7 ms·
If this is the type of error you want to minimize, NATO phonetic alphabet [1] is worth learning. (Amateur radio is a good place to practice, though I'll admit I
by traviscj 10y ago
If this is the type of error you want to minimize, NATO phonetic alphabet [1] is worth learning. (Amateur radio is a good place to practice, though I'll admit I'm a bit rusty.)
I actually kinda enjoy these minor discrepancies, because it exposes who has sold my customer data and to whom -- though I've never gone as far as giving anyone intentionally incorrect data with this purpose in mind. I remember my parents also being amused with these copied mistakes, and with greater frequency. Seems plausible that the error rate goes down when most of my utilities/accounts were self-created online instead of typed in from a handwritten form or during an onboarding phonecall.
[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NATO_phonetic_alphabet https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NATO_phonetic_alphabet
- cyberferret 10y agoIronically (being a former pilot), I DID use radio phonetics when spelling out my name - I just wish ALL call centre staff used the same baseline too.. :) Me: That's ABCD as in Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta. Them: So, that's Alpha, Burger, er, Charles, Diamond??
- ajford 10y agoThat's one of my pet peeves... There's an official phonetic letter system, why don't they train these people in call centers to use them? My last job used radios for site communication, and everyone had to use the NATO phonetics, and was provided with a cheat sheet for learning. You'd think that would be something they could tape up in every cube in a call center...
- unscaled 10y agoOr better yet, upgrade our phone system to bleeding-edge high-fidelity CD quality with 44.1khz and 16 bits. It's not a natural law that phone audio quality has to suck.
- viraptor 10y agoEven with a phonetic alphabet, you can still run into issues. Some people are just surprised when they hear it. "P for Papa" / "was that P as in Patrick?" Sigh... I'm seriously considering changing my surname to something that's trivial to understand in English.
- kaishiro 10y agoMan, my surname is a basic color and people still get it wrong sometimes.
- mrSugar 10y agoWell, #00ff00 could be difficult to dictate over the phone... :-)
- cafard 10y agoSorry, Gray with an "a" or Grey with an "e"? (Teachers knew in high school for three or four years never quite figured out whether my surname was the Danish or the German variation of a common patronymic. I feel your pain.)
- talmand 10y agoTry living with almand instead of almond.
- kayfox 10y agoMy surname is Fox. Its very hard for CS agents to spell correctly.
- bryondowd 10y agoHello Mr. Focks.
- billpg 10y agoI once gave a phone number over the phone using Nine-er for 9. Operator thought I said "Nine Oh" (or 90).
- pluma 10y ago"B for bacon and eggies. E for the egg in bacon and eggies. A..."
- methou 10y agoI once used NATO phonetics over the phone with a Blizzard representative, there's a Z in my name, so they guy called me Mr. Zulu since then.