These days if you are visiting any college campus, the buzzword that you can’t miss is ‘Call Centers’. International call centers is where today’s younger generation wants to be especially with the kind of open environment, perks, the experience and the growth prospects. It is widely accepted that the career graph is a fast upward moving graph as compared to any other industry especially at the entry level. Call centers are the contact point for companies and their customers. Call centers may be inbound (answering enquires, dealing with customer concerns) or out bound (for telemarketing, customer follow-up). They could be “voice based” where the agent is required to talk over the phone or “web based” where the agent is required to either send emails or have a web chat. India is attracting a lot of American companies to set up call centers due to the time difference and a large population of English speaking professionals. Off course one cannot forget the cost benefit Multinational companies have in outsourcing to India.

Agents working in International call centers are required to undergo extensive training which includes Accent training, American Culture, American Geography, and American History along with the training in soft skills such as Telephone and Net etiquette, Communication skills, Selling skills, Stress management and of course the Domain Knowledge. When we talk about accent training it could be for a particular accent e.g. American or just an accent neutralization. Accent neutralization is where the agent is required to overcome any vernacular accent if he has and speak in an accent free language. In this article we will be speaking about the American Accent.

American Accent
wh ‘ dr y’ doin? Looks like some foreign language. After you read it, hear how it sounds this is how the Americans will say “What are you doing?” We have heard people say ‘Hey talk straight don’t put on an American accent’ while talking. Now the times have changed if you can follow what an American is saying and also speak like an American you will get an opportunity to work in an American call center. Can you learn an accent? Well as per the dictionary ‘Accent is the prominence given to syllable by stress or pitch’ so we can surely learn to speak like an American by learning which words are to be stressed and how to pronounce different words. The language remains the same only the way we speak will change. Learning an accent is like learning to do something that we already know in a new way. It is like we are used to the dialing pad of our telephone instruments, but when we have to dial on the mobile because of muscle memory your fingers tend to hit the wrong button as your fingers go far to reach a particular number. Slowly you learn and your fingers are trained to hit the right button. Same is the case with the accent we already know how to say A to Z we have to just train our lips, tongue, jaw and most important our brain to say it in a different way. It is not A to Z it is A to Zee. So here we learn our first lesson, say Zee instead of Z. You will not be surprised to hear Hindi in different accents as we travel across various states of India because it is affected by the vernacular accent of that state. In America also the accent varies as we travel to various parts of the country. Mainly it can be classified as The Southern Accent and the New York accent. The Southern accent is heavier as compared to the New York accent. The New York accent is widely understood and accepted.
Now coming to American accent required in call centers. As you are the contact point for the company and the customer it is very important to understand what the customer is saying. Once you undergo training, it will take time and practice to speak like an American but you will surely be able to follow what he is saying because you by then know which word is pronounced how. It is just like learning any other language or technology where only practice will make you perfect after you have attended the theoretical training.

How should you speak?
Americans have a flow when talking it is like having music in their speech. They will never speak word by word. If you speak word by word you will tend to sound more mechanical, like a robot where he is saying everything in one tone and just reading without any emotions, or without having any intonations in it. Your tone should be like the normal conversation and not like you are reading out. There have to be ups and downs when you are talking which means you should stress on some words and not just say all words in the same tone. Depending on the type of call your voice has to change. The main point to note is to stress on the “RIGHT WORDS”. (Voice modulation is something that is required in all call centers and is not just a requirement of American Accent.) There is always a connection between the words and also you have to have a rhythm. It is very important to have ease of speech than perfect pronunciation. You have to relax your lips, jaws, tongue and your throat when speaking like an American. Making a conscious effort to speak in a different accent is enough to make the person tense. How you speak is going to be different from what is written on the page. Americans connect the words that allow us to speak in sound groups rather than in individual words.
Like for e.g. T + Y = CH therefore you have
Set your watch          Sechr watch
Got you!           Gotcha

There are many other combinations that we have which will help to speak and understand what is been said. Just to get a small idea of how different alphabets are pronounced, we see how the T is pronounced. When talking in context with the American Accent the T is pronounced in different ways depending on the placement of the T. if we want to say
Betty bought a bit of better butter
Beddy bada bihda bedder budder
From the above example it is clear that when you have T in the middle the pronunciation changes to d
“Internet” becomes “innernet” here T is silent after N with lax vowels. So you have “Interview” as “innerview” or “twenty” as “twenny”
This way the accent training teaches you the various ways you will have to say the same alphabet depending on where it is placed and what word follows it.
There are many ways to understand the intonations the Americans have. As you know listening to Americans is the best way. Additionally we can also have information by watching American movies, Serials and CNN/Voice of America news broadcasts.

Advantage of understanding the Accent
ITES Service Lines

Service Line	No. of Cos. *
Customer care	103
Web Sales/ mtkg	100
Billing services	81
Database mktg	180
Accounting Transaction	76
Document Mgt.	75
Transcription	75
Telesales / Telemktg	70
Low competition Services lines
Service Line	No. of Cos. *
Benefits Admin	32
Tax Processing	30
HR -	26
Hiring / Admn Biotech research	15

^* Companies may operate in multiple service lines
Source NASSCOM FYO2 Software and Service Industry Performance

Generally call centers are always related to telemarketing but the above table gives us an idea what are the other types of services that call centers handle.

There are some points which will bring out the importance of the local accent/culture in making the customer more comfortable in his discussions.

1. While travelling to foreign country, a tourist/business traveler feels very comfortable when he meets/ speaks with his/her fellow country man.
2. Even within your country you feel uncomfortable in states where the local language is spoken pre-dominantly.
3. Usually customers in Call Centers are discussing important financial and personal information such as Bank Accounts, Date of Birth, Credit Card numbers etc..