[lbo-talk] More India Shining

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

On 1/16/07, Jordan Hayes <jmhayes at j-o-r-d-a-n.com> wrote:
> >> I fail to see why the people who join call "centres" don't sharpen
> >> up
> >> their U.S. English skills first.  I had to call United Airlines 5
> >> times
> >> the other night to get someone who understood the question I had.
> >>
> >> I guess my actual complaint is with those who are the hiring
> >> managers.
> >
> > Maybe the outsourcing airlines are expecting US customers to become
> > (finally!) cosmopolitan, learning to hear and speak English with
> > diverse accents and at various degrees of competence, just as banks
> > taught customers to use ATMs, supermarkets taught them to use self
> > checkout systems, and so on.
>
> I do think that there's a bit of active discouragement to this plan
> (such as it is), but the problem -- alas -- is that there are no
> alternatives.  I'm as savvy as it comes with online travel Stuff, but
> they've made the change away from qualified human help before the
> machines have caught up.  I avoid talking to humans when I can (I think
> it's been over 10 years since I've stood in line at an actual bank
> branch) but if you can't get accomplished what you mean to get
> accomplished, you've got to pick up the phone.
>
> Thank Dog for headsets and wireless phones is all I have to say; at
> least I can get things done while I wait on hold ...
>
> For the record, it wasn't an accent issue; it was a fundamental
> misunderstanding of English (and the product they purport to Support)
> that I was running into.

In that case, maybe the companies are training you not to call them.
Enough discouraging experiences teach you not to ask questions in the
future . . . unless you _really_ must.

On the other hand, an enterprising airline can start a new trend in
customer stratification: first-class customers (and only first-class
customers) get first-class customer support lines, staffed by people
who speak English like TV announcers (and their equivalents in other
languages for customers from the non-Anglo world); and the rest of us
have to become working-class cosmopolitans.
-- 
Yoshie
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