3 ms·

Why is that bad? I can't understand a thing they say. I would rather the call centers were in America, but I welcome this development.

rrrrrrrrrrrryan 4y ago
Most people are able to adjust their ears to an unfamiliar accent if they exert a bit of effort. It might be a little clumsy, and you might have to ask them to repeat themselves a few times, but that's just life for the millions of Americans who live in diverse cities, and those work for companies that employ non-native English speakers. MegaCorp isn't buying this tech to reduce this friction, though - they're buying it to appease the outright racist callers who verbally attack the employees and outright refuse to even try talking to them. That said, I don't think forcing older rural folks to wrangle with a southeast Asian accent is going to solve any societal problems, and I imagine the call center workers in Asia would be big fans this tech if it reduces irate interactions and actually works well.
- GekkePrutser 4y ago
  It's not really about the accent. It's just that companies that outsource to Asia do so because they value the cost over quality. Because obviously in-house and in-region support is much better because the agents are more up to speed on the company and to the user's environment. This expresses itself in other aspects than just location, and often the people working there have no product knowledge and just follow scripts. Because knowledgeable workers cost more. Works ok for 80% of the interactions but it really sucks if you're the 20% not covered by a script. This gives Asian callcenters and the associated accent a bad name and leads to a kneejerk reaction from customers as the accent brings up memories of previous frustrating experiences. Of course companies try to avoid this already with the mentioned software and also by moving to regions with more American-sounding people like the Philippines. I worked in contact center management before and I've seen this effect a lot. I'm sure there's excellent contact centers in the region too, but they have an uphill battle to prove themselves as most simply aren't.
aiisjustanif 4y ago
Apply this line of thought to most societal and social norms and it gets rather ugly.

rrrrrrrrrrrryan 4y ago

Most people are able to adjust their ears to an unfamiliar accent if they exert a bit of effort. It might be a little clumsy, and you might have to ask them to repeat themselves a few times, but that's just life for the millions of Americans who live in diverse cities, and those work for companies that employ non-native English speakers. MegaCorp isn't buying this tech to reduce this friction, though - they're buying it to appease the outright racist callers who verbally attack the employees and outright refuse to even try talking to them. That said, I don't think forcing older rural folks to wrangle with a southeast Asian accent is going to solve any societal problems, and I imagine the call center workers in Asia would be big fans this tech if it reduces irate interactions and actually works well.

GekkePrutser 4y ago
It's not really about the accent. It's just that companies that outsource to Asia do so because they value the cost over quality. Because obviously in-house and in-region support is much better because the agents are more up to speed on the company and to the user's environment. This expresses itself in other aspects than just location, and often the people working there have no product knowledge and just follow scripts. Because knowledgeable workers cost more. Works ok for 80% of the interactions but it really sucks if you're the 20% not covered by a script. This gives Asian callcenters and the associated accent a bad name and leads to a kneejerk reaction from customers as the accent brings up memories of previous frustrating experiences. Of course companies try to avoid this already with the mentioned software and also by moving to regions with more American-sounding people like the Philippines. I worked in contact center management before and I've seen this effect a lot. I'm sure there's excellent contact centers in the region too, but they have an uphill battle to prove themselves as most simply aren't.

aiisjustanif 4y ago

Apply this line of thought to most societal and social norms and it gets rather ugly.