Customer Service

I simply cannot understand some accents however hard I listen. I struggle with some Scottish and Irish accents but not all. I am from the westcountry and sometimes a person can't understand me. I don't mind. Regional accents are interesting.

Totally agree with you. And why do they give their names? If you were ever to call back and ask for the advisor by name! Guess what no one would know who that person is! Oh and say, ‘that they don’t work in this particular department’!
I phoned my bank in France yesterday, well what a difference, articulate, pleasant and charming and even called me back when he said he would!!!! And I totally understood him!
Customer care in this country has always been bottom of the list for companies! 🤬😡🤬

What I hate most is that when you answer a question they reply 'perfect' as if you just passed a test or something.

What's perfect about it? I want to ask.

I have certainly reached the age where ALL young people speak to quickly and softly. (It cannot be my hearing that is less acute, now can it?)

Usually regional accents don't bother me, but some do of course.

Generally, I find, that if I say politely, "I am a little hard of hearing, would you mind speaking a little more slowly?" that the person obliges.

MissInterpreted

As someone with a Scottish (Edinburgh area) accent, I've often been complimented on it and told it was a lovely accent and very easy to understand, both in person and over the phone. My job involved speaking to people from all over and all walks of life - I remember speaking to one man on the phone and just as I was about to hang up, he said ' by the way, you have a lovely accent. You'd make a fortune on those telephone sex lines'! I was flabbergasted, to say the least!

Scottish accents used to be the most popular accent for call centres, along with the RP English, closely followed by Geordie and Irish.
Liverpool and Birmingham were the least popular.

As someone with a Scottish (Edinburgh area) accent, I've often been complimented on it and told it was a lovely accent and very easy to understand, both in person and over the phone. My job involved speaking to people from all over and all walks of life - I remember speaking to one man on the phone and just as I was about to hang up, he said ' by the way, you have a lovely accent. You'd make a fortune on those telephone sex lines'! I was flabbergasted, to say the least!

I had a spell training in a call centre in the ‘olden days’, and think all our golden rules have now disappeared! Listen to the caller, speak slowly, paraphrase what they said to make sure you’ve got it right, no adverbs ( obviously, hopefully, unfortunately etc!), no jargon, as ‘Our systems are down’ means nothing to the 80 year old lady on the phone, and many more.
As far as the speed of talking is concerned, the poor sod on the phone will have a target of calls per hour to meet, so will want to get it over as soon as possible. That’s also why you may find yourself getting mysteriously ‘cut off’.
I had a most frustrating call yesterday with regard to an email I’d received offering £500 off a holiday. I phoned to ask what the conditions were, as it wasn’t mentioned anywhere, and I knew it was too good to be true, and I explained it quite clearly. Well, I was bombarded with ‘when are you going, what hotel, how many people’ then that she could not override the system, and some other irrelevant stuff.
Eventually, by my adopting the ‘broken record’ tactic of repeating my question slowly and calmly, I managed to get the answer that the discount depended on the price of the holiday, but not before my blood pressure was dangerously high!

JaneJudge

I think people who can't understand accents (of any nature) are lazy and unwilling to listen properly

It is quite easy to communicate with people who can't even speak the same language as you (not over the telephone obviously) if you just have patience

A bit of a sweepng statement, I used to be a holiday rep and used to have to speak to people with all sorts of accents from all over the world. I generally managed very well, but on one particular occasion I had a guest come up to me and I think he asked me a question. Eventually I decided he must be Polish and needed to speak to the Polish rep, half an hour later his wife came to me and she was Scottish, I understood her perfectly. She explained to me that her husband was actually Glaswegian, then she confessed that she herself had to frequently ask him to speak more clearly as she often didn't understand what he was saying.

I think the problem lies more in the fact that you are hearing an accent to which you are unaccustomed to hearing on a daily basis, plus it’s over the phone, rather than face to face so you can’t use any other cues and the phone tends to exaggerate the sound of a voice.
I really don’t think it’s to do with being prejudicial towards any given accent.

Judge by name and....., anyway, it does seem that people are chosen for their strong accents, and the longer the conversation, the stronger the accent becomes. There is no way you can understand people with a strong accent no matter how hard you try, and it's not laziness! Try phoning Birmingham Council, but wait, most help lines have such long waiting times it's not easy to keep hanging on, up to 30 minutes isn't unusual. Does anyone remember a news report on tv some years ago when they decided the Geordie accent was so unintelligible they used sub-titles! Cheek, I could understand them.

When we got our first computer the customer service was in Ireland, some of their people were unintelligible, this was years ago. When I worked for a GP, an au pair from New Zealand rang with a message from her boss, she had such a strong accent that I had to ask her to spell it out! Conversely I left a message for our lawyer, when he rang back he congratulated me on the clarity of the message!

Thank you. I had thought I had perhaps come across as critical and I wouldn't want that.

I wasn’t suggesting anything Marydoll ❤️

When I referred earlier to Liverpool accents, it certainly was not intended to be a negative comment.
As a linguist, I suspect my ear is used to various accents.

I used to be able to mimic lots of accents, sadly now that I am an old lady, I seem to have lost that skill.

Your Swedish husband asking English people to slow down isn’t being lazy though or being unwilling to listen properly. English people moaning about Scottish accents (seems common maybe even xenophobic) or Liverpool accents etc It’s all a nonsense (Sorry but that’s how I feel = owner of a regional accent)

When working, I once took a call from someone who mumbled in a thick accent, I just could not get their name after twice asking them to repeat it. As I did not wish to offend the person, I hit upon the smart idea of asking them to spell their surname........S M I T H.... they said, incredulously...

JaneJudge

I think people who can't understand accents (of any nature) are lazy and unwilling to listen properly

It is quite easy to communicate with people who can't even speak the same language as you (not over the telephone obviously) if you just have patience

I think people who can't understand accents (of any nature) are lazy and unwilling to listen properly.

I must take issue with that - rather sweeping - statement!

Most times, it is not the accent - it is the speed at which the person speaks.

My partner, who is Swedish and fluent in English, frequently has to ask those he's talking to to speak more slowly. And he's certainly not lazy - but when you are being given important information that you might need to write down, being bombarded at 200 words per minute makes it quite difficult to absorb what you are being told.

It isn't only call-handlers whose native language is not English - sometimes, it's the caller's. Also, as we get older, our hearing isn't always 100% either.

Hattietopper. What exactly is the King's English?

Do you mean Standard English? I speak Standard English, but with a Scottish accent! 😉

Marydoll

You were obviously very frustrated, but I am afraid I cannot agree with you. That is a very sweeping statement.

I am Scottish, with a Glaswegian accent and a few weeks ago, I had to speak on a number of occasions to a customer service agent with a strong accent in Liverpool.
I had no difficulty understanding her accent, nor she mine. She was helpful, patient and professional.

Marydoll
I'll start with an apology as, since I started wearing hearing aids 5 years ago I really really struggle with understanding anyone with a Scottish accent. Why I wonder, its a lovely accent?
I had absolutely no problem whatsoever with any accent prior to my deafness.
Is it the tone/timbre ?
Very puzzling to me

What I ask is wrong with regional accents? How dare you disparage people who speak differently from you. I hope sincerely that your English is grammatically perfect. I do agree that sometimes customer service people can be rude, but their accent has nothing to do with attitude.

HattieTopper how many languages do you speak fluently, besides The King's English!! Unbelievabley rude and judgemental comment.

A tip:-

Whether you are using live chat or the phone have a piece of paper (or word doc) with all the info you are likely to need regarding the problem or transaction. Or have the documents you need to hand.

If you do this in chat you only then have to paste in the bits of info rather than typing them at speed.

I prefer live chat to the phone. I often have to communicate with agents in the USA so with chat their (and my own) accent does not matter. Ive also done customer service when I was at uni so I know how to get the best out of a call to an agent.

Its a thankless job and even before the pandemic callers could be extremely rude, impatient and abrupt.

Never be rude to someone who has your home phone number and address!

I no longer ring customer services, I log onto their website and click on chat and converse with them that way, it has never let me down. You will have to wait in a queue but better than hanging on the phone listening to silly music then getting someone who cannot speak the King's english.

The only problem is, if you do not use the internet then the phone it will have to be.

I can understand most accents having travelled around a fair bit but some of the Aussies I know need subtitles for Scottish and Irish accents, they can’t understand them at all. You just don’t hear many different accents here , except maybe Greek, Italian and Chinese. They are fine with Kiwis and South Africans because they are similar.