Is it because I'm Scottish?

[vetran]

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/a...sh-accent.html

'My job involves speaking to clients on a regular basis and many of these clients are also based in and around London. I work remotely.

'The problem I am having is that since I started 2 years ago, there has been about 3 clients who have submitted complaints to my manager that they cannot understand my accent. The most recent complaint was just before [Christmas].

'They feedback that my accent is "too strong", that I have an "aggressive manner" and even that he should "tell... to speak English".

'I have spoken to my manager and his manager about it and both of them say to just ignore it and that they are pleased with my work but it does bother me.

'It makes me worried about continuing to work with these clients and what other clients may say. I feel my managers are more concerned about keeping their income coming in than how they are treating me.

'I don't talk like I've stepped out of Rab C Nesbitt or something like that. I may not be Oxbridge educated like some clients (yes they dropped that into conversation) but I actually have several degrees and postgrad qualifications.

'I've had clients say things like oh you're Scottish, I once visited [very rough area of Glasgow that is nowhere near me] and it was soooo awful. What am I meant to say to that? It makes me feel judged, like being Scottish makes me poor.

Sorry if your job is mostly phone and your accent/speech is not understandable you aren't qualified. I have worked with many people around the world and the majority were easy to understand or made allowances for their accent. Plenty followed up with an email or slowed down for people to get used to their accent.

Her Employer should take positive action to help her in my opinion.

I feel for her, if someone says "oh I visited the Goebbels" its like having a go at Slough!

what does the panel think?

[malvolio]

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/a...sh-accent.html




Sorry if your job is mostly phone and your accent/speech is not understandable you aren't qualified. I have worked with many people around the world and the majority were easy to understand or made allowances for their accent. Plenty followed up with an email or slowed down for people to get used to their accent.

Her Employer should take positive action to help her in my opinion.

I feel for her, if someone says "oh I visited the Goebbels" its like having a go at Slough!

what does the panel think?

Perhaps I'm biased - like most service kids facing a new school every 2-3 years you learn to pick up accents very quickly - but its not all that hard to tone down a strong regional accent. If it's causing you problems, there's only you can sort it. And fwiw the best people I've spoken to on customer facing phone calls have been the Scots, followed by the Welsh...

[vetran]

Perhaps I'm biased - like most service kids facing a new school every 2-3 years you learn to pick up accents very quickly - but its not all that hard to tone down a strong regional accent. If it's causing you problems, there's only you can sort it. And fwiw the best people I've spoken to on customer facing phone calls have been the Scots, followed by the Welsh...

Southern Irish girls...!

[edison]

Can't remember the source but a few years ago a survey of call centre users voted the Scottish accent as the most preferable regional accent of all.

I can't think of a time when I've had a Scottish person at a call centre speak to me where it was difficult to understand them in contrast to Indian accents.

[Lance]

there's Scottish accents like Gordon Brown.
And there's Rab C Nesbitt.

Any really strong accent can be difficult to understand.
But made worse by mumbling and generally bad pronunciation.

[northernladuk]

Sorry if your job is mostly phone and your accent/speech is not understandable you aren't qualified.

That's the bottom line for me. Communication is a key requirement for the role and should be treated like any other skill. Unfortunately it is difficult to quantify though. What is difficult for some to understand it's easy for others. Your own accent can impact. I remember trying to put a service desk in Cairo and they wouldn't touch offshore indian bods. Egypt English and Indian English were just incompatible due to the accents.

There are extremes like when you call an offshore desk and the spoken English/accent of the call handler is absolutely dire. Simple case of that person should not be doing that job. Heavy local accents are a difficult call...but.. if the job is to speak to a wide range of people then IMO a strong local accent is going to be a problem.

Her Employer should take positive action to help her in my opinion.

Indeed but how?

but its not all that hard to tone down a strong regional accent.

Evening having an average accent I'd have to disagree with this. The call handler has to concentrate on slowing down/speaking properly which takes concentration off the job in hand so still contributing to a break down in communication. It's also hard work to be on phones all day to be constantly concentrating on your speech all the time.
When I go to the states they can't understand me so I have to slow down/pidgin speak which then means I can't flow with what I want to say. Quick quips, jokes etc are difficult.

It's tough but IMO if someone does mumble/talk too fast/has a thick accent and is a blocker to communication then they aren't properly skilled.

[dsc]

[...]And fwiw the best people I've spoken to on customer facing phone calls have been the Scots, followed by the Welsh...

Wife (and I agree actually) says the same but bloody hell she has a hard time understanding what they say

[ladymuck]

When I go to the states they can't understand me so I have to slow down/pidgin speak which then means I can't flow with what I want to say. Quick quips, jokes etc are difficult.

That's got nothing to do with the yanks not understanding your accent.

HTH

[Snooky]

Sorry if your job is mostly phone and your accent/speech is not understandable you aren't qualified

Perhaps someone should tell this to virtually every offshore call centre I've had the pleasure of interacting with over the years.

[northernladuk]

That's got nothing to do with the yanks not understanding your accent.

HTH

Et tu Ladymuck? Just had WTFH have a (justified) swipe in the last 10 mins as well