Customers With a Difference

How do you handle a customer with a different cultural background or for whom English is a second language? This video reveals to your CSRs the five essential steps to making a different customer a satisfied and returning customer.

Encourage your telephone customer service agents to take up the challenge and stretch their comfort zone when dealing with customers who have a different cultural background or first language.

Taylor works for an international freight company. One of her customers, Ruzita, is trying to send a parcel to her mother in Malaysia. Taylor is also trying to organize travel arrangements for her own mother to fly overseas.

This story, one that is played out every day all over the world, follows the challenge of being both a service provider and a customer, when dealing with cultural differences and language barriers. Taylor complains about the treatment she receives at the hands of the foreign visa department; however, when faced with a similar situation in her own work her reactions are not dissimilar.

After learning some valuable practical skills, Taylor has a pleasant, productive exchange with Ruzita and the urgent parcel is sent to Malaysia.This story follows Taylor’s experiences as she grapples with the challenge of being both a service giver and a customer when you’re dealing with people who are different to you.

Training points include:

• All customers are worthy of your time
• Don’t speak loudly or be condescending
• Speak clearly, using short sentences
• Be prepared to repeat yourself without sounding annoyed
• Show sensitivity and understanding
• Do not allow the customer to lose face
• Give instructions in a logical order
• Clearly signal when moving from one subject to the next
• Simplify your language
• Avoid tag questions, complex negative
• Avoid jargon, jokes and plays on words
• Stretch your comfort zone

This program is part of the Just a Call Away Series.