Over the past few years, the outsourcing of jobs from the US to foreign countries has been a hot topic. Countless number of American jobs are being sent overseas so that foreign workers can do the same job for less pay and save US companies money, something that most Americans are NOT happy about. Anyone with an American Express account can tell you that when you call customer service, you're definitely not calling Miami...you're calling Bombay. One of my high school friends had her call center job outsourced to the Phillipines. Her final assignment: a two week trip to the Phillipines to help train the people that were taking her job. Yeah it sucked...
But this is what I'm wondering. Why is it that we can train a bunch of people in another country to speak pretty good English in order to communicate with us, but we can't train people here in America to speak good enough English to communicate with us? Confused? Think back to the last time you went to the drive through of a fast food restaurant. How well did you understand the person taking your order? Why can I properly get my American Express account handled from Bombay but I can't order a quarter pounder with cheese here in LA?
I'm bringing this up after a rather exhausting experience with a call center employee from FedEx. I would have to say that it sure never take 30 minutes just to call 1-800-Go-FedEx and tell them not to try and re-deliver my package and that I would come pick it up myself in the morning. Sounds like a simple task right...wrong! I not really sure if I was calling the US or Tijuana, but I do know that the guy could use a couple of English lessons before he answers the phone again. I mean is it too much to ask that employees know how to speak the language in which they are meant to communicate? If I went to go live in Tokyo right now, I could probably find a job, but I probably wouldn't go searching for a job based solely on me communicating with people on the phone all day in Japanese before I even learned how to speak Japanese!
All I'm saying is that if I can get better service from the American Express guy in Bombay than the FedEx guy in Los Angeles then maybe outsourcing ain't so bad...
Monday, January 08, 2007
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2 comments:
Ha, Great point! Stupid Americans. We can't do ANYTHING right.
*Maybe yall just had a bad connection? Can you hear me now? Can you hear me now?*
Grrr...you are so right! Speaking of fast food...these non-native English speakers also have an attitude. They act like we should learn Spanish just so we can understand their accent.If they want to live and work here in the USA, then they should adjust to our way of life and learn to speak English properly. Only then, they'd probably assimilate faster and not get the ire of Americans. As for some of those customer service reps from overseas, they are generally nice and polite, but occasionally you end up with a real idiotic imbecile who thinks just because she can mimic an American accent, therefore she is so smart. NOT!! If you want to keep your job, don't cough-up an attitude.
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