Indian BPOs, accent training isn't enough

I'm an outsourcing industry wife. For about a decade in India I have heard several conversations about the many things that go into making a business process outsourcing (BPO) firm tick. While all the technical stuff was wasted on me much like Latin, I followed with interest stories about accent training for Indian kids barely out of their teens so they could masquerade as Americans or Canadians over the phone. It was pretty phenomenal what India had pulled off in a fairly short period of time. In less than two decades our country was serving as back office and troubleshooter for a lot of the Western world.

But now that we're on the other side of the globe I'm seeing things with different eyes. Or, to be more precise, hearing things with different ears.

This afternoon the phone rang and some young man with an extremely peculiar accent asked to speak to my husband and then began a fairly long and clearly rehearsed greeting/small talk routine. I asked where he was calling from and what the call was about. He launched into a long speech that was hard to follow. The twangs and lilts of the American/Canadian speech pattern were all misplaced.

Anyway, I politely pointed out that he hadn't answered either of my questions. So he went through the whole thing again, emphasizing a few words here and there for effect. I still had no answers. Finally I lost my patience and told him my husband wasn't available and he should try calling tomorrow. The caller asked when he'd be back home today. I told him not before 6.00 p.m. He went into an involuntary "so that would be.....okay", which was a dead giveaway. It was so very obvious that he was calculating what the local time would be when it was 6.00 p.m. in Toronto. Again I asked where he was calling from, I confess entirely for my amusement this time. He said, "Toronto, the same place you are." Yeah, right buddy.

Now here's what the Indian BPO industry should take note of. First, the accent training is not cutting it. People in this hemisphere realise pretty quickly that they're not speaking to a local. Besides, I found it very hard to understand what the caller was saying. I have no such problems of comprehension when conversing with Canadians or Americans. The caller's accent was unnatural, forced and really quite annoying. So, is it unnecessary? Or do you need to do a better job on accent training?

Second, people in this part of the world value their time. Legitimate callers with real business open a telephone conversation with pleasantries and then immediately get to the point. There's nothing vague about the call. It is polite, crisp and as short as possible. These callers know they will lose customer/potential customer goodwill by wasting the other person's time. So please, train these kids to get to the point a lot sooner in the conversation. Especially if the call is being made to fish for business. And equip them with the information they need to give straight answers.

If the Indian BPO industry wants to stay ahead of the game, it should perhaps consider these suggestions from this insider/outsider.