What about people who have a deep rooted prejudice against those Generic people?
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The “less intelligent” thing surprises me. Well, I suppose it doesn’t, because the English can be pricks about that sort of thing (and I say that as an Englishman), but it’s not a stereotype I can remember encountering.
You know what they say about those folks living over in Uncanny Valley…
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When traveling to Australia on a New Zealand air line I remember seeing a funny commercial showing a Kiwi couple completely unable to understand someone with a think Australian accent, and it was advertising some kind of customer service center where traveling Kiwis could be sure to reach someone who spoke with a clear New Zealand accent. I was surprised and amused that such a service was deemed necessary.
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Some of them have foreign parts.
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“White” demo voice sounds like one of those stupid automated voices that’s supposed to sound like a real person. You know, the one that says “Okay, let me look that up for you” accompanied by the sound of fake keyboard clicks. The one that I yell “YOU ARE NOT A REAL PERSON” to and then it says “Okay … I didn’t quite get that.”
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Incompetence knows no accent.
Accents don’t cause bias, they trigger pre-existing biases. That bigotry is supercharged by the power dynamics at play in the hellscape of modern customer service, where frustrated callers are trapped on the phone with agents who have little authority to solve their problems, and everyone is forced to interact exclusively through dehumanizing, uncanny valley scripts.
I feel any customer service call already starts out in a bad place due to the preconceived frustration that you are calling a person who is likely not able to help you. Triggering pre-existing biases are just adding more fuel to the fire. If customer service calls ended positively more often than in a negative fashion I doubt the accent on the phone would matter quite as much.
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That sounds like the bot thingies I hang up on at 9 o’clock at night.
The only foreign accents I have a problem with are the people that call me to convince me my computer has been hacked and I need to give them money. They get mean.
I have no problems with heavy accents on tech support calls, I occasionally have to ask to repeat something and most calls are pleasant.
I have a friend that will immediately get nasty requesting an American as soon as he hears the slightest accent. His support calls never end with him happy because he goes in with attitude.
He also gets mad if he thinks the person is working from home because he thinks they’re all doing drugs. He had to drive to work every day damn it and so should everyone else.
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I can do a pretty good Glaswegian accent.And a decent Belfast one. But that’s mainly from partying with loads of weegies and Irish folk. I’m not a robot, honest.
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I distrust that theory. They say the same about Geordie accents. Mainly, it’s cos Scotland and the north was fucked by Thatcher’s ‘managed decline’ of industry so we’d do shit jobs for peanuts. The whole idea is marketing lies.
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They get their defence in early.
Sanas’ technology is designed to revolutionize communication by giving multilingual speakers a choice when it comes to how they communicate. It’s a step towards empowering individuals, advancing equality, and deepening empathy.
We are committed to protecting the diverse voice identities of the world and their cultures.
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I’m with you on this. I’ve also had the luxury of working with lots of people with varying accents from around the world, as well as living in India for a couple years. That definitely helps with understanding a diverse set of accents.
I do sympathize with people have haven’t had these experiences and who genuinely struggle to understand unfamiliar accents. You’re right, though, that in most case just politely asking people to repeat themselves or to slow down helps and keeps the conversation pleasant. Regardless of where they’re from, the vast majority of customer support people do genuinely want to help you solve your problem.
No offense to your friend, but that’s just being a jerk. I hope he’s able to learn some more tolerance and grace.
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