I can't believe they said that......

I am going to attest to the fact that I was very surprised when I came to India and realized the level of English spoken here, and that all business work places function primarily in English. Oh, stop you all believed the stereotypes too. And not every Indian speaks like Apu (seriously Wikipedia rocks) from the Simpson's. The accents are more British in nature than anything else. Read this to learn more about the stereotypes conveyed through the character Apu. Although yes, some do have the stereotypical Indian accent (but those are mostly northern Indians from the state of Punjab). I consider myself well traveled and was somewhat embarrassed by my lack of knowledge about India and Indians and then pleased to learn all these new facts from a business perspective. I actually give a seminar on stereotypes and I teach the new agents about distinguishing from stereotypes and fact. As I have to teach others about American/Canadian culture, it's important they understand the difference between generalizing, stereotypes, and what they read in the media.

However, that does not mean that there aren't some darn funny things that are said because of MTI, which translates into mother tongue influence or "Indianisms" as it is sometimes referred to but isn't so politically correct. Most of the agents do have a terrific grasp of the English language but English still is their second language so sometimes there are some barriers.

Here are some very funny examples of MTI. Hope you find them as funny as I do, but then again, I guess you also had to be there to get the full effect.

Example #1: Mock call assessment: After the agents spend 6 weeks in training the voice team (that's me and another person) give the agents their voice assessment. We look for soft skills and voice. Soft skills are showing empathy to the client, listening well, customer service, how they open and close the call, effective interaction. Voice will include intonation, pronunciation,grammar, scripted voice and fluency.

Agent: Welcome to the auto club, how may I help you today?
me: I hit a deer and I'll need a tow as soon as possible
Agent: Oh. Ma'am how is the car?
me: How is the car????? The car is in bad shape, but I'M FINE!!!

Doh. Needless to say the guy didn't get too good of a mark. Yes he empathized, but with the car not the person. We still get a kick about this one at work.

Example #2: Mock call assessment: This agent shouldn't have been hired in the first place. So this is how her assessment went down. I use idioms sometimes in the call to give agents a taste of things they might hear on a call. They are trained on this during their 6 weeks. I spend 8 hours with them!!

Agent: Thanks for calling the auto club how can I help you?
Me: I seem to be in a bit of a pickle. I ran out of gas on the interstate, and I'll need someone to deliver me some right away.
Agent: OK, Ma'am, so let me understand this? You are in a pickle shop?
Me: What? A pickle shop? No. I'm on the Interstate!!

At this point I had to mute the call while the other voice trainer and I howled with laughter, tears coming down our cheeks. The other voice trainer is Indian and knew what the idiom meant, and I hear it used by many people who call in!!! Needless to say this girl did not pass. I mean Americans will have this girl for lunch!!


Anyway, some funny stuff. I'll post more of these a little later. I have to dig deep into the memory bag for more of them, these are the two that we use in training as to WHAT NOT TO DO on a call!!!