When Sykes Enterprises began considering India for its customer service call centers a few years ago, it saw a country with many bright, hardworking and English- speaking citizens. What it didn't anticipate was how much the Indian accent would perplex some American consumers. On Thursday, Tampa-based Sykes said it would cut the volume of work at its Bangalore, India, facility by half. The call center, which in the past has provided customer service functions for Delta Air Lines and the Internet Service Provider MSN, generates about $4 million a year in revenue. About $2 million of that business will be shifted to Sykes call centers in other Asian countries. Sykes did not name these other countries. Subhaash Kumar, a Sykes investor relations official, said the company is shifting the work out of India at the request of some of its corporate customers.

Although the reasons for the move vary, some Sykes clients complained that their American customers had trouble comprehending the Indian customer service representatives, Kumar said. In the end, some clients thought they could get better service from other countries. John Mahoney, an analyst following Sykes for Raymond James & Associates in St. Petersburg, said he believed Sykes will move the work to the Philippines, where it already has facilities. Formerly controlled by the United States, the Philippines offers a more ``Americanized'' culture and employees with lighter accents. Also, there is less employee turnover than in India.