Communication Skills

If they don’t put the phone down at this point, I ask who’s calling, which they are always reluctant to tell me. I find this very strange as they are either calling to speak to my partner because he’s one of their customers, or they are hoping he’ll be a potential customer – either way it surely makes sense to give the company’s name!

After insisting that they tell me who’s calling for a few seconds longer, the call always ends with them putting the phone down on me. Now I admit that I am winding these callers up slightly, but I can’t believe that it’s part of any company’s customer service plan to put the phone down on customers.

I’ve also noticed that once I start asking questions that seem to deviate from the script the caller is following, he/she is unable to continue with the conversation.

If companies decide to relocate their call centres and customer service centres overseas, why oh why don’t they provide better training for the staff working in these centres? I’ve worked with students and clients from many different countries for the last 16 years and I understand that it’s difficult to teach someone how to act in a different cultural setting, but it certainly isn’t impossible.

If you are going to base your call centres overseas, train your staff properly!


Now where’s that number to block cold calls…?

Are some of your customers from other countries? Do some of your customers use English as a second language?

The answer to this question is yes for the majority of businesses in the UK, yet very few organisations think about how the language they use will impact on their customers and clients. Organisations are seriously limiting the number of customers they can  reach by not reviewing their communication strategy.


Let’s consider the first question again: Are some of your customers and potential customers from other countries? The answer is yes they are. According to the Office for National Statistics, ‘The number of people from overseas living in the UK reached a record high of 6.7 million.’

So, the chances are pretty high that a large percentage of your customers and clients use English as a second language. Communicating with someone who isn’t a native English speaker isn’t a problem though, is it? The majority of us have come into contact with people from other countries around the world in our everyday lives or when we go on a foreign holiday. Most of us have some experience of communicating with people from other countries.

Stop and think for a moment. Have you always been able to get your message across? How do you know if the other person has really understood? Often we assume that we’ve explained ourselves clearly, but have we really? Being a native English speaker and using English everyday doesn’t mean we naturally know how to adapt our language to different situation and for different people.

In business, thinking you’ve got your message across isn’t good enough. In order to retain existing customers and attract new ones it’s vital to be certain that you’ve put your message across clearly and concisely.
Learn more about how to get you message across to a wider customer base by following our ‘Top Tips’ on Twitter.