I’ve needed to call a few contact centers lately, mostly for some type of tech support. One ISP I called several times always has reps with Indian accents answering the phone, so I’m convinced their call center is outsourced overseas.

The thing is they all have Western names – Eddie, Dave, Sam.  When the rep answers the call with “Hello, my name is Jim, how may I help you?” and their name is clearly not Jim, my thought is – what else are they going to lie to me about?

So the Contact Center has set up a mood of distrust with their customers – way to shoot yourselves in the foot before 10 words are spoken. 
It’s worth noting that this has nothing to do with them being foreigners or local (I’ve got nothing against outsourcing call centers – if people in India can do it well for half the price, they should be free to do so).

2 solutions I see:  

1. Don’t make them claim that it’s their real name. Have your reps say “Hello, welcome to XXX Customer Service. Please, call me Jim.” or:  “Hello, welcome to XXX Customer Service. My name’s Inderjit but please, call me Jim.”

2. Let your employees use a short version of their real names. “Hello, welcome to XXX Customer Service. I’m Nagendra but please, call me Nagi”.

What do you think? Would these work? Other ideas?

And does the initial lie bother you the way it does me?