OK, I admit it. I've had it with tech support people who can't speak English or who speak it so badly that they might as well be speaking a foreign language.
Among the most popular of the current crop of horror/slasher films is Wes Craven’s “A Nightmare on Elm Street” series, featuring the unctuous and disturbing Freddy Krueger, a homicidal maniac with fingers so sharp that he always makes his point—usually to the bloody and painful dismay of his adversaries.
Perhaps the most terrifying thing about Freddy, though, is that he makes his entrance into this world via our dreams. While we lie peacefully slumbering, the slavering Freddy can do his worst to us and anyone around us, thus making staying awake literally a matter of life and death. Red Bull, anyone?
And you know, it’s a little like that in another all-too-real realm of life—tech support. These days, making a call to a company’s tech support line is a lot like falling asleep while Freddy Krueger is in town—you never know if you’ll end up resting peacefully or screaming for escape from a bloody nightmare.
Of course, I realize that technology products—whether by design or accident—have their flaws, and that we certainly need someone to call on when our technology sneezes or freezes. It’s what happens when we start conversing with the person on the other end, however, that has me at wit’s end.
For example, a few months back, I had an issue with my ISP and I called their tech support line (Yes, even I, the Tech Guru, must sometimes humble myself and call on others for help. As Dirty Harry once said, “A man’s got to know his limitations.”). After the usual automated sorting nonsense, I got to speak with a gentleman who sported a heavy south Asian accent of some kind. He was a bit difficult to understand, but that was of no concern to me initially, since all I really cared about was resolving my problem, so I went ahead and described what was happening.
As I spoke and he suggested fixes (which, sadly, did not work), it became clear to me that he was reading his answers from a script of some sort. Again, that was really not a problem, because one of those fixes might actually work. But when I got to a question that wasn’t on his script, he was rendered instantly helpless. In fact, it was obvious that his grasp of the English language was limited to the questions already on his script. I tried to lighten the atmosphere with a joke, but alas he did not comprehend our American brand of humor. All he could do was mumble incoherently.
My frustration must have been palpable. He may have been frustrated, too, but there was no way for me to discern that, at least not on the phone.
After what seemed like hours of struggling, I abruptly thanked him for his time and went off on my own to try and find a solution. At that moment, however, I realized that my pulse was racing and I had a cold sweat going on. I was angry, dad blast it, and although I wanted to be understanding about the tech support guy’s predicament, I was in no mood to be sympathetic!
The next day, still unable to solve the problem, I reluctantly called the tech support line again. This time, I got a native English speaker. I was able to easily explain what I had done so far, and he was just as easily able to work through the problem without reading a canned answer. Wow, what a relief!
But hold on. Before you go thinking I’m just ranting about tech support people who can’t speak English, let me relate another experience I had with my satellite TV provider’s tech helpdesk. Here, too, the tech guy was picking answers from a menu. The problem, however, was that even though this person sounded like a native English speaker, he just spoke English badly. In fact, he spoke so rapidly and in such a garbled manner that I eventually gave up there, too. Again, I had to keep calling back until I finally got someone who didn’t sound like a cattle auctioneer with marbles in his mouth.
So here’s my advice to any company that runs a tech helpdesk of any kind. First, if most of your customers speak English, hire a native English speaker who speaks reasonably coherently and ALSO knows something about how to fix problems. Second, further train that speaker to enunciate clearly and to speak at a pace that most adults can readily understand.
Oh, I know that will probably cost more than outsourcing the function to Dublin, New Delhi, Karachi or some other place where labor is inexpensive, but believe me, your customers will thank you for it. In fact, I would be willing to pay more for tech support if a company could guarantee a fluent English speaker with some knowledge who knew how to converse in a civil manner.
It’s time for tech companies to start treating their customers with some respect and consideration. With all that goes on in this dangerous and busy world, the last thing we need is another nightmare.
So what's your experience with tech support lines? Write a reasonably fluent entry and post
it here for all to see.
Comments (3)
Ara, The world is flat. Get used to it. Be glad that the South Asian tech support person took the time to learn English. There are few native English speakers who would take the time to learn Hindi or Punjabi...or even Spanish. And if they did, their accents would undoubted be perceived as negatively as you perceive the tech support accent.
Here's a little secret - you don't speak English. You speak American. Your accent (as well as mine) is nearly unintelligible to some native English speakers in other parts of the world. Your spelling and word selection is quite different from that which is taught in the UK.
We are different. Our accents are different. Just as a Brooklyn accent causes a speaker to initially sound incredibly stupid to me, my southern accent probably has the same effect on most yankees! We are separated by a common language. Yet with a little patience and careful listening, we can communicate.
I once saw a software demo CD that provided the user with a choice of languages indicated by the flag of the country where the language is spoken. It included the flag of the UK as well as the American flag. Apparently, the UK speaks British and the US speaks English.
I recently found myself in Norway on business. Norwegian is not a language that I speak, but nearly all Norwegians speak English. All meetings were conducted in English and even conversations among my Norwegian colleagues were conducted in English outside of meetings. This was a humble and hospitable approach and I greatly appreciated it. Contrast that to my meetings in Quebec City where meetings were started in Quebecois (the language is far enough from modern French to be called by a different name), continued in English, but any conversations among locals were in Quebecois even if I was participating. Good thing that I speak French, but I could still only understand about 70 percent of the conversation. The point is that the Norwegians showed hospitality and were eager to accomodate me, while the folks to the north who are surrounded by English speaking people demonstrated the same attitude that most Americans seem to have - we expect everyone to speak our language and make little or no attempt to speak other languages.
Language is so vital to our lives, yet few of us take the time to really understand its importance. By understanding another's language, one can gain insight into how that person views the world. Even using a few simple words from another person's language can greatly improve relationships, communication and ultimately understanding.
Posted by David West | March 13, 2007 10:42 AM
Posted on March 13, 2007 10:42
I think David misses my point. Please notice that I said the individual's heavy accent was not a problem at first. Although it would have helped greatly to have a native English (or American) speaker on the other end of the tech support line, it is the INABILITY TO COMMUNICATE EFFECTIVELY that is most egregious in many of these individuals, and often unfamiliarity with English contributes to that inability.
Business 101: Any company that sells products has an audience--the audience of its customers. If most of these customers speak English, it behooves the company to interact with them in English. That's just common sense.
David uses the example of business being done in English in Norway. Is this hospitality? I think not. Most Europeans, at least until recently, have been required to learn English in school, because it is the de facto standard for international business. Period. Those Norwegians may have been a hospitable bunch, but the English usage was probably instituted long ago in their school days.
Yes, I like all that warm and squishy stuff about patience and careful listening enabling us to suddenly understand the incomprehensible speech of others. Sounds nice, but in real life, the world is actually round, much as some of us might not like it to be. Are we to throw effective communication overboard in the name of political correctness? May it never be so.
Maybe I should feel guilty for not being compassionate or understanding, yet I do feel compassion for someone who is trying to communicate in a language that is not his or her own. However, toward the company who--in the name of saving a few bucks--threw this poor sap out there to flounder, I feel only contempt.
Posted by Ara Trembly | March 13, 2007 11:12 AM
Posted on March 13, 2007 11:12
For three years I worked for a company whose IT support call center was in India. While it was a USA based company they also had operations in 26 other countries. I can totally understand your frustration. That company was bought out by another company and now when I contact the help desk, I always get an English speaking support person based in the US. One of the problems with a help desk in India was that I was reluctant to call when I had a problem. That can't be good for my company's time. The bigger problem is general lack of training. If they stagger around with possible fixes for hours, they're doing their job, but the person they are trying to help is completely halted from doing their job. Who's got that kind of time? Bottom line is that this is an increasingly global world we live and work in and we will have to deal with hard to understand help people, but if they are well trained (rather than reading from a script as you mentioned) we would probably all be a lot less frustrated and learn to enjoy the diversity.
Posted by Kathy | March 13, 2007 6:15 PM
Posted on March 13, 2007 18:15