ACCENTS

cctsphr

Recently, a manager spoke with me because she has two employees who deal with customers - 90% of the time. Apparently, there have been complaints from customers and other managers that they cannot understand these two individuals - they do speak English, but with a very heavy accent. She wanted to know what can be done. I am researching how long they have been in the position, who hired, the job description and plan on calling each on the phone to find out for myself. If there is problem, I thought I would direct the manager to speak with the employees about the problem and suggest they slow down, or whatever remedy might be appropriate. Any other suggestions on handling this situation. Thanks.

Crout

Before taking any action with the EE's, I would definitely get back to the manager to verify exactly what he/she means in regard to customer complaints. That's too murky for me. How many complaints? Who made the complaints? Does the manager have customer surveys, or other documented evidence to quantify that a problem really exists?

Gillian

Yes, you do need to investigate a bit to find out how valid the concerns are. It is legitimate to require that employees can be understood but one persons hard to understand accent is not difficult for someone else. There does need to be a documented pattern of problems before you act, and then do so carefully. You don't want this to morph into a national origin discrimination complaint.

cebudragonlady

It would be simpler, if the manager called the customers involved , and
asked the customers if they would like to be assigned to another customer
service rep .

But flip the coin to the other side , what if a customer who has an accent has trouble with a fluent English speaking customer service rep, and asks for a rep who speaks such-and-such a language ?

Gillian

Dealing with the issue of accents/communication can really be difficult and the source of problems which could lead to legal issues. The worst case scenario is that the manager is using the "customers have complained" excuse because of his or her own discomfort with the individual or the accent. In this case there would be potential for a national origin discrimination complaint. In the flip side scenario, the customer with an accent who needs to speak to someone who speaks their language, I think that it is a good business practice to allow the customer to speak to the employee who can communicate with the customer. At least the decision is based upon a customer need and is not driven by manager complaints. The downside to this one is that if the employee is used on a regular basis to speak their language or for translation you have a compensation issue because the job is different. There have been cases which have ruled that using an employee to do work such as this without compensation is discrimination.