Here are some tips on serving customers with challenges on the phone:

• Speak normally, clearly and directly.
• Don’t worry about how their voice sounds. Concentrate on what’s being said. Use patience, and optimism and a willingness to communicate; these are your best tools.
• Be patient, don’t interrupt and don’t finish your customer’s sentences. Give your customer time to explain him/ herself.
• Don’t try to guess what your customer is saying. If you don’t understand, don’t pretend. Just ask again.
• If you’re not certain what was said, just repeat or rephrase what you’ve heard.
• If a telephone customer is using an interpreter or a TTY line, just speak normally to the customer, not to the interpreter.
• If your customer has great difficulty communicating, make arrangements to call back when it’s convenient to speak with someone else that can be of help.

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