The Crisis at Nissan

[evnow]

You cant tell by the accent, they are trained to have a neutral midwestern accent, even in India.

No they don't try for midwestern accent - they try to be "accent nuetral".

Leaf CS seems to be mostly in the US.

Anyway, considering Nissan is a Japanese company, with a visionary CEO who is a French citizen, born in Brazil but of Labenese origin - does it really matter ?

Let us see what the mid-westerners were doing - right, they were giving orders to crush EV1 :shock:

 

[davewill]

Let's see, a hit piece on Nissan...an attempt to start a flame war between two blogs...no more posts after the initial one...I call TROLL.

Please don't feed the trolls.

 

[Herm]

You cant tell by the accent, they are trained to have a neutral midwestern accent, even in India.

No they don't try for midwestern accent - they try to be "accent nuetral".

Nit picking in any case I never ask since its not my business.

 

[daniel]

Seems to me the article linked in the OP didn't really say much. It calls it a crisis that Nissan has revised its sales figures for 2011, and claims (incorrectly) that Nissan expected people to have L3 chargers at home. The article mentioned none of the screw-ups that have made me angry, and that I've posted about elsewhere.

As to the customer service business, I agree the center is definitely not in India. Some companies do have CS in India, and the accent is extremely distinctive. As for "accent neutralization," it is possible to train someone to a very good imitation of an accent, but the cost in time and money is great. A movie company can afford to train the star to produce a desired accent because it has a very large budget and creating an ambiance is at the heart of what they are trying to do. But to train a whole room full of native Hindi speakers to sound American to American ears would be beyond the budget of any customer service department. The rare individual can achieve it, but we're talking about a whole service center. (I once met a Mexican who spoke with an almost-perfect American accent because he'd studied in English-speaking schools and watched American satellite TV all his life. Then he pronounced Winnipeg as weenie-peg and the illusion was lost.)

What's much more significant than the location of the service center is the fact that the service agents give us nothing but lies and promises, either because they are instructed by Nissan to do so, or because Nissan does not give honest information even to its own service reps.

 

[thankyouOB]

Seems to me the article linked in the OP didn't really say much. It calls it a crisis that Nissan has revised its sales figures for 2011, and claims (incorrectly) that Nissan expected people to have L3 chargers at home. The article mentioned none of the screw-ups that have made me angry, and that I've posted about elsewhere.

As to the customer service business, I agree the center is definitely not in India. Some companies do have CS in India, and the accent is extremely distinctive. As for "accent neutralization," it is possible to train someone to a very good imitation of an accent, but the cost in time and money is great. A movie company can afford to train the star to produce a desired accent because it has a very large budget and creating an ambiance is at the heart of what they are trying to do. But to train a whole room full of native Hindi speakers to sound American to American ears would be beyond the budget of any customer service department. The rare individual can achieve it, but we're talking about a whole service center. (I once met a Mexican who spoke with an almost-perfect American accent because he'd studied in English-speaking schools and watched American satellite TV all his life. Then he pronounced Winnipeg as weenie-peg and the illusion was lost.)

What's much more significant than the location of the service center is the fact that the service agents give us nothing but lies and promises, either because they are instructed by Nissan to do so, or because Nissan does not give honest information even to its own service reps.

And realize that the people doing the accents in movies are professional actors. They are trained in voice and do get special language coaches, as necessary. This is especially true for the lead roles when the role is filled with a name performer whose native tongue is not that accent; and less so for other roles, as many of the supporting or ancillary roles can be filled by casting in the native land with native speakers, who dont need coaching.

 

[evnow]

You cant tell by the accent, they are trained to have a neutral midwestern accent, even in India.

No they don't try for midwestern accent - they try to be "accent nuetral".

Nit picking in any case I never ask since its not my business.

Herm, you were called out on some incorrect statement and your excuse is that it is "nit picking" ? LOL.

You used mid-western to "prove" to others who said CS are in Iowa that they are using "fake" mid-western accent. Basically you just made that up.

 

[evnow]

But to train a whole room full of native Hindi speakers to sound American to American ears would be beyond the budget of any customer service department.

Actually, there problem is not even that "simple". It is to train people who speak different languages (including ones which are in a totally different group) - a CS company there will probably have people who speak half a dozen different languages at home. Only a plurality of people in India speak Hindi - and most CS companies aren't even in areas where the local language is Hindi. It is like training a group of Europeans to speak in Japanese like a native Japanese person.

 

[SteveInSeattle]

What was the conversion rate on Smart cars from $99 deposit to purchase? Everyone I know drove it and immediately asked for their deposit back. A fully refundable deposit doesn't convey a lot of investment-- I would agree that 50% is spectacular!

 

[evnow]

http://gm-volt.com/forum/showthread.php?8005

Nissan announced that they will deliver 10k to 20k Leafs in 2011, instead of the 20k target they had set.

What they have offered by way of explanation to Automotive News is:

http://fordfocuselectric.com/forums/....php?f=9&t=363

Marc Lee

Volt 836!

What are the chances that this Marc Lee guy is our Charged Up Troll ? Even in the Volt forum, people disagree with FUD-filled article :lol:

 

[Herm]

Herm, you were called out on some incorrect statement and your excuse is that it is "nit picking" ? LOL.
You used mid-western to "prove" to others who said CS are in Iowa that they are using "fake" mid-western accent. Basically you just made that up.

Correction: nitpicking because a mid-western accent is a neutral accent.

I work with a lot of CS people from both India and the Philippines, the industry uses "neutral accent" and "mid-western accent" indistinguishably. "Neutral accent" is more modern and probably more PC.. I believe it started in the '70s with US TV newscasters.

Perhaps my ear is not that fine but I often cant detect any accent in hundreds of examples I have listened to.. but I do have a tin ear.

Surveys are used to determine if accent neutralization training is effective and it does work. The less accent you have the better a job you can get, in the foreign CS field.

 

[defiancecp]

I don't care what your accent sounds like, you can't fake comfort and comprehension with the english language.