which one a Technical Support or Help Desk

Sat Mar 3 16:48:07 UTC 2012

Touche....!

Being in South Florida, (heavy Latin & Spanish accents) and having 
customers in Alabama, Tennessee (Heavy Southern accents)  etc, we have 
had to "Tune" our ears as well as our Accents, including  carefully 
choosing our  words...

It is not uncommon for us to have  a new support Rep. get on a call and 
start making  strange facial expressions.. saying.. " I know the caller 
is speaking English, but I cannot make out a word of what they are 
saying !"... Which of-course goes both ways, a Southern English speaker 
has equally hard time understanding heavy Latin and Eastern European 
accents.

The sad part but true reality is, that most folks when they hear a 
different accent, automatically equate accent with professional 
competency .. and that is the toughest thing to overcome for phone 
support work.

City folks, will often equate Southern accent with someone  who is less 
proficient and slow, while the Southern folks will equate the Northern 
Accent with someone trying to be slick and pulling a fast one on them..

And then of course we have our favorite New Yorkers, (Manhattan / Queens 
etc) who simply equate politeness as a sing of weakness and try to 
railroad you if you are too polite.

It's all good, it's all fun, it's all part of life, and surprising to 
most, this is COMMON HUMAN behavior across ALL Parts of the World.  Not 
just unique to USA and Indian Call Centers..

:)

Regards

Faisal Imtiaz
Snappy Internet&  Telecom
7266 SW 48 Street
Miami, Fl 33155
Tel: 305 663 5518 x 232
Helpdesk: 305 663 5518 option 2 Email: Support at Snappydsl.net

On 3/3/2012 11:26 AM, Dave Pooser wrote:
> On 3/3/12 9:57 AM, "Faisal Imtiaz"<faisal at snappydsl.net>  wrote:
>
>>> Especially if a human answers promptly without a horrible accent...
>>>
>>> Jeff
>> Like a heavy Southern Drawl ?
> Saah, Ah resemble that remahk!
>
> :^)
>
> I think no matter where you're located, having a tech support rep who
> speaks your language with an accent not too dissimilar to your own can be
> a huge help. I've had tech support calls go bad because of unintelligible
> accents when I was calling centers in India and in Ireland, but also in
> the US when I found the last of the Clampett clan answering phones for an
> ISP. (I've lived in Texas almost 16 years-- if you're so redneck that *I*
> can't understand you, you need a job where all your communication is in
> writing. Or pictures.)