month of ridiculous circular phone calls, I wailed hellaciously into the phone out of desperation "I'm trying to pay you people!! Don't you want your money!!!!! Can you please transfer me to the payment department!!!???"

This disturbed her enough that against her rules she transferred me to the proper department, which was answered by an American in Chicago. The situation was explained and resolved in less than 8 minutes. The agent was polite, said they had no problems doing that, took down the new routing number, the payment was taken from my account the next day, and I've never had to deal with the company again.

It seems that in an effort to save money on the front end companies are setting up situations which frustrate customers, and potentially lose them money in the long run. Meanwhile it alienates customers to foreigners and makes frustrated Americans look like giant assholes to the global community.

Today on the phone, 25 minutes into the call, I hang my head as Sharon asks, "No, no I need your first name"- though I have confirmed that the name I have already given her twice is indeed my firstname. The angel on my left shoulder says that this is the price I pay for being a charitable and tolerant global citizen. The red guy with horns and a tail on my right shoulder says, For Ch***t sake can I just speak to someone who speaks English so I can get my business done and over with!" And with me in the middle, I just want to pay my bill-get the error rectified properly, and do it without being transferred, hung up on, and repeating things several times, all before my kids have jumped out the window or strung up the dog, the food goes from slightly burned to charred, and I'm late for work-but I still want to treat Sharon like a human being and be considerate of her national origins.