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Angry callers test service agents in India
Fort Wayne Journal Gazette - Fort Wayne,IN,USA
Angry callers test service agents in India
By Rama Lakshmi
Special to The Washington Post
NEW DELHI, India – Rohail Manzoor thought he had what it
took to work in a telephone call center. All he had to do
was pick up the phone and answer queries from American
customers about their long-distance bills. He was armed with
lessons on how to speak English like the Americans.
He even called himself “Jim,” and figured he would pretend
to be an American.
But nothing prepared him for the shower of curses that came
his way when he picked up the phone one night on the job.
“‘You Indians suck!’ an American screamed on the phone,”
recalled a soft-spoken Manzoor, 25. “He was using a lot of
four-letter words, too. He called me names left, right and
center.”
Call center executives and industry experts say abusive hate
calls are commonplace, as resentment swells over the loss of
American jobs to India. According to a survey in November by
an Indian information technology magazine called Dataquest,
about 25 percent of call center agents identified such calls
as the main reason for workplace stress. The survey said the
calls often were “psychologically disturbing” for workers.
“When some callers are unhappy with the service, their
frustration often turns racist,” said Amit Narula, 25, a
call center agent. “They would say, ‘This is why you should
not handle our work. Indians are not good enough.’”
As a result, the call center workers are feeling stressed.
Manzoor said he developed high blood pressure and chest pain
in November, and quit his job. But in two months, he was
back in another call center processing credit card
applications.
The outsourcing industry earns $5.1billion a year and
employs more than 350,000 people, according to the National
Association of Software and Services Companies, and is
projected to grow 40percent in the coming year. The vast
pool of low-cost, English-speaking and tech-savvy Indian
workers has attracted back-office service operations of
companies such as American Express, Sprint, Citibank,
General Electric, Ford, Hewlett-Packard and IBM.
“This is a high-stress business, and most of our agents are
between 22 and 25 working during the graveyard shift. I have
noticed a sudden plunge in their confidence level after an
irate, abusive or racist caller,” said Rohit Gadhoke, a
senior quality analyst with Daksh call center, a subsidiary
of IBM, adding that such calls were routine. “They begin to
fumble with words and get nervous. I counsel them not to
take it personally.”
Although a handful of call center companies encourage agents
to reveal their real name and location when an American
calls, many fear backlash and do not allow it. In Bangalore,
Ankur Jaiswal, 22, whose phone name is “Mike,” answers calls
from Americans who need technical support with their
computers.
“Many callers refuse to speak to Indians and ask for an
American right away,” Jaiswal said. “So I tell them, ‘I am
an Indian but I live in America.’ They ask, ‘Where in
America?’ I tell them I cannot disclose my location. But
they are still suspicious and start asking about the
weather.”
Industry watchers say some call centers have giant TV
screens showing the weather in different U.S. cities, the
scores from latest New York Knicks game or news about the
latest play on Broadway. The agents use the information on
the screen to make small talk with the caller and mask their
location in India. |
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