You know that moment that you spent 10 minutes on hold during a customer care call and the music was annoying? Yeah, that moment when for some reason your internet isn’t working fine and you need someone to fix it. After what felt to you like an eternity someone finally picks up and you at that moment realized your trials are far from over,you can’t understand half the words coming through the receiver. I am sure I am not alone when I say shit like that happens. It’s not like the person isn’t speaking English but he may be speaking out if his nose…..
So what do I mean by accent correction, well customer care is a service that is present in any and all companies. In order to be in business you need customers and to ensure they stay your customers then you have to give them the best care. Sometimes all a customer needs is someone to guide them through something or someone to vent to. Ones tones, pitch and even body language on the phone can change the message you want to pass onto the client. One of the most basic things one is taught is to smile while talking to a client and believe me they will hear you smile on the other end. All the above can be trained up to and including accent correction. Your accent is one of the things that help you figure out where some was born and can get you picked out if a crowded room but a kinsman. This is true even in the English speaking countries where accents end up being region specific. Ever listened to comedian John bishop, he is a British comedian but he has an accent that distinguishes him as being from Liverpool , probably to me what I find funniest about him. Mark whalberg, one of my favorite actors, has an accent that has faded over the years that signifies he grew up in Boston.
Now back to the matter at hand, I won’t go into the details of accent correction because there is no such thing as the proper accent because each language has a particular way in which their words need to be pronounced. What I need to emphasizes is you should train your people to speak in some way closer to how your clientele would prefer they did. A perfect example is the great world of BPO(business process outsourcing), primarily in helplines located in India. I live in kenya so our helplines are actually located here but the west primarily outsources their helplines to India .Thus the Indians who have a problem with certain letters like V and W , J and Z would have problem passing the message to clients. This is easily solved by having each new helpline employee go through a training to have them speak more American or British English when it comes to syntax and in some instances local slang. You can confirm for yourself this theory that’s states that the best sales man speaks to you as well as to your needs ( I think I just came up with that). So the people who from a connection with you fastest are the ones that you actually understand or speak the way you do….
You thinking of coming up with a helpline……ACCENT CORRECTION IS A MUST
Disclaimer…
I personally have no qualms with any accent but when I have a problem I’d rather be served by someone who we can communicate with easier
Words Of A Nairobian 