Actions Speak Louder Than Words But Words Are Essential
If I speak LOUDER and S-L-O-W-L-Y…
C-A-N… Y-O-U… U-N-D-E-R-S-T-A-N-D… M-E… N-O-W ?
No? Idiot!
Speaking loudly and slowly at the same time in English to non-English speakers will magically give them the capabilities to understand everything that you are saying in whatever language they speak.
Who are the real idiots?
We are losing out to business, relationships and generally dividing ourselves into communities because we do not accommodate any other language besides English!
We took the time to do some research. thebigword called the FTSE top 100 companies, communicating in French or German, we explained that we had 2 million Euros to spend.
RESULTS: 1 company out of 100 was able to handle the call. The receptionist put the call through to the relevant person who could help our researcher with their enquiry. 99 companies lost out!
Yes, actions do speak louder than words but what if you are on the phone, or giving a presentation? The spoken word is essential.
Is it reasonable that organisations should be able to deal with calls as such? Is it ever going to be possible for a receptionist to successfully deal with non-English speaking callers?
thebigword has tried and tested some methods. It is important for me to highlight and recognise that as a language service business, our staff are made-up of 39 nationalities in our headquarters alone and therefore we are at an advantage when dealing with the unexpected, non- English speaking callers.
However, strategies that we have employed have been helpful during those infrequent calls and I would like to share them with you.
For example Language Recognition Cards. We trained those employees who regularly answer international calls on how to recognise different languages. We printed Language Recognition cards that provide simple statements written both in the language and phonetically. An example of the statements includes: “hold the line”, “who would you like to speak to?” “One moment please” and so on. This pack has been used successfully by a number of organisations.
The problem is that, for most companies, these phone calls are infrequent and training of the employees is not maintained, cards are lost, accents fade etc.
Another method we sometimes use in our offices is an Automated Answer Phone Service giving a choice of various foreign languages e.g “Please press 1 for French, 2 for German” and so on.
Although this method accommodates a prospective client’s needs, it is not satisfying. I, for one, find it incessantly irritating listening to those messages, especially when I am paying for the long-distance/overseas calls.
Telephone Interpreting/Over the Phone Services has revolutionised our ability to solve the communications gap with foreign callers.
We often use our own service. We put out client on hold and dial-in to thebigword Over the Phone Services. Within 35 seconds we are connected to an interpreter, on a three-way call. An interpreter is used for the spoken word and helps us communicate with our non-English speaking caller.
There is one other method that we are trialling and that is when an overseas number dials in, it is immediately transferred to an employee who speaks a language from that country. The challenge is what effect it has on people work as they are dealing with enquiries that could take them away from their everyday business – we’ll keep you informed as to how the trial goes.
Next year we will carry out the same experiment as we did with the top U.K. companies but extend it to other countries stating with France and Mexico, so once again we’ll let you know who are the winners and losers.
C-A-N… Y-O-U… U-N-D-E-R-S-T-A-N-D… M-E… N-O-W ?
No? Idiot!
Speaking loudly and slowly at the same time in English to non-English speakers will magically give them the capabilities to understand everything that you are saying in whatever language they speak.
Who are the real idiots?
We are losing out to business, relationships and generally dividing ourselves into communities because we do not accommodate any other language besides English!
We took the time to do some research. thebigword called the FTSE top 100 companies, communicating in French or German, we explained that we had 2 million Euros to spend.
RESULTS: 1 company out of 100 was able to handle the call. The receptionist put the call through to the relevant person who could help our researcher with their enquiry. 99 companies lost out!
Yes, actions do speak louder than words but what if you are on the phone, or giving a presentation? The spoken word is essential.
Is it reasonable that organisations should be able to deal with calls as such? Is it ever going to be possible for a receptionist to successfully deal with non-English speaking callers?
thebigword has tried and tested some methods. It is important for me to highlight and recognise that as a language service business, our staff are made-up of 39 nationalities in our headquarters alone and therefore we are at an advantage when dealing with the unexpected, non- English speaking callers.
However, strategies that we have employed have been helpful during those infrequent calls and I would like to share them with you.
For example Language Recognition Cards. We trained those employees who regularly answer international calls on how to recognise different languages. We printed Language Recognition cards that provide simple statements written both in the language and phonetically. An example of the statements includes: “hold the line”, “who would you like to speak to?” “One moment please” and so on. This pack has been used successfully by a number of organisations.
The problem is that, for most companies, these phone calls are infrequent and training of the employees is not maintained, cards are lost, accents fade etc.
Another method we sometimes use in our offices is an Automated Answer Phone Service giving a choice of various foreign languages e.g “Please press 1 for French, 2 for German” and so on.
Although this method accommodates a prospective client’s needs, it is not satisfying. I, for one, find it incessantly irritating listening to those messages, especially when I am paying for the long-distance/overseas calls.
Telephone Interpreting/Over the Phone Services has revolutionised our ability to solve the communications gap with foreign callers.
We often use our own service. We put out client on hold and dial-in to thebigword Over the Phone Services. Within 35 seconds we are connected to an interpreter, on a three-way call. An interpreter is used for the spoken word and helps us communicate with our non-English speaking caller.
There is one other method that we are trialling and that is when an overseas number dials in, it is immediately transferred to an employee who speaks a language from that country. The challenge is what effect it has on people work as they are dealing with enquiries that could take them away from their everyday business – we’ll keep you informed as to how the trial goes.
Next year we will carry out the same experiment as we did with the top U.K. companies but extend it to other countries stating with France and Mexico, so once again we’ll let you know who are the winners and losers.
