I'm not so sure how to handle this

[platys]

I worked with a lovely woman with a fairly strong Chinese accent.  However, she was perfectly understandable, and one of our best reps.

We'd _still_ get people who insisted they just couldn't possibly understand her.  I think some people just tune out the second they hear anything the least bit foreign.  So, it might not be anything that is really his fault.

(Back when I answered the phone, I'd have people insist on talking to a man, because as a woman, I couldn't possibly know anything technical.  It always cracked me up, because a lot of times, I was the expert in the category, so by asking for someone else, they were getting someone with less knowledge, not more.)

[kareng57]

Well over the course of the past year, I have noticed, while he is doing cold calls to businesses people hang up on him once they hear his accent.  They automatically assume he is working in a call center in India. With all of the news about outsourcing, people think they are in the "know". I can also tell he has a much harder time getting through to customers or have them take him serious because of this accent.

Just a side comment but I don't understand people who hang up before even finding out if the person can understand what is being said.  The only time I've suspected that my customer service call was outsourced, the woman who took my call spoke very clear English with the most delightful British-tinged accent.  Her name sounded Indian so I suspect thats where it went especially since I was calling late at night.  She was incredibly helpful and we understood each other perfectly.

Charlotte

For me - if the person on the other end of the line is knowledgeable and a good communicator, I couldn't care less whether he or she is located in Helsinki, Bombay or the Australian Outback.  But one example (this was a few years ago, it might have changed) - our provincial parks' campsite reservation system was outsourced to India.  While I have no doubts that the reps spoke English fluently and understood it well - I simply couldn't understand many of them.  They spoke so quickly, and often I had to ask them to repeat a question several times and please slow down.  I was so glad when the online option became available.