Up All Night Telemarketing in Lahore, Pakistan
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Lahore is a city that stays up late. So at midnight, it can seem like most of the city’s 10 million people are on the road.
Ali Jaffri battles midnight Lahore traffic on his way to work every night.
He works in a call center, trying to sell satellite TV to Americans.
Ali says he’s trained to neutralize his accent. He says it’s all about the A’s.
JAFFRI: Just like ‘grahss’ in British accent. But in American accent you have to extend the A. Then you will say grass. Just like c-a-s-t cahst in British accent. But in American accent you will say cast, not cahst.
Ali’s a dapper dresser. In the punishing Lahore heat he looks fresh pressed in a button down shirt and slacks. But his face is tired and nocturnally pale.
Telemarketing is a high turnover job here. So Ali’s 4 years at it make him a seasoned professional. And at 34, he’s a decade older than many of his colleagues.
So when his friends Ahmed and Atish recently decided to start up their own telemarketing business, they called Ali for help with training.
JAFFRI: There are a few tips about customer service. We can’t speak rudely with the customer. We have to be enthusiastic, this kind of stuff. And we have to build rapport with the customer. Then the main thing is product knowledge.
I’m a little surprised when we pull up to an average looking house. I was expecting a bright shiny office with rows of cubicles like the one in Slumdog Millionaire.
We head for a small upstairs room. Computer workstations and headsets line the walls. It looks like a lot like a low-budget internet café.
Ahmed and Atish have invested about 6 thousand dollars in the equipment to start up their call center.
Tonight’s mission? Sell satellite subscriptions to the DISH network.
To find people to call, these guys just type names into Whitepages.com.
AHMED: we remember so many names, we watch movies and if we like any name we just put into the website and we get the results for it and we start dialing it. ALI: Just like Hanks, Tom Hanks AHMED: Tom Hanks! Haha!
Ali, the call center veteran, searches for people named Johnson in his favorite state, Virginia. Ali goes by the name Jack Larson when he’s on these calls.
ALI: Hi Mr. Johnson this is Jack how are you today?
Ali never admits he’s calling from Pakistan. He’ll look up the weather report in San Jose or Newark so he can make jokes about the weather. Sometimes he’ll say he’s a recent immigrant from Spain to explain his accent.
ALI: Mr. Johnson as I told you my name is Jack and the reason I’m calling we are running an exciting offer in which we are giving top American 100 channels just in 9 dollars and 99 cents only and you will get free installation and free activation as well. So how does it sound to you sir?
Ali paces excitedly while he talks into his headset. But this call goes like many others tonight.
ALI: Yes, American channels with free installation and free activation as well and we’ll give you free receivers as we--….Alright sir take good care of yourself bye! ‘I really don’t need that’ so what can I do?
A few seats down from Ali are two very nervous looking young men. It’s their first night making calls, so they’re searching for people with South Asian last names, hoping they might get lucky and reach an Urdu or Hindi speaker.
Most calls are wrong numbers or go through to voice mail. But eventually one of them gets through.
SUNNY: Hello ma’am I’m calling from promotion office of DISH Network how are you? … That’s great. Ma’am can you kindly tell me which kind of service are you using for your TV is it Cable or DISH?
This is the night’s one very promising call. But it turns out to be to someone who’s already signed up for DISH Network.
SUNNY: So ma’am are you in contract? OK ma’am. Bye bye.
Not one sale tonight. And after a few hours it’s time for Ali to head home.
Call center jobs are seen as a good opportunity here…. a first step out of poverty.
Newer callers earn a base salary plus commission, but Ali , bec of his experience, works only on commission and brings in 50 dollars a sale.
But Ali really wants to find something else. Back in the car, he says he feels trapped.
ALI: Cause I have no other option! Because, I work in nights. And all day I sleep. I can’t do anything else. I have no time. I need sleep. If you need sleep you can’t do anything.
Ali shares a four-room house with his wife and daughter, as well as his mother and two siblings.
The next night, after dinner, and before he heads to work, we sit on the couch in the dark during one of the city’s many power outages.
JESSICA: What’s your dream job, Ali? Ali: Dream job. Nice question! Dream job…Wake up early in the morning, five o’clock and go for exercise. Then take breakfast, then go to work and come back around 5 o’clock.
He wants what he calls a proper career job.
ALI: I’m getting into the IT industry, very soon inshallah. I’ll work hard and I’ll get classes. Then I can change my track, that would be a proper career job.
And one that would let him work proper hours.
From Lahore, I’m Jessica Partnow for the World Vision Report.
This story was produced for the World Vision Report with funding from the Pulitzer Center On Crisis Reporting.