Customer Service?

The BBQ Pit
1

My first BBQ.

I may get flamed back.

I live in the U.S. Always have. I speak English or the American derivative of it. 99% of Americans speak the same language I do. I deal primarily with American companies. I will probably get flamed for not knowing a second language. I now lots or languages. English, VB, Avenue, AML, UNIX, and so on and so on. So there.

I just made a call to DTV. There was a discrepancy on my bill.

Mr. Enipla - Hi, I have a problem with my bill.

DTV - wwdddrr ftg x ff name kkkem.

Mr. Enipla - Umm, - Enipla?.

DTV - bbtytuur adbnm Enipla kkd ruutiw?

Mr. Enipla - Umm, what? I didn’t understand you.

DTV - bbtytuur adbnm Enipla kkd ruutiw?

My hearing is good, but I can’t imagine my Mom or Dad trying to decipher this conversation. No IT WAS JIBBERISH. I had to have the DTV person compleatly repeat whole parts or their conversation 4 times. It made me feel like an ass, but I could not understand a word this person said. I doubt the problem was fixed because we couldn’t communicate.

This has happened maybe 6 times in my life. I call a supposedly English speaking company and get someone that speaks English as a third language.

I know these people have deadlines and a tremendous volume to deal with, but - IF YOU HAVE AN INCREDIBLY THICK ACCENT AND ARE TRYING TO SPEAK A LANGUAGE THAT YOU ARE NOT GOOD AT, SLOW DOWN! It is obvios that English is not your first language. I commend you for learning it and doing this tough job. But If your customers can’t understand you, you are causing a problem.

When I am on the phone I am succinct and clear. I expect the same from the other end

Or as my dog would say.
UuurrrRRoooff.
That I understand.

My first Pit and not a single bad word.

UuuurRWWoooff!
Now my dog is swearing at me.

I Better Go.

2

I sympathize. On the one hand, I have nothing against people whose native language is not English. I don’t even have anything against their holding customer service jobs – as long as the damn job isn’t phone service! It is immensely frustrating to try to deal with someone on the phone who does not speak English very well, especially when it’s about something important, like my phone bill.

I am not saying, “If you don’t speak English, go back to your home country!” I am not saying that at all. I just wish that companies would make sure their employees are at least semi-intelligible before putting them on phone duty. That’s all.

3

man, i am so with you on this! and its not just folks whos first language is not english! it drives me nuts when you get some dude (or chick) who is a native english speaker AND YOU CAN’T MAKE HEADS OR TAILS OUT OF WHAT THE HELL THEY ARE SAYING! put down your crack-pipe and ENUNCIATE! make mr. lip and mrs. tounge function as designed!

fer christs sake! i had some dude on the phone from citibank that made me SURE i was listening to a Leon Redbone CD! lots of “uuuuuuhhhhhh huh” and “mmmmmmrrrruuummmpppphhhh”. Hey, i’m glad they have jobs and all, but get them off the phone!

nuff said! everybody have a good weekend!

4

I had the pleasure of overhearing my boss on the phone to (I think) Con Ed recently. She was trying to straighten out a bill for some rental property she and her husband own (she’s on personal calls all the day long, with her office door open, and I sit 10 feet away-- whole 'nother rant, but that’s why I heard her).

Anyway, I could tell from her side of the conversation that it wasn’t going well. She must have said “I’m sorry, could you repeat that” or some variant half a dozen times in about two minutes. Finally, right after my boss said “Please slow down, I can’t understand you,” there was an abrupt halt, a pause, and then my boss asking for a manager. It turned out the service rep she’d been talking to had a very heavy accent and when my boss finally got frustrated enough to say, “Please slow down,” the woman hung up on her.

MsWhatsit’s last two lines sum it up pretty well I think. I’ll also add that I really admire people who are multilingual, and I do see the need to hire people who speak a variety of languages especially for customer service in a city like New York, where not everyone is on the same level of fluency with English. But I think they should be fluent and intelligible in English if they’re going to be taking calls from English speakers. I’m pretty much illiterate in Spanish, for instance; I wouldn’t put me on the phone with Spanish speaking customers.

5

WTF were their employers thinking? Did these people threaten to claim discrimination?
To hell with this fanatical PC bullshit. If you can’t speak such that the people who rely on you to help solve their problems can actually understand what you’re saying, you have as much right to be accomodated as a blind person wishing to be a bus driver.

6

Not to mention it’s not fair to the person who doesn’t speak English-they’re only going to get people pissed at them, and then everyone suffers.

It sucks anyway you cut it.

7

I still BBQ people that put people in a job that does not fit.

I may as well go to Russia and work as an interpreter.

I will bring my dog.

RrrrruuuRRRufffff.
Alpine loves to travel.

8

Somewhat related to this rant - my fiance and I were talking about “fanatical PC bullshit” a little while ago, and we came up with a term for it: PC-footing around (like pussy-footing, but not - get it? Huh? Huh?)

For example, if a company hires people to do jobs that they aren’t qualified for, but are afraid to not hire these people because they are afraid of racial/ethnic backlash, they are PC-footing around the requirements of the job. When you read a story in a newspaper that is so full of PC-speak that you can’t even understand the story, the writer is PC-footing around the issue.

9

I am the world’s biggest PC/linguistic-diversity-rights loon, and I still think that putting someone who doesn’t speak English well in charge of answering English callers is pretty much equivalent to hiring a blind person to drive a bus.

10

I trained a Somali guy to work as a travel agent. Oh, sure, I could understand him well enough in the classroom because I had an idea of what his answers would be to the questions I asked. His technical skills with the airline reservation system were superb.

He couldn’t be understood over the phone very well, though. The agency got complaints from the travelers that they couldn’t understand him. I can’t blame them. I had also previously mentioned to the supervisors that he was difficult to understand, but they were more interested in getting a “warm body” to fill the empty desk.

He lasted about two months before he quit.

Here’s a tip for anyone in a hiring capacity: People’s expectations of customer service have sunk so low that if you only provide average customer service, you’ll be ahead of the pack. If you provide good customer service, your clients will love you, and you’ll get a lot of repeat business. If you provide excellent customer service, you’ll get your competitors’ business, too.

Think about it…banks, travel agencies, auto repair shops–they all provide pretty much the same thing within their own little areas of expertise. What can set them apart, then, is their delivery of outstanding customer service.

People will remember bad customer service, and they’ll tell two friends, and they’ll tell two of their friends…and so on…and so on… :slight_smile: