Maria Blogs

Two episodes this week made me wonder just why American companies choose to outsource and then go to great lengths to cover it up when they could do the simple thing and straighten out their customer service’s people’s accent.

Had a huge screw up with my Amazon order last week, which was supposed to be 2DAY AIR delivery and was lost somewhere in Philly and nobody at Amazon seems to know how to track it. I called customer service about it and this kid, who has a very distinct Filipino accent [you know, mixing the f with the p, that kinda stuff] answered and for the life of him, he cannot understand that I need my car seat because if I go into labor that day, the hospital won’t release me and the baby without a car seat. Nutaralmente, he won’t understand if he’s not in the US or haven’t researched that rule right, so I asked him, you’re in Manila right? To which he replied, “No ma’m we’re US-based” But when I asked where he balked.

So I said, please, I’ve worked in customer service long enough to know when to BS and when to fez up. Then he tried hiding his accent by adopting an American “twang” … “Eym sowrryy maaam, butt yowr owdah kent bee trucked …” HOLD IT! That was worse. anyway, I ended up screaming, not about the accent, but the fact that it’s supposed to have arrived in 2 days and it’s been 4 days now. he promised he’ll refund my shipping cost and have a tracking status for me first thing in the morning.

Which of course didn’t happen. So I called again, this time, another kid with a heavy East Indian accent answered me, and to save my life or hospital stay, I couldn’t understand him. And again, he was like … sori mom, kol bak tomorrow if it has nut arrived … OH NO YOU DON’T! I ended up screaming his head off until he passed me to an area manager who promptly replaced my order with next day delivery pronto.

The second incident was with this kid at Verizon who is probably an American but with such a twisted tongue that I had to make him repeat five times why he can’t fix my Mobile Web access, only to have it completely cut off .. a.] because he’s a complete moron or b.] he hated me … and had to call back and speak to a girl who restored everything into working order in 5 minutes.

So seriously, people almost always think that a customer service job is the easiest thing you can do but it’s not. When I was still handling customer service, we had to make sure that we at least give members trainings, or hire someone who’s taken a Business English class. Because customer service members are the frontliners, the face of your company, representing your product and/or service and you certainly would like to present a very professional foot forward don’t you?

However, it seems that a lot less companies have thought of this dilemma when they choose to outsource their customer service to call centers in the Philippines and India. Come on, the huge reduction in overhead alone should be reason enough for them to at least consider enrolling their staff in Accent Reduction classes. And it’s not as if there is a shortage of learning centers addressing this specific needs.

One such learning center is the Executive Language Training Center which offers Accent Reduction classes, workplace english, business english and foreign language classes. Yes, there is a difference between corporate English communication and workplace English, the same way that Americans and the British use different “English” and woe to them who’d have to deal with both at the same time.

Centers such as ELT provide companies an avenue to help staff improve their accent, tailor their communication style and language to the market that they are serving and enable them to have an avenue for advancement. Both the individual and the company benefit from such training. even if you happen to be an American in the US, if you’re employed in customer service, you still need to have one of those classes because, admit it, different states have different accents and communication bogs down in the translation of words that are mispronounced or simply put, mangled.