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canuckguy · 11-18-2005, 11:09 AM

I've worked tech support phone jobs before, and it was outsourced from an American company to Canada. I speak perfect English, white, no accent (except for the Canadian part eh) and I have experience both sides of this issue.

First off, on the rude issue. Well I use to have people call (all calls were from the states) and if they did comment on the whole language thing, it fell into these areas. First people would say, "wow it is so nice to speak to an American”, "thank god your not indian"...etc I'd say it was a regular occurrence. Some were funny, they would ask if you were American, I would say no, and tell them I am Canadian. And they would say they weren't surprised I was not an American because I was so nice. Also some people would be upset that I was in Canada as well and not the states, taking an American’s job away, that was very rare.

Now that is all usual stuff, but I also had to transfer customers directly to other tech companies for other issues. A warm transfer meaning the customer now has both me and the new tech on the same call. Some of these transfers were to India and also back to the united states.
I'd say about 90% of the time if were calling India, the customer would comment about the accent and express frustrations in understanding. Most of those calls I could understand the person from India but the customer could not. I would assume that some of those times maybe it was a connection issue, but allot of it was just clear not understanding.

People would get pissed off quick and I could see how it was frustrating. When I could not understand, usually I would just hang up immediately and call right back. You can sense when it was going to go nowhere. The India people though were always super nice and I felt that they were generally trying to help as best they were trained and instructed to do.
We also transferred calls to centers in the united states.

Now most of the employee's in my center had a negative opinion about the workers in the American call centers. No language issues of course, but allot of problems with lazy work, not willing to help…Etc. Not all the centers or agents you reached were bad, but allot (30-40% guestimate), although I don't blame the workers, very low wages and just lack of training/high turnover. In my office we were making double easily what most of they were getting. If you wanted me to do their job at that wage, well you would have got the same effort out of me too be honest. The tech job that I was doing was the upper level of support and you needed allot of experience and knowledge hence the pay.

But the Americans we were transferring back to other Americans were sometimes not very happy with the effort as well. But still not even close to what levels they could reach on the India agents.

Myself as a customer calling a place like your ISP or bank, I try and kill'em with kindness, and try and not to make them talk by making small talk. I just ask very short questions and try and be nice about it. I like to word my questions as if the agent and I are on one team and the company is the bad guy. If that does not get me were I need to be, then I'll wait for the call to be almost done, and then say "hey, you did a great job answering my questions, the last time I called I did not get any help, is there a supervisor I can talk to and tell them what a great job you did?" works all the time, supervisor gets on the phone, tell them what a great job the employee did "trying to help" and now get straight with the supervisor. They get paid more than that poor agent just trying to do what little they are allow to do, and tell that supervisor, exactly what you want or need done. Works like a charm most times.

As well just an fyi, ANY time your calling a company and you must get transferred, ask the person you are talking with to stay on the line and conference you in until you get through. Helps allot in making sure your issue gets resolved quickly as you can multiple people on the line instead of being transferred back and forth.

I'd still say that most times the american's I talked to were very nice, but it really does vary huge from state to state. People calling from the Mass. (sp?) area always seemed pissed off even if they weren't. And people from virgina were very apologetic for calling and bothering you. Generally nice people.
(hope this made sense, just smoke a bit of the funny stuff, I am kid free today)

11-18-2005, 11:09 AM	#26 (permalink)
canuckguy I read your emails. Location: earth	I've worked tech support phone jobs before, and it was outsourced from an American company to Canada. I speak perfect English, white, no accent (except for the Canadian part eh) and I have experience both sides of this issue. First off, on the rude issue. Well I use to have people call (all calls were from the states) and if they did comment on the whole language thing, it fell into these areas. First people would say, "wow it is so nice to speak to an American”, "thank god your not indian"...etc I'd say it was a regular occurrence. Some were funny, they would ask if you were American, I would say no, and tell them I am Canadian. And they would say they weren't surprised I was not an American because I was so nice. Also some people would be upset that I was in Canada as well and not the states, taking an American’s job away, that was very rare. Now that is all usual stuff, but I also had to transfer customers directly to other tech companies for other issues. A warm transfer meaning the customer now has both me and the new tech on the same call. Some of these transfers were to India and also back to the united states. I'd say about 90% of the time if were calling India, the customer would comment about the accent and express frustrations in understanding. Most of those calls I could understand the person from India but the customer could not. I would assume that some of those times maybe it was a connection issue, but allot of it was just clear not understanding. People would get pissed off quick and I could see how it was frustrating. When I could not understand, usually I would just hang up immediately and call right back. You can sense when it was going to go nowhere. The India people though were always super nice and I felt that they were generally trying to help as best they were trained and instructed to do. We also transferred calls to centers in the united states. Now most of the employee's in my center had a negative opinion about the workers in the American call centers. No language issues of course, but allot of problems with lazy work, not willing to help…Etc. Not all the centers or agents you reached were bad, but allot (30-40% guestimate), although I don't blame the workers, very low wages and just lack of training/high turnover. In my office we were making double easily what most of they were getting. If you wanted me to do their job at that wage, well you would have got the same effort out of me too be honest. The tech job that I was doing was the upper level of support and you needed allot of experience and knowledge hence the pay. But the Americans we were transferring back to other Americans were sometimes not very happy with the effort as well. But still not even close to what levels they could reach on the India agents. Myself as a customer calling a place like your ISP or bank, I try and kill'em with kindness, and try and not to make them talk by making small talk. I just ask very short questions and try and be nice about it. I like to word my questions as if the agent and I are on one team and the company is the bad guy. If that does not get me were I need to be, then I'll wait for the call to be almost done, and then say "hey, you did a great job answering my questions, the last time I called I did not get any help, is there a supervisor I can talk to and tell them what a great job you did?" works all the time, supervisor gets on the phone, tell them what a great job the employee did "trying to help" and now get straight with the supervisor. They get paid more than that poor agent just trying to do what little they are allow to do, and tell that supervisor, exactly what you want or need done. Works like a charm most times. As well just an fyi, ANY time your calling a company and you must get transferred, ask the person you are talking with to stay on the line and conference you in until you get through. Helps allot in making sure your issue gets resolved quickly as you can multiple people on the line instead of being transferred back and forth. I'd still say that most times the american's I talked to were very nice, but it really does vary huge from state to state. People calling from the Mass. (sp?) area always seemed pissed off even if they weren't. And people from virgina were very apologetic for calling and bothering you. Generally nice people. (hope this made sense, just smoke a bit of the funny stuff, I am kid free today)