“Good evening. This is Kathy at
Communicom. Who am I speaking
to?” In fact, Kathy’s real name may be
Kavitha, and she’s probably a customer
service attendant in Bangalore, a large
city in the southern part of India.
Bangalore has become India’s center for
IT, and nowadays it is one of the world’s
principal call centers. Multinational
corporations frequently hire companies
in India to handle services to their
customers over the phone: everything
from technical support on computer help
lines to credit card transactions, banking,
and telemarketing. Customers all over the
world frequently talk to phone assistants
in Bangalore.
Call centers are a booming business
in this part of India, and they generate
a great many jobs. The possibility of
earning $700 a month attracts hundreds
of candidates. They are mostly young
people, competitive and highly qualified,
some with MBAs and master’s degrees.
However, in order to qualify for a position
with one of these service companies,
many of these young people need to
perfect their English. In India, people
have long been anglophones because of
the country’s past as a British colony. But
the challenge is how to make their English
easily understood to non-Indians.
So before new call center employees
learn about the products they’re going
to sell, they usually begin with language
training. They learn to slow down their
speech because the English spoken
in India is often very fast. And they
concentrate on accents and sounds. For
example, Indians say “It’s not awailable,”
instead of “available.” or “I’m going do
the mall,” instead of “to the mall.” Also
employees have to adopt an Anglo name
in their new job.
Call centers are helping to change the
traditional caste system and the position
of women in India. They employ both
males and females from different
segments of society.
Call centers are being set up all over the
world. Your request may be redirected
to Mexico or the Philippines, depending
on the time of day you make your call.
However, one thing you can be sure of:
the attendant will be speaking English.