Expel rude BPO clients from India
Indian call centre workers face racial abuse, quit
London, May 29 2005
Alleged racial abuse and rude behaviour from British and American customers are driving an increasing number of Indian call centre workers to quit their jobs, a media report indicated today.
Irate customers and their “racial abuses” were factors contributing to the stress and strain in the call centre industry and some organisations have begun employing psychiatrists and counsellors to help their employees to cope, according to a report in The Observer.
“I’ve had people tell me, ‘Back off ... and don’t call me again”,’ said Eugene, 27, whose former employer, Spectrumind, provided an accounts services for BT. “There was a lot of racist abuse once people detected from our accents that we weren’t English. I saw girls reduced to tears by it.”
Pooja Chopra, 29, from Delhi, who spent two years fielding calls for BT Cellnet and America Online, faced similar abuse. “People would say ... I don’t want to talk to you, pass me to someone who can speak my language.”
Workers face a spectrum of rudeness-from sexual harassment to fury at unsolicited sales calls, to “open racism”, the report said.
Industry analysts have seen the phenomenon of “racist” clients grow in recent years, as customers in the UK and the US become increasingly sensitive to the political issue of jobs outsourced to India, it said.
According to the report, there are no unions yet to represent the 350,000 workers in the Indian call centre business, but unionist Gautam Mody, who is trying to launch the first call centre workers’ collective, said this was a problem that needed to be addressed urgently abroad.
“Some workers are deeply hurt by this abuse. The issue of xenophobia cannot be resolved from India-end: there must be a battle against it in the countries responsible.”
The report quoted Anita Bhuttar, training vice-president of GTL, a Mumbai-based company, as saying that “British customers can be very rude but in a polite way. Usually they won’t use abusive language but you can tell from the tone of their voice they’re angry.” — PTI
posted by Superfly at 9:36 AM
2 Comments:
I have an ex directory number I am listed with the DMA's call preference service to avoid unsolicited calls from sales people yet I am still called by people from Indian call centres. I tell them I am not interested and ask to be removed from their lists yet often I am called again within an hour or so by the same company with the same tired dishonest pitches. Furious at being called by sales people absolutely, racist no. My own experience of Indian call centres is not good and I find the staff there to be in general less helpful and empathic than many British staff including numerous British Asians who work in call centres around Bradford and the north.
I have spoken to a large number of people in my work and social environment in the UK. They all complain biterly about the Indian Call centers. They have difficulty understanding the English used by the Indian BPO staff and the lack of cultural understanding makes life doubly more difficult when they try to sort problems out on the phone.
When I joined Citibank in 2000 the call centre was in Dublin, Ireland and I found the people there friendly polite and understanding. When the citibank moved its call center to Indian (Pune?) the service took a dive. I found Indian call center staff came across as insincere and even arrogant at times. I have subsequently moved my custom to a bank with a call center based in the UK. In future if there is a choice between companies I will never use the one with offshore outsourced call centers.
Post a Comment
<< Home