Several years ago, we had to send out a company's wide email to all temporary employees requesting some of the temps workers from using the word "axe" versus "ask." Also, recently, some oversea TMs were misusing "weather" for the word, "whether." A guest wrote in, "I love shopping at Target, but this is embarrassing because "weather" refers to "climates," please have someone who can write and speak English properly email me back, thank you. Target has been an excellent company to work for and I've continued to shop at Target on a weekly basis, but these customer service miscues are major concerns that need to be addressed if we want to stay competitive.
10 replies (most recent on top)
To 86379, I asked you a question, you didn't response appropriately so then I axed you
Why is the "axe" story racist? There is no race mentioned. It is simply very poor grammar. I have heard people of all color make that mistake. I had to take a pretty intense writing and grammar test to get my call center job. They should hold the contractors to the same standards.
Sorry, my mistake, it's Cebu, I misspelled it the same way as I've always pronounced it with an "S." Me and my Filipino gf had a laugh at my expense over Sebu, I'm just a big tall, 295lbs obese, and dumb junk food loving, Coke guzzling German-American...hahahaha!!
Lemme "AXE" you something Anonymous86446, "why is it BS?" The demographic of Target's customers base are married 40+ years old women who speaks normal English and they would prefer that you "ASK" me something and not "AXE? KILL?" me something? Can you "AXE" me something, No, you can't put an AXE to me, one refers to a question and the other one is a tool to chop woods or to use to butchered the English language. It has nothing to do with race and everything to do with speaking the same language as your customers.
Yes, native speakers make mistakes too, but when guests start writing in how embarrassed they are of our writing abilities over misusing normal words like"weather" for "whether" and "there" for "their," these are "common" mistakes that most college graduated level native and non-native English don't usually make via the written words. It's like someone from the United States watching soccer in England and yelling, "Touchdown! Touchdown!" ...Aaah, that's pretty embarrassing....
86381, Cebu, fwiw. Having worked closely with the CSC and FRS teams, definitely was in Cebu. Never heard of Sebu before.
I'm calling b•llsh•t on the racist axe story.
If the guests' concerns are being addressed, why does it matter if someone misused a word or two. I would argue that native English speakers make mistakes too. I have witnessed guests acting like an a$$.
My Filipino girlfriend works for a call center by Sebu and she tole me she makes about a dollar an hour, which is alot compared to what she used to make as a farm hand. It's all relative. It comes down to effective training for these oversea reps, I'm sure they're really smart people, but if the training's not up to snuffs, well, you'll have them using "weather" for "whether," LOL.
Well, Walmart and Amazon outsourced people are just as bad if not worse than Target. You do get what you paid for in terms of non-native-English speakers oversea.