Stories & Inspiration

Michael immigrated to Canada from Guangzhou, China in 2005 to begin a new life for himself. Along with a wealth of technical skills and experience he brought from China, he also possessed a determination to be successful in his new country. With support from the BC Skills Connect program, Michael developed a plan to help him to secure work commensurate with his skills. Five months into his plan, he was hired as a Technical Support Representative with Shaw. This was an important achievement for Michael. It would be his first job in an exclusively Canadian work environment.

To provide efficient, reliable technical support to their customers, Shaw requires a team skilled in communication. Assisting customers by telephone is challenging work - just imagine if English is not your first language! Michael’s plan was refined to include additional language support to help him maintain this job as he worked on the next steps for reaching his goal. But excellence in communication isn’t always about speaking English well. In today’s global community, speaking more than one language is also an asset. Michael is often called on to assist Shaw’s Chinese speaking customers, but on one day in particular this ability made him a highly valued member of the team. Michael tells this story:

Chinese People Powered - Typically, as a Technical Support who speaks Cantonese and Mandarin, I am often given the 2nd language callback to customers who are more comfortable speaking Cantonese or Mandarin. One Friday not long ago, I noticed that about 99% of the 2nd language callbacks were concerning a loss of reception for Fairchild. Fairchild is famous and the only Chinese TV station in Canada. Then the calls started coming with more regularity. Finally, we received notice that there was a Fibre connection down from FairChild to Shaw head end. On that shift, only 2 technical support representatives in the Nanaimo Region National Call Centre were able to speak Chinese. And did we keep busy! My Outlook inbox was filling like crazy with 2nd language callback email, and my nearby coworkers were all saying “Sorry about that, Mr. Wang;” “We apologize, Mrs Chen”. In those few hours our call centre seemed to only serve Chinese people. Before that day, I had wondered about the main idea of the Shaw’s new commercial message, People Powered. On that particular day, I came to understand the meaning of the message, Chinese People Powered! It is a pleasure to report that both Michael and his Chinese speaking coworker were recognized by their employer for their outstanding contributions that day.

Communication often presents a challenge to Michael in his work. But many times the challenge is not whether Michael can understand the customer’s English, it’s whether the customer has the ability or the willingness to understand him. As the following story illustrates, finding your groove is not always easy for new Canadians.

The Bottom and the Top - In the beginning, as a new immigrant working in a Canadian company serving Canadian people, everyday felt like riding a roller coaster - sometimes feeling at the bottom, sometimes feeling at the top. The saddest part for me was having a customer refuse to continue to talk with me due to my accent when I spoke “Thank you for choosing Shaw, my name is Michael……” Some customers insist that those people who can speak very pure native accent Canadian English serve them - even though I know it is such a simple issue that I can resolve in 3 minutes if only the customer can cooperate with me. How sad I am, when a customer won’t give you the chance to let you go through! The first month at Shaw, I had often been refused for my service by customers because of my English. You should know how down my feeling was.

But sometimes I can be brought to the top by being praised by a customer after I resolve difficult problems of TV or Internet, which the customer wants back very badly. One day, after working very hard to help a customer to receive an important email, the customer was so excited that he thanked me a lot and even wanted to talk to my supervisor to praise me. I said thank you and that it was a part of my job. I was on the top of the world at that moment. Excellence in communication requires strong language skills, however it also requires a measure of patience, and a dedication to doing what you can to understand others and to making yourself understood. Michael continually demonstrates this excellence. His plan has included language development, especially with pronunciation, and he continues to work hard to gain the confidence of even the most skeptical customers. Michael still has a few steps to go before his plan is complete, however he is well on the way to successfully reaching his goal. And along the way he has gained something of great importance to him - a sense of accomplishment and pride in making a contribution in his new country!