In a call center industry, where there is constant communication between the call center agent and the customer asking for support or assistance, phonetics is very much helpful. What is phonetics? Phonetics is the standard used when spelling out letters. Phonetics are very much helpful in establishing a clear and smooth communication between the service provider, which in this case is the agent and the recipient of the service, which is no other than the customer. Sometimes, due to cultural and language differences, there could be a communication gap that might occur. Phonetics really helps a lot. A lot of American callers complain that the accent is very prevalent in most call center representatives, thus making the communication more difficult. In this case, one can make use of phonetics. I used it a lot and it usually works.

How does phonetics work? Let’s say for example your trying to say “ipconfig” which is a command in getting all the internet protocol information of a computer. You can use phonetics by saying I for India, P for papa, C for Charlie, O for Oscar, N for november, F for Foxtrot, I for India and G for Golf.

Phonetics helps a lot in ensuring that there is a clear line of communication between the two parties: agent and customer. This helps in differentiating M from N, and other letters that sounds almost the same. In other words, we can consider phonetics as “spelled words”. Here is a complete list, one that should be followed by every call center agent like me.

A - Alfa
B - Bravo
C - Charlie
D - Delta
E - Echo
F - Foxtrox
G - Golf
H - Hotel
I - India
J - Juliet
K - Kilo
L - Lima
M - Mike
N - November
O - Oscar
P - Papa
Q - Quebec
R - Romeo
S - Sierra
T - Tango
U - Uniform
V - Victor
W - Whiskey
X - X-ray
Y - Yankee
Z - Zulu

I had this caller who’s still having a hard time understanding my accent, even after I gave out the phonetics and spelled the word to him, and he requested me to spell it out using animals. haha:) it was such a funny experience. I was forced to create my own phonetics.

The word I was trying to tell him through phonetics, was SERVICES.

So, instead of following the standard protocol for phonetics, I used these instead. haha:) I still laugh, everytime I can recall it.

S - Spider
E - Elephant
R - RAT (toinks)
V - Vulture (had difficulty with this)
I - Iguana
C - Cat (ofcourse so easy)
E - Elephant
S - snake