Here are some tips on serving customers with disabilities on the phone:
- Speak normally, clearly and directly.
- Don’t worry about how their voice sounds. Concentrate on what’s being said.
- 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.