India - Call centers

C-Span showed a 3 hour program long ago about development of outsourcing in India and also included a significant portion about how call centers trained their new recruits to change their accent, the speech mannerisms, courtesies, etc. It went further to show how employees were willing to be referred to "Sam" when their actual name was Shanmugavalli! The program itself was unbiased and only reported the facts, not taking any slant at commenting about the practices.

However, in more than one instance I have heard snide remarks about this in my classes, where students are predominantly non-Indian as are the professors. One Professor brought a video clipping so students could be exposed to other countries. It must come as no surprise that the video showed cows on the road, the unimaginably noisy traffic (you know how that goes) and the most poverty ridden-neighbourhoods from our country. Also the Professor narrated her experience of riding the autorickshaw and her terrifying experience when a man was trying to sell her snakes on the street. People laughed. I couldn't see why nobody appreciated the multi-purpose dynamically shifting lanes. People have to go to Six-Flags here (and not to mention pay through their hats for the tickets) to experience what we do when we travel to and from office in India everyday. I somehow attributed the snake-selling story to the fact that the Professor was Chinese..

Another thing to be ridiculed was the fact that many representatives from the call centers change their names, so it will be easy to understand for customers from the US. This snide remark totally offended me. I feel its a significant sacrifice for people to be referred to by a name that is not their own. I wouldn't change my name even when I got married, and I have retained my maiden name. I don't see any reason why that should change. I am sure a number of people feel the same. When reps give up their own name to adopt a new one so the transition of the call to a foreign land remains seamless, I feel its customer service at an extreme end. I don't disagree that there are many experiences that I personally had, when I felt call centers must work more towards enhancing reps' knowledge about the business they are dealing with. There was this rep who was quoting car rental prices and emphasized "unlimited miles" many many times! That is not a real differentiator, everybody offers unlimited miles.

The few of us in class from India made every attempt to nullify the effects of the video to paint a more fair and true picture of our country. I suggested to the Professor (who made the snide remark) that maybe he would like to call me by my full name henceforth (no, not bumblebee) which is considerably longer? The mood was light and their were peels of laughter from the class. The Professor admitted that this was a "politically-charged" issue and he immediately backed of the topic. In the past, I have also been asked if riding an elephant is the preferred transportation method! There are numerous other ridiculous stories and I don't want to recall all. I was wondering what similar experiences others might have had in this regard and woud love to hear some.