COLUMN: Talking to India
It cannot be denied that we are living in an increasingly global society.
Social networking allows people living on different sides of the world to connect instantly, which was not possible in the not-so-distant past.
While many people enjoy this new age of international relations, others have been complaining about American companies outsourcing to other countries. The main argument is that these actions take jobs away from American workers. This has especially been vocalized during the past few years as the economy has struggled.
One of the most common complaints I have heard is outsourcing customer service departments to the Middle East, most notably India. I have heard many different people refuse to call customer service because they “didn’t want to talk to India.”
This mentality is embarrassing.
Thanks to the global society we live in, communicating with people of different nationalities is not uncommon. It should be expected that international communication would occur on a regular basis.
The most common criticism I hear about Indian customer service representatives is their accent. However, I do not believe this is a valid complaint. After all, if accents were such a big deal, movies like "Harry Potter" and "The King’s Speech" would not be as common in America.
If people can interpret British accents, why can they not interpret Indian accents as well?
While the argument can be made that British accents are easier to understand, I believe this is simply because Americans are more exposed to them. With time, it can be assumed Americans will become more acclimated with Indian accents as well.
In my opinion, the nationality of the person on the other end of the phone should not be important. As long as the customer service is good, why does the country of origin matter?
I experienced this recently through several different calls to Amazon’s customer service. I called the customer service hotline at 11 p.m. Sunday and was connected to a man in India.
I was able to understand him easily despite his accent, and he was very courteous. The call lasted roughly five minutes, and I was only on hold for a maximum of 30 seconds at a time.
A few days later, I called Amazon at 9:30 a.m. This time, I was connected to an American man, who was also polite. However, the call lasted almost 20 minutes, and I was put on hold for five minutes at a time.
After resolving the issue, he made a surprising comment. Despite his apparent politeness, he was moderately rude in telling me the solution was a one-time deal.
In the end, I felt much more comfortable during the phone call with the Indian man. He was extremely kind, and I appreciated that he was available at such a late hour. Had Amazon not utilized their human resources in India, I would have had to wait until Monday morning for my issue to be resolved.
While Americans may need jobs because of the poor economy, we are not the only ones being affected. The global economy is struggling, so people in other parts of the world are most likely just as appreciative for the jobs as Americans would be.
