"Thick accent"

[Unregistered]

I provide customer service at a desk as well as answeing phone calls are part of my job. Few days ago I helped someone over the phone. As I picked up the phone and asked how could I help the person on the other side asked me a question and immediatle she complained and said to me " I am paying more attention to your thick accent than what you are trying to explain to me". I felt so uncomfortable with her comment and did not know what to say to her. Finally I said to her "OK I will slow down and explain your question again".

My question and humble request are here,

please give me some advice how I can reduce my accent. And,

How do I response to some who makes such a comment like the way she did? Even though I don't disagree that when I speak in english there is "broken accent".

Thank you very much in advance for your help.

[susiedqq]

You handled that rude remark just right

Most of the time, if the speech is slowed down, it can be understood. Otherwise, you may need to pass this customer to another worker.

The other day I spent 2 hours on the phone with a person from India who answered questions about our FAX machine. Once in a while I had to ask him to repeat his sentence, or slow down. We got the problem solved. He was very patient with us!