As part of my day job I take phone calls from clients, 95% of whom are from outside of the U.S. Inevitably, one of the first steps of the process is to refer callers to our company website, the address of which seems to be comprised of those letters most likely to be misheard when spoken over the phone. This is not so much a problem when the client possesses a good grasp of English, because one can always use radio code to clarify each letter. I was born and raised on Army bases, so rattling off whiskey-echo-bravo-sierra-indigo-tango-echo is almost second nature. My coworkers get by well enough on a=apple, b=beetle, etc.
The problem comes with the callers whose English is more limited, the majority of whom are Spanish speakers. What I’d like to do is put together a list of “initial” words for spelling out our website – words that are more likely to be distinguished clearly by the Hispanophonic ear. Any assistance my fellow Dopers can provide in this area would be greatly appreciated.
Two other things. First, I won’t need initial words for every letter of the alphabet. Our web site address uses only the following letters: a,b,c,f,i,n,o,s,w,z. Secondly, our Spanish-speaking callers come from all over the place – Mexico, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Central America, South America, or the mother country herself. So the words selected should be as universally understood as possible.
Thanks in advance!