The effect of accent of service employee on customer service evaluation: The role of customer emotions

Abstract

In many of the developed western countries a large part of the service workforce is made up of immigrants with cultures and accents different from their adopted country. Moreover, with the propensity of firms to outsource their customer service departments to foreign call centres customers are often exposed to accents that differ from their own. This paper reports on a qualitative study designed to uncover the attitudes and perceptions of Australians to service personnel with accents different from their own. The findings revealed that hearing a service provider with a foreign accent in a call centre appears to evoke a negative predisposition to accents such as Indian or Filipino, reduce the customers’ level of tolerance and increase the perception of the service provider’s lack of understanding. These findings were not a common factor when customers dealt with service personnel face to face.