The Observer reports that many Indian call center staff are leaving jobs due to the persistent rudeness of British and American callers, while many employees have begun allowing staff to hang up on callers after a third bad language warning.
I have had much experience with the Bombay call center of an unnamed phone company, and have found most of the staff to be unknowledgeable, unwilling to help and quick to hang up on me – I have even been shouted at by some of the customer service reps. This seems to be down to bad training and probably the stress of having to be first line support for one of the worst service providers I have ever dealt with; HSBC on the other hand are helpful, informed and polite.
Some companies still specify staff must anglicise their names, adopting forenames such as Mary and John, to try to stave off resentment.
This just stinks of a bad employer to me; call center managers are trying to help staff avoid angry customers, but the root of the anger is usually poor service (possibly followed by poorly trained support staff).
The employees are therefore caught in the middle – the jobs they hold are sought after due to (relatively) high pay; the company employs them because to western corporations they are cheap labour, and often these are the companies that also cut financial corners on their products and services, leading to more stress for the first line customer service advisors.
I have to agree. I have had a terrible time phoning Three… they just don’t have a clue, and it’s hard as hell to understand quite what they mean. I’ve also had similar experiences with Linksys… What I find particularly bizarre is, as you point out, the policy of giving people false, anglicized, names.