The Globalive ownership matter continues to generate an enormous number of comments on various news sites.
I’m not going to get into forecasting how the Industry Minister will proceed on this file; I suspect that we may receive guidance in the next week. I will observe that from a process perspective, contrary to what was reported in the Calgary Herald, Globalive did not appeal the CRTC decision to cabinet; that would have triggered a lengthy consultation process set out in Section 12 of the Telecom Act. At this point, the Minister is reviewing “of his own motion”, which has less formal structure set out in legislation.
That isn’t the theme for today.
I want to look at some commenters who somehow draw a parallel between overseas outsourcing of jobs (by some service providers) to foreign ownership restrictions.
More particularly, I find it fascinating that so many writers assume that an English accent that isn’t clearly from the Ottawa Valley leads to a conclusion that some carriers are answering calls in Mumbai as opposed to downtown Toronto.
Are so many ranters so isolated that they have not noticed the number of Canadians that enrich our society with multi-lingual capabilities?
It is tough work – especially for those in customer service – to try to exude a smile through the phone lines. In a previous job, I spent an hour on the phones in our call centre to gain an appreciation for the folks in that job. I came away with great respect for them.
Let’s face it, customer service reps answer the phone dozens of times each day, knowing that they are about to speak to someone who likely isn’t calling just to say “thanks, have a nice day”.
And if you do happen reach someone in an overseas centre, the chances are that your billing problems don’t come close to their survival issues at home. And, he or she is trying to follow the script to empathize with you, while your supplier of goods or services is trying to cut costs.
So, the next time you call, cut the voice on the other end of the phone a little slack.
After all – it’s US Thanksgiving – get in the spirit of the season. Ho, Ho, Ho!