For all contact center agents, onshore and offshore alike, the most important skills are listening, , reading, , speaking and writing clearly and conveying understanding, empathy and a sincere willingness to help in , communications, no matter the interactions. This is followed by the specific skills the particular work requires: be this customer service, support, sales and collections.

On the other hand I have long been very skeptical about the value of culture- and accent-neutralization training for offshore contact center agents, right down to fake names and locations so that they can pretend to be onshore. It is insulting, degrading and dishonest to both the customers and to the agents, who are with such pretence being regarded and treated like idiots.

I have been tempted when I hear such acting from an offshore agent whom I’ve reached on an issue to start asking hardball questions reporter style to expose them and their employer. Yet I’ve restrained from doing so because the agent is more often than not expected to behave that way.

My “Irish” got up on this subject through reading this excellent article in Mother Jones

“My Summer at an Indian Call Center” that tells of such fakery and mockery in the Indian offshore BPO industry that also reveals what louts may of our fellow customers are.

 To cite one passage:

“Call-center employees gain their financial independence at the risk of an identity crisis. A BPO salary is contingent on the worker's ability to de-Indianize: to adopt a Western name and accent and, to some extent, attitude. Aping Western culture has long been fashionable; in the call-center classroom, it's company policy.”

The Mother Jones article points out how racist as well as rude too many customers can be, and how these issues can be dealt with. To cite another (and edited) passage:

“My coworkers were happy to give me a rundown of the different nationalities they'd encountered. Britishers get angry," said Nidhi. "Still, they are subtle—they'll say something sarcastic under the breath."

"Americans will just shout at you," Sube said. Mittu agreed: "I have only been cursed by Americans. They are sharp-witted and very articulated and yet very free with their anger."

“Arnab saw culture training as a weak brainwashing attempt, noting: They "hardly took the Indian out of us. Most customers are well-behaved, they assured me. Still, each agent had a stockpile of best- and worst-call anecdotes. "I remember quite well this guy who just called me up and said out of nowhere, 'You [expletive deleted by TMC (News - Alert)],'" Arnab told me during a break. "We don't take those things personally; it's part of the job. So I just said, very calmly, 'Yes sir, if I am a Paki, then this Paki would be helping you fix your computer.' By the end of the call, he apologized and gave me a five-star feedback rating."”

My preference is to know that I am dealing offshore without such deception so that both parties are honest on the exchange and the relationship. It doesn’t bother me, nor does it annoy most people that the agent on the phone or chat session is living/working in another country. In fact I would ask questions about where the agent lives and what it is like while they are looking up information on their screens.

A large number of the people Americans, Brits and Canadians, and yes Australians interact with in-person are foreign-born and foreign-parentage. My parents are English, with Irish through my mother’s side. Many of these individuals we see and do business with are from India, Latin America and China, of which the first two are homes to many offshore contact centers. Those who visited Vancouver, B.C. during the 2010 Winter Olympics and who ventured to Richmond or Surrey on the region’s rapid transit network will have heard and seen (on the stores) the Chinese and Indian diasporas; Metro Vancouver is home to the largest Indian community outside of India.

Moreover most of the goods we buy for low cost are made in other countries and let’s be honest we would not pay more in most cases for domestic-made. The costs of which also include contact center customer service.

Those who have such issues with foreign agents should get over it and instead treat them decently when they reach one. At the same time the offshore BPO firms should quit the pretence, let their workers be themselves while providing excellent customer service and if the customers have a problem with their culture, tough. At least there would be honesty and respect.

On the other hand, the offshore agent issue, especially in India may eventually resolve itself. The country’s domestic market is growing while rising labor costs including turnover is impacting its offshore competitiveness, enabling repositioning of its contact centers. The calls that do go offshore are the most vulnerable to diversion to domestic home-based agents and to IVR/automated chat/web self-service.

The RCCSP Professional Education Alliance provides increasingly global contact center training for managers and supervisors on issues such as customer service, empathy and handling rude individuals. It also has seminars on IVR. Click here on the courses and locations—many of them are also offered virtually—or call 708-246-0320.