4 ms·

It's an interesting use case. They show two examples of the accent modification: Indian and Filipino. In my experience every Filipino call center I've interacte

It's an interesting use case. They show two examples of the accent modification: Indian and Filipino. In my experience every Filipino call center I've interacted with (from auto redirected customer support numbers) have learned American accents. While Indian redirected calls ime have had their native accent.

hnbad 2y ago
Phillipine English is apparently exported to much of Asia via Filipino English teachers (as they're native speakers of their variety of English) so this is likely not just about the Phillipines. Indian English on the other hand is of course about India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, etc. It's pretty obvious what this product is for and who the target market is. Companies don't outsource their call centers to countries where these varieties of English are spoken by the majority of English speakers because they are looking for the best talents.
- eru 2y ago
  > Companies don't outsource their call centers to countries where these varieties of English are spoken by the majority of English speakers because they are looking for the best talents. Any company anywhere always has to look for the best talent at the best price. Otherwise, you'd only hire Nobel laureates, and go bankrupt immediately.
  - hnbad 2y ago
    > Any company anywhere always has to look for the best talent at the best price. Surely you understand the difference between wanting to hire superstars but then adjusting your targets downward based on what salaries you can offer versus wanting to pay as little as possible for call center agents and then adjusting your targets upward based on what you can get away with. "I want the best I can get but I need to be able to afford it" vs "I want to pay nothing but I need to spend enough to get something that works". Expectations for customer service tend towards rock bottom for many businesses. It's something they have to provide or their customers will get very upset (or they might even get them into legal trouble) but it only has to be good enough to be serviceable. And for call centers this usually means you end up having people closely follow a script anyway so you're literally just paying people to be human dialog trees. It's a nuisance but you can't get away with not having it, so you want to pay as little as possible. You're talking about cut-offs for price ranges - that's indeed a given which is why I thought it doesn't bear mentioning. I'm talking about whether you go over the resulting list sorting from lowest to highest ("best of the cheapest") or highest to lowest ("cheapest of the best").
    - eru 2y ago
      > Surely you understand the difference between wanting to hire superstars but then adjusting your targets downward based on what salaries you can offer versus wanting to pay as little as possible for call center agents and then adjusting your targets upward based on what you can get away with. "I want the best I can get but I need to be able to afford it" vs "I want to pay nothing but I need to spend enough to get something that works". Sure, different companies run different business models. There's space for both Singapore Airlines and RyanAir in the world. You should pick what your budget and preferences agree with. No need to be judgemental.
raverbashing 2y ago
Yeah in the examples, while the demo is good, it is, at the same time, noticeable and there's a different type of distortion (I know they don't do this, but it would be funny if it converted the customer accent back into the agent's accent)
worthless-trash 2y ago
Having visited and spent time in .ph. The accident is not "learned" its thr default.
- Springtime 2y ago
  I wonder if this is a recent thing or something. I haven't visited the Philippines but IRL haven't heard Filipinos speak with this accent, neither did Filipino friends ~15 years ago (instead sounding more like the unadjusted Filipino example from the website here).
  - worthless-trash 2y ago
    Oh. Just to be clear I'm comparing its closeness to other primary English speaking countries. There absolutely is still a local language influence. I think that the accent that is most closest to is American.

hnbad 2y ago

Phillipine English is apparently exported to much of Asia via Filipino English teachers (as they're native speakers of their variety of English) so this is likely not just about the Phillipines. Indian English on the other hand is of course about India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, etc. It's pretty obvious what this product is for and who the target market is. Companies don't outsource their call centers to countries where these varieties of English are spoken by the majority of English speakers because they are looking for the best talents.

eru 2y ago
> Companies don't outsource their call centers to countries where these varieties of English are spoken by the majority of English speakers because they are looking for the best talents. Any company anywhere always has to look for the best talent at the best price. Otherwise, you'd only hire Nobel laureates, and go bankrupt immediately.
- hnbad 2y ago
  > Any company anywhere always has to look for the best talent at the best price. Surely you understand the difference between wanting to hire superstars but then adjusting your targets downward based on what salaries you can offer versus wanting to pay as little as possible for call center agents and then adjusting your targets upward based on what you can get away with. "I want the best I can get but I need to be able to afford it" vs "I want to pay nothing but I need to spend enough to get something that works". Expectations for customer service tend towards rock bottom for many businesses. It's something they have to provide or their customers will get very upset (or they might even get them into legal trouble) but it only has to be good enough to be serviceable. And for call centers this usually means you end up having people closely follow a script anyway so you're literally just paying people to be human dialog trees. It's a nuisance but you can't get away with not having it, so you want to pay as little as possible. You're talking about cut-offs for price ranges - that's indeed a given which is why I thought it doesn't bear mentioning. I'm talking about whether you go over the resulting list sorting from lowest to highest ("best of the cheapest") or highest to lowest ("cheapest of the best").
  - eru 2y ago
    > Surely you understand the difference between wanting to hire superstars but then adjusting your targets downward based on what salaries you can offer versus wanting to pay as little as possible for call center agents and then adjusting your targets upward based on what you can get away with. "I want the best I can get but I need to be able to afford it" vs "I want to pay nothing but I need to spend enough to get something that works". Sure, different companies run different business models. There's space for both Singapore Airlines and RyanAir in the world. You should pick what your budget and preferences agree with. No need to be judgemental.

raverbashing 2y ago

Yeah in the examples, while the demo is good, it is, at the same time, noticeable and there's a different type of distortion (I know they don't do this, but it would be funny if it converted the customer accent back into the agent's accent)

worthless-trash 2y ago

Having visited and spent time in .ph. The accident is not "learned" its thr default.

Springtime 2y ago
I wonder if this is a recent thing or something. I haven't visited the Philippines but IRL haven't heard Filipinos speak with this accent, neither did Filipino friends ~15 years ago (instead sounding more like the unadjusted Filipino example from the website here).
- worthless-trash 2y ago
  Oh. Just to be clear I'm comparing its closeness to other primary English speaking countries. There absolutely is still a local language influence. I think that the accent that is most closest to is American.