India fixes PCs to broken hearts

<div class="section1"><div class="Normal"><script language="javascript">doweshowbellyad=0; </script><br />"Thanks for making me smile. I couldn''t have stopped crying had I not spoken to you Mandy. You''ve been a gem. Catch you again tomorrow!"<br /></div> <div align="left" style="position:relative; left: -2"><table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2" align="left" border="1" width="27.0%"> <colgroup> <col width="100.0%" /> </colgroup> <tr valign="top"> <td width="100.0%" colspan="1" rowspan="1" style="" valign:="" top="" background-color:="" f3f3f3=""> <div class="Normal"><img src="/photo/341636.cms" alt="/photo/341636.cms" border="0" /></div> </td> </tr> <tr valign="top"> <td width="100.0%" colspan="1" rowspan="1" style="" valign:="" top="" background-color:="" f3f3f3=""> <div class="Normal"><span style="" font-size:="">BPO Bonding</span></div> </td> </tr> </table></div> <div class="Normal"><span style="" font-size:="" font-weight:="" bold="">Sounds like a mushy telephonic conversation? Wrong.This is a transcript of a conversation between a call centre executive at Gurgaon attending to customers of an information technology MNC and its middle-aged male customer in Minnesota, United States.</span><br /><br /><span style="" font-size:="" font-weight:="" bold="">Mandy (Mandira in real life), has been through at least six instances in the last one year of her stint in the call centre, when she has had to attend to her customers'' personal life issues which are miles apart from what she is paid to answer. "I enjoy it sometimes because it gives a humane touch to my job," says the 22-year-old with a smile. </span><br /><br /><span style="" font-size:="" font-weight:="" bold="">From playing "technical experts" to help customers fix even a faulty lamination machine and "financial experts" to resolve banking or credit card issues, <a href="http://www.thetimesofindia.online/articleshow/338285.cms">call centres</a> representatives in India now don a new mantle - new age counsellors or agony aunts (uncles too!) in simple lingo.</span><br /><br /><span style="" font-size:="" font-weight:="" bold="">A New Jersey-based business baron was desperate and almost in tears after his partners swindled him and made him go bankrupt. Brian (Ajay to his family and friends) had a hard time lending a shoulder consoling him and then passing on the call to his superior for "further advice". </span><br /><br /><span style="" font-size:="" font-weight:="" bold="">"Lot of diverse thoughts and feelings criss-cross your mind when you listen to a customer. You sympathise with him and instinctively become helpful even with personal tips or just by being a considerate listener. And that is what they called you for," he says.</span><br /><br /></div> </div><div class="section2"><div class="Normal">Sitting thousands of miles away, the simple urge to talk to someone - doesn''t matter who - to get rid of their tensions, that too on a toll free line, lends comfort to a soul," says a senior executive at a <a href="http://www.thetimesofindia.online/articleshow/331193.cms">BPO major</a>. <br /><br />But is it just the toll free line? "Not just that. Indians are basically warm people. They are good to talk to. So for those who seek emotional redressal, we seem to offer the best," he says. (<a href="http://www.thetimesofindia.online/mailro/341583.cms">Do you think Indians more warm to talk to than Westerners?</a>)<br /><br />Or take the case of the middle-aged woman who called from the UK and was weeping through Judy''s headset (Judy ... err... Juhi - her duty was over by the time she narrated this). <br /><br />Her husband had passed away and she was feeling lonely and wanted to talk. She spoke to me for about five hours! And not once during those five hours did Judy ask the caller: Ma''am can I have your credit card number please? Or. for security reasons, may I know your mother''s maiden name? All this did not matter. Neither for the customer, nor for the <a href="http://www.thetimesofindia.online/articleshow/331039.cms">call centre</a> executive attending to her. And yet, she helped. She heard.<br /><br />"She felt much relieved and thanked me profusely and even promised to take me to London soon," says Juhi. But the story doesn''t end even there. <br /><br />Maggie, the customer who has introduced herself to Juhi by now, makes sure to call her and ask for her by name once in two days to talk about her garden and what she has baked for the day. "She even got home a pet dog on my advice, whom she named Mike," giggles Juhi. <br /><br />Repeat calls to same agents aren''t uncommon. Customers often insist on talking to the same agent as he/she connects better to the problem. Sometimes it takes hours to fix the CD drive of a customer''s PC. In between their conversation they talk about "other things". <br /><br />And what do team leaders tell their agents? Standard diktat: Help your customer. Be it official or personal. <br /><br />The Indian BPO sector may be booming or may be facing flak for "faulty accents", but the agenda seems to be getting set: Be it broken computers or broken hearts, u gotta fix ''em all.</div> </div>