Why do they put people with stong foreign accents on operator/customer service phones?

Question

How is it good service if I can't understand what their saying?

Answer 1

Because many companies now outsource their customer service to companies OUTSIDE of the United States such as India or Philippines. So the phone operators may try to speak their best English and some even try to fake an American accent, but their Indian or Filipino English accents still come through.

It is frustrating, but such is the economics of doing business nowadays

Answer 2

Most of the Companies in the US us India for their costumer service. So everyone who answers the phone has and accent. The reason for this is because the top pay for that in India is $10.000 a year verses US is probably 16-17 thousand a year. That 10 thousand is for Boss to so most make about 6-7 thousand a year. To put it short America is cheap.

Answer 3

Cheap Labor. chances are good your talking to someone in India or Vietnam. They get paid a quarter of you or I would require thats why they have a foreign accent. After they work doing telephone support for long enough they will be more understandable to you or I. I almost like hearing them even though it's a pain in the *** to understand them, I know that thier economy is improving by the jobs being provided for them so I accept it for what it is.

Answer 4

Great point,for some reason United Airlines are passing their reservation calls off to East Indians I don`t know if they are in the US or being rerouted out of the country but as you mentioned it`s bloody murder,and having the person constantly repeating themselves is frustrating to both of us...this is not a racist comment,its a fact and as my mate said the other day,if any person no matter where they come from are having difficulties performing their jobs to the standards expected by the consumer,its the responsibility of the business to accommodate instead of trying to penny pinch at the expense of customer satisfaction....so ride on to you!!!!

Answer 5

How is it good service for people in other areas of the world to call here and have us only know English?

usually you can ask to speak to a manager or another person while explaining politely that you don't understand their accent.

Answer 6

Its an economic issue. They have a huge company and it looks good on their financial graph to save billions in the long run by outsourcing their work.

This means, they contract a large call center located in India to serve people in the US and Canada.

Answer 7

Outsourcing - whatever that means. Taking advantage of cheap foreign labour.
You will find that if you want to open an account or similar, you will be put through to a local call centre. If you want to complain, then probably a foreign one.
Firms in the UK are learning their lesson and bringing call centres back to the UK.
The answer is - if you cannot understand the person you are talking to, then withdraw your custom.
This is not racialism. It is common business sense.

Answer 8

Because the people who live in this country and have "American" accents don't want to work for the $0.29 cents per hour that those companies can pay to employees in India and China. Welcome to the global labor marketplace.

Answer 9

Two words, CHEAP LABOR. Many companies outsource to countries that pay cheap labor so the company pays for cheap service. Speaking English is secondary!

Answer 10

This is a side effect of outsourcing. To get cheap overseas labor, you need to be able to tolerate their language capabilities.