“One Night at the Call Center” is a fictional account of one eventful night at a call center handling customer queries for a US-based computer and appliances company.
The book traces the story of six call center “agents” whose difficult boss, unreasonable customers, and low self-esteem take such a huge toll on them that only a phone call from God can bail them out of the crisis.
As their night shift begins, Radhika Jha becomes Regina Jones and Esha Singh becomes Eliza Singer to help their customers open their vacuum cleaners and pre-heat their ovens.
An instructor preparing trainees for the job scribbles a golden rule on the blackboard for handling difficult customers: 10=35.
“Remember, a thirty-five-year-old American’s brain and IQ is the same as a 10-year-old Indian’s brain … Americans are dumb, just accept it. I don’t want anyone losing their cool during the calls…” the instructor tells a class.
I hope — before folks get all defensive over a very small excerpt — you reflect on how easy it is for anyone in a service job to dislike the folks they have to serve.
Special Thanks to Stefan Dill, not only for his Bollywood Blog; but, his other talents as editor and musician.
I don’t get it – why would they change their names when they go to work 🙂
The indians can’t be too smart — they did, after all, move to the states.
I may be showing my ignorance here, but don’t we give India too much credit? Sure there are masses of highly intelligent people over there, but there are several other factors that demonstrate India is not (as a country) a huge superpower. For example, the literacy rate is only 64.8%, and the WPR is approximately 25%. (wikipedia)
Just a thought..
“The indians can’t be too smart — they did, after all, move to the states”.
They’re not in the States, they’re (presumably) in India. It’s the company their call-centre handles calls on behalf of that is US-based. (The call-centre jobs have been outsourced).
They change their names so they sound like americans, as WE cant pronounce there names properly.
wouldnt it be cool, to go to a foriegn country and start a company to do customer service. hire those that work for 1/10 the US wages. then undercut US companies by 50% and take ALL the profit and put it in your pocket.
IF, any of you have worked for a US company doing Customer service, you will note that “YOU AINT PAID WELL(I have better word)”, upto about $9-10 per hour MAX. ANd the service centers are out in the middle of nowhere. But, these companies charge ALOT of money for there service. Where is the money going?
I live in Idaho, and we have a DELL service center here. Do you THINK you will get them? NOPE, they are for the companies that PAY $1000 per month for Tech suport.
The reason for changing their names is because the caller already has one problem, why add to it. Another reason may be accountability.
I am not offended by the article as I am in the service industry myself. It is amazing how many times I have to teach PhDs in their field of expertise. Unfortunately not everyone can know everything in their field, even myself. Better yet, half of my customer contacts aren’t Americans so I am use to coming in contact with different accents and “thinking”. You don’t tell them they are idiots even though someone should tell a few of them that they are. The IQ thing is to let them know to expect the worse and hope for the best when that line rings.
Can anybody help me program my vcr? I give up, I’ll just get a TiVO.
I have a good friend in a big 4 accounting firm that starts with a D, who is in charge of getting that firm’s Indian outsourcing program going – both help desk and development. According to her it currently cost $2 to do the job IN INDIA, where as it costs $1 to do here. In fact over 70% of the outsources projects fail and have to be done back in the good old US. She told me if it wasn’t for the huge tax give away that Duh and the neocons provide to businesses to encourage them to outsource, the firm would loose their shirt.
She also told me a “funny” story about a female American BA that was doing a one on one knowledge transfer to a male Indian project manager. She only had a day to do the data dump.
According to the Indian PM, he felt that the BA wasn’t showing him enough respect while talking to him, so he slapped her across the face. She then proceeded to break his jaw and close both of his eyes, before my friend was able to intervene. The “respect” issue? She called him by his first name instead of mister.
Well, wanna hear what an INDIAN has to say?
Well, I’m one and FYI, employees in call centres HAVE to change their names, so that you chappos over there in the land of the brave etc. etc. don’t start calling them “Maaghoo” instead of “Megha” (May-gha).
Secondly, India is in Asia and our income levels are lower. Want a reason? Your mother England practiacally sucked our country dry of resources for over a HUNDRED years.
As our income levels are lower, the ammount a person in India, working in call centre can earn is a decent ammount for the average upper-middleclass person. This person’s standard of living also, might actually be higher than that of many others in North America.
The pay may be 1/10 of the ammount, one can earn in the USA, but possibly double that of what one might earn in an Indian company call centre. So, before you go calling my countrymen stupid, THINK!
Anyway, with all that aside, I think the comic’s rather funny….
I’ve never worked in a call centre and never would, but some of my friends have and it’s great cash if you’re in college and have time to spare. The average pay is from about 8,000rs. to like 30,000rs. and that’s pretty good.
I agree with you Simran.
but there is a fault that US persons have. We LEARN 1 language, maybe 2 in our lives. Pronunciation, as you have mentioned about names, is Different between our countries. Inflection, and other parts of the language, even compared to britain, austraila, europe, is different..
It would be best if talking to a person with Equal use of the language. I even have a hard time with canadian, southern US, and Mex english..
Indians are just as smart as we are. Many are as well educated as we are. For these tech support jobs, even more educated than their counterparts in the U.S.
The problems I have when I hear an Indian accent on the other end:
1) I don’t understand heavy accents very well. Even with “accent neutralization” training, most Indians based in India can have a heavy accent. (I work with many Indians, Koreans, Serbians, other foreigners in the US. Some have been here a while and hardly have an accent at all. Others have heavy accents and I have to ask them to repeat themselve a lot. I find it embarrassing (to me) when I miss what they are saying 2 – 3 times in a row. But that’s life.)
2) Based on my faulty memory, it seems like more than half of the calls I have had handled overseas do not get handled correctly. They are very polite (maybe too polite and rigid), but what I care about is getting my problem taken care of, and more often than not, this does not happen after I have hung up. Quite annoying.
I believe it is due to poor communication and integration between a company’s outsourced operations and main office.
Yes Simran – All of your problems were caused by England because they “sucked your country dry”. It has nothing to do with the out of control population growth, corruption, and the caste system left over from the dark ages.
While England was sucking your country dry they also built your railroads, highways and justice system. All of which have been steadily crumbling since they left.
But hey, what do I know? I’m just a 36 year old American with the brain of a 10 year old indian child.
A 36 year-old American with the brain of a 10 year-old American — and an understanding of history apparently acquired from comic books and J.Arthur Rank films.
Who built the highways and railroads? Indians for slave wages — at the behest and control of English commerce.
agreed, they did help in many ways, but Moss is right-on, who in the world was actually laying the railroads; breaking their backs in the tropical sun? A British officer? Maybe even a low-paid British soldier? NO! Indians! Indians, forced into work, because they’re income sources had been destroyed by the monopoly of the East India Company. Did you know that British government workers and soldiers WANTED to come to India, because they were payed more than in Britain. And with TAXPAYERS MONEY. We were being forced to pay to be dictated. Get that?
Our POVERTY-STRICKEN people were TAXED till they had no money for food and were FORCED to grow indigo instead of food crops so that old British ladies could have pretty dresses and a lot of money. I get where you’re coming from, but think about it this way, if the British weren’t hanging around slaughtering and raping people and then “ruling” for the next hundred years, don’t you think that our country, on its own, would have built a lot of this stuff by itself? The industrial revolution was not some kind of “Europe/N. America only” event. It happened all over the world.
One last thing, when you credit the British for building our roads and railway while ruling over us, it’s like crediting Hitler for building the Autobahn.
“So what people, holocaust or not, you got yourself an Autobahn! yay!” – that is twisted.
Oh and yes, most Indians today are educated and can communicate efficently. Everyone has an accent and so do Americans. When I first heard an American speak, I wasn’t sure it was English. You probably won’t understand this, but American English sounds really strange to people only used to hearing British or Indian English. It sounds a lot like accentuated slang. No offense meant. My accent would probably sound just as strange to you.
One thing, for which I’m grateful to the British is English. Folk of many countries struggle with learning English, but for most Indians it’s really easy to pick it up, since it’s all over the media and prominent in our justice system et al too.
BdgBill, everyone has a right to an opinion, but please read up a bit before you go judging my country and its problems. Here’s a Wikipedia link. British Raj
Simran – Although I am a little embarassed by the sarcastic tone of my first post my point is the same. Although it was painful I believe the net effect of England on India was probably positive. If England had not come to India some other country undoubtedly would have.
Even if India had been left alone she may have spent the last 150 years in civil war between Rajas, Princes, Kingdoms etc.
I have the opurtunity to work with many Indian people in the US. Many of whom have a far more severe opinion of India then I do. Especially regarding the lack of opurtunity to advance beyond the station that one is born into.
I rather like the Indian and British accents in english and usually have no problem understanding. The names are difficult though! Im happy to speak to “David” from tech support as long he can do something besides read me the manual I have already read.
Bill,
I’m in no way vouching for any tech support provided by anyone to anyone. I just think the dumb Indian call-centre worker is becoming too much of a stereo-type.
I will say this with complete confidence: most Indians in 1st world countries, look down upon India. If they think they can improve the situation here, why don’t they come back and do something.
Me and many people I know are working hard to help build a prosperous nation here and I find it disgraceful that emigrated citizens can go on about what a bad country India is.
I’m glad its easy for you to say David, instead of maybe “Dravid”, but don’t you think it would just enrich your life and your vocabulary to learn new names and a new culture?
You never know, what might have happened if the British hadn’t conquered our country. Maybe the Russians would have turned us all into communists. All I’m saying is that the British didn’t do a lot of good….
Eideard: The cartoonist had outsourced my idea. See my article “Santa Claus Outsources To India” – http://www.thespoof.com/news/spoof.cfm?headline=s3i6588 published in September 2004.
Jim: They change names because foreigners can’t pronounce Indian names. Customers should not worry about who is handling their calls so long as they get satisfactory service. See the above article.
Chris Meisenzahl: I read a lot of American news reports about India. Most of them offensive and/or patronizing.
David Clark: Americans can’t be smart. They did, after all, move to the states from Europe. Some apologists say that it is only abroad that an Indian can buy from a Jew and sell to a Scot and still make a profit.
By attaining the “developed” status and in your case “superpower” status, developed countries have driven themselves out of business. If ever there was real free trade and fair competition, producers from developing countries (no matter how poor or illiterate they are) will bury producers in developing countries. It is for this reason, there should be equitable distribution of wealth. The foreign policies of Western governments are designed to help multinationals and other big companies. If rich countries felt people in other parts of the world should also be as prosperous as they are, then the disparity in wealth would not have occurred and you would not find yourself in the position you are now in. I am not a communist but I am only reinforcing what all religions say – you will never be happy unless those around you are also happy.
Sound The Alarm: Not everything can be outsourced. The success of outsourcing projects depends on the implementation. Hamhanded attempts will fail. In management courses, there is usually a chapter called International Business Management where you are told to avoid misunderstandings caused by cultural differences. There is no excuse for not doing your homework. In Japan, if someone gives you their business card, you’ve got to thank them and give them yours. If you just put it in your pocket, you’ve insulted the man. It is perfectly normal in India for two guys to hold hands when walking. In the US, it could be that you are a homosexual(?). If someone got slapped, sure that was an exception not the norm. Or else, outsourcing would not have been so successful here. Sure there are problems like chauvinism, racism and xenophobia in the States?
Sorry, in my previous comment, I meant to say that “producers from developing countries (no matter how poor or illiterate they are) will bury producers in DEVELOPED countries.”
BdgBill: Simran is partly right. Before the Industrial Revolution, India was the biggest manufacturing nation in the world. (Read Rise and Fall of Great Powers by Paul Kennedy) Import of cheap factory produced textiles in India by the British destroyed the economy. They then imposed heavy taxes because of which millions died in famines and epidemics. It is certainly our fault that things have not improved since Independence. But we still beat you, don’t we?
As for the brain comparision, do realise that it has got to do with making people face challenges in a positive way. Such comparisons are quite common. It is a popular management technique. (If you really feel offended then something else is botheirng you.) Remember China was referred as “two billion armpits waiting for a deodorant” by a P&G executive.
Nobody got it? I was pretending to be one of the stupid Americans that the caller center staff has to deal with on a daily basis. I ran across this blog post a few months ago and found it very interesting. It discusses offshoring work done by tech staff such as programming: http://www.journalhome.com/codecraft/13920/
Why can’t we all get along!!!!!!!!!!
We are all people trying to suvive. It does not matter what country you are from, It amount to the same thing we want to be able to take care of our family and our selves.