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billege · 11-17-2005, 10:19 PM

Ditto on being surprised at the lack of intelligence shown on Fark.

This is a thread where I feel qualified to put forth an informed opinion.

My job is 1st level support in a retail giant’s (over $50 billion in revenue) distribution chain. That means my primary duty is escalating a good 80% of the issues we see to higher level support groups. Guess what that means? It means the support groups are offshore, and guess where offshore is?

When I was in college for my tech AS, lots of my instructors were Indian. Given the exposure, I got pretty good with the accent. Now, I’ve lost a lot of that familiarity. That is, until the phone rings with a support group calling back about a ticket.

Is it hard to understand the Indian callers? Well, yes it is. I understand the women easier than men for some reason. I often have to ask them to repeat themselves. It’s a fair bet that’s as frustrating for them as it is me. I feel jerkish when it’s the 3rd time they’ve said something, and I still have no idea what they’ve said. To my ear, they speak really fast. Once they’ve slowed down, I can get it. It also seems they have a hard time understanding what I’m trying to tell them.

Is this frustrating? Well, yes it is. Both for clients and me, it adds another challenge to a situation that’s already frustrating. Something is broken, we need help. We and the help can’t understand each other. Yes, it can be emotionally frustrating.

So, what do we do? Well, we know that berating our support partners would be a foolish and unwise solution. It’d also be very unprofessional. Once we know someone has taken ownership of the ticket, I’ll hop in there to get the owner’s name. Then I use either email or IM to communicate with the Indian support partner; and, often I use this method to get the client in touch with support.

It takes extra effort, but those people are doing a job, just like we are. Being jerks about it won’t help anyone.

11-17-2005, 10:19 PM	#13 (permalink)
billege Watcher Location: Ohio	Ditto on being surprised at the lack of intelligence shown on Fark. This is a thread where I feel qualified to put forth an informed opinion. My job is 1st level support in a retail giant’s (over $50 billion in revenue) distribution chain. That means my primary duty is escalating a good 80% of the issues we see to higher level support groups. Guess what that means? It means the support groups are offshore, and guess where offshore is? When I was in college for my tech AS, lots of my instructors were Indian. Given the exposure, I got pretty good with the accent. Now, I’ve lost a lot of that familiarity. That is, until the phone rings with a support group calling back about a ticket. Is it hard to understand the Indian callers? Well, yes it is. I understand the women easier than men for some reason. I often have to ask them to repeat themselves. It’s a fair bet that’s as frustrating for them as it is me. I feel jerkish when it’s the 3rd time they’ve said something, and I still have no idea what they’ve said. To my ear, they speak really fast. Once they’ve slowed down, I can get it. It also seems they have a hard time understanding what I’m trying to tell them. Is this frustrating? Well, yes it is. Both for clients and me, it adds another challenge to a situation that’s already frustrating. Something is broken, we need help. We and the help can’t understand each other. Yes, it can be emotionally frustrating. So, what do we do? Well, we know that berating our support partners would be a foolish and unwise solution. It’d also be very unprofessional. Once we know someone has taken ownership of the ticket, I’ll hop in there to get the owner’s name. Then I use either email or IM to communicate with the Indian support partner; and, often I use this method to get the client in touch with support. It takes extra effort, but those people are doing a job, just like we are. Being jerks about it won’t help anyone. __________________ I can sum up the clash of religion in one sentence: "My Invisible Friend is better than your Invisible Friend."