Talking Across the World:
Silence Is Not An Option

Presented by Rocky Peltzman & Joan Fishburn
Talking Across the World Conference
February 25
Manila, Philippines

“My dog was killed yesterday in a car accident.”

“I heard on the news this morning that the United States will be pulling all of its troops out of Iraq by June 2006.

My comments were met with silence, except for a few sounds from a few members of the audience. Now let me try that again:

“I’m going to give everyone in this room two crisp $100 dollar bills for attending this conference.”

Ahh, that’s better. You’ve just given me a Quick Reply.

A Quick Reply is the name given by Gerard Counihan to backchanneling, or, as we write on our whiteboard, SILENCE IS NOT AN OPTION.

This talk will cover why Americans need verbal and semi-verbal response during phone conversations, why our Filipino trainees have difficulty incorporating them, and how we go about teaching and practicing the technique in the classroom.

John Clements Consultants provides Foundation Training for newly-hired call center agents and BPO staff who provide services to North American clients. Our 80-hour, 10-day course, consists of modules on Polishing English, American Culture, Accent Reduction, Email writing, Work Values Enhancement and Customer Service. We also conduct Train the Trainer, Train the English Teacher, and 100-hour Polishing English courses for near hires.

Backchanneling is a skill that we introduce early in our program and reinforce in almost every oral activity thereafter.

After teaching our first batch of students and monitoring calls, I realized that local students never gave verbal responses—yes, oh really, I see—nor semi-verbal responses—uh-huh, mm-mmm—when doing fluency activities and games in pairs or small groups, or during customer service role plays. They listened attentively, politely waiting until it was their turn to speak.

English in the Philippines closely resembles North American English, with some lexical and idiomatic differences. Our students come to us with what would be an advanced level of English in other non-English speaking countries. Filipino-English allows them to communicate with each other and with foreigners in a common language. However, when they begin to speak with native English speakers in or from North America, the differences in usage become quickly apparent. One of these differences is, as you might guess, in the use of backchanneling.

Filipinos, when speaking in Tagalog, use backchanneling in much the same way that we do in North America. For example, the word “talaga” is used exactly as Americans use “really? or really!”, although far less frequently. On the phone, some Filipinos use “o” exactly as Americans use “uh-huh”. However, when they make the shift from Filipino English to North American English, they do not backchannel without a LOT of prompting. Learning this skill means understanding not only the idiomatic phrases of North America, but also attaining a level of cultural fluency that will allow them to put their customers at ease.

When we are learning to talk, we learn to backchannel by mimicking the way the adults around us talk while they are speaking in day-to-day or informal settings. However, when we learn a foreign language in school, we most often learn through structured or “false” dialogs. We are focused on the vocabulary and the grammar structure more than on speaking with a natural flow. Because there are no formal rules for backchanneling, those who learn a language only learn to give these verbal cues when they become culturally fluent as well as linguistically fluent. Many cultures use backchanneling, but their customs vary and what might be seen as encouraging conversation in one culture could be seen as disrespectful in another.

Often our students have a difficult time adjusting to the lower levels of formality found in North America. Even in our classes, where we try to model the informal workplace commonly found in North America, our students still express uncertainty over the relationship between the trainer and the students. Many still refer to the trainers as “ma’am” throughout the 80-hour course, even after they have been requested to use first names. This reflects a culture that has a long history of respect for hierarchy in the family, in schools, and in business. This ingrained respect leaves the students unsure about when it is proper and expected that they interject verbal cues when dealing with a North American customer. However, what they struggle to understand is that by not backchanneling, they can increase their customers’ level of discomfort. The American “inclination for talk” leaves customers feeling embarrassed because their need for ratification is not met. In fact, the continuation of the communication can be put at risk.

Research has shown that those who speak more, speak quickly and take shorter pauses attribute to themselves characteristics such as “cooperative, easy-going, competent, open and sociable”. In contrast, those who talk less with longer pauses, regarded themselves as “uncooperative, rigid, detached, less competent, restrained and shy”. The subjects in the study to which we are referring were all young women from colleges around
New York City. All were Caucasian Americans. In contrast, Filipino culture values those who speak less--those who talk too much or too fast are viewed as boastful or arrogant.

Ron Scollon applies a metaphor to human communication in Western industrialized societies: smooth talk is the natural state of a smoothly running machine, and silences indicate malfunction, trouble or failure. Therefore it follows that Westerners may have negative perceptions about speakers from a culture that traditionally communicates with frequent or long periods of “non-talk”, and attribute negative stereotypes to both the speaker and to their native culture.

In addition to the elements of cultural expectations on the part of the customer, agents may have other cultural barriers that inhibit them from engaging in verbal feedback. For example, it is not uncommon for agents to show an unwillingness to give a negative answer to a client. Therefore, when the answer is “no”, silence is often the CSR’s preferred option.

Noted linguist Deborah Tannen states that using silence is an extreme manifestation of indirectness. However, others say that silence expresses verbal politeness, especially in order for the speaker, in our case the Filipino customer service rep, to save face for either himself or the customer. If the customer indicates that the silence is unnerving by calling attention to it with a question such as “Are you still on the line?”, the agent may perceive THAT as being impolite or as a source of interactive trouble.

As part of the modules on American culture that we teach our students, we discuss at great length the openness that North Americans have to a negative response as long as an alternative is offered. However, even those students who are able to backchannel with some degree of consistency have difficulty maintaining verbal feedback when a negative answer must be given. The least harmful result is that the customer will feel negatively toward the agent (and therefore, by extension, to the company) when there is no response to a comment or query. What could be potentially more problematic is when the customer interprets the silence to be an affirmative rather than a negative response.

I would like to give you an example of how powerful it is when an agent uses quick replies properly.

One night, in one of my first batches of trainees (as they are known in the Philippines) while BPO staff were doing role plays, I had my back to the class while I was pulling out material for the next activity. My ear focused on the closest pair and I had a type of “out of body” experience—for a brief moment, I literally thought I was in the United States, eavesdropping on a call. I immediately wheeled around to see which trainee was playing the “analyst” role, only to discover that it was the trainee with the heaviest local accent. I was very pleased to note that by using backchanneling, her accent was not even an issue--she sounded more “American” than the trainees who spoke more fluently, more accurately and with a neutral accent.

As trainers, John Clements hires North Americans and Filipinos who’ve lived in the United States and Canada because they can best inculcate the trainees culturally at the same time as building fluency and accuracy in English. As an American consumer, I know that when I’m explaining my customer service problem, I expect the listener to respond so that I am sure I’m being heard and understood and even being encouraged to elaborate.

When I don’t hear that, and am met with silence—also known as Dead Air—I get anxious. I sub-consciously ask, “Is the agent there? Does he or she understand me? What’s going on?” As I get panicky, I ask the agent, “Are you still on the line? Are you still there?” Knapp calls the failure of backchanneling at the appropriate places “listener silence” and gives the speaker the impression that the listener is uncooperative, uninterested, dishonest or unintelligent. I know when I experience it, I can feel my confidence in the agent ebbing.

If I am already frustrated by a problem that is hard to solve, if I am in a rush, or if I harbor ill-will because I believe that offshore agents have “stolen” jobs from my home country, the hesitation or silence may even cause my frustration level to move up a notch. If this happens, I may become an “irate caller”, something that agents and companies want to avoid at all costs and must do their best to neutralize quickly and effectively.

Other factors in a call can build rapport between an agent and caller: use of the polite but friendly modals, a warm non-monotonous voice, an empathetic attitude. However, hearing the agent respond to every sentence, perhaps even every clause, tells me “I’m with you, Ms. Smith and I understand your concern.”

This American volubility extends even to comments unrelated to the call itself. I need a response when I say, “Oh, I’ve spilled my coffee!” or “There’s someone at the door.”

Agents have told us that they have not been taught by their previous employers that Americans are discomfited by silence. Anecdotal evidence shows that a customer comment in the most serious vein passes without a response: One trainer noted that when a customer said that her mother had died two days before, the agent reverted to the script found on her monitor. One can only imagine what the customer thought of the CSR’s lack of response.

So, how do we teach and practice it? On Day 2 of our course, we introduce Quick Replies to the students, as it will take the remaining eight days to assimilate this fluency technique and begin to use it naturally. Based on Gerard Counihan’s lesson, just as I did with you today, I start by making comments that would normally elicit a response from a group of Americans.

I always begin with, “I’m going to let you out two hours early today,” and I am, without exception, met with silence. On the fourth or fifth comment, I usually get a remark by one or two trainees, and of course, I praise them. I briefly explain that most Americans love to talk and feel uncomfortable when there is silence in face-to-face conversations and, even more so, on the phone where non-vocal cues are not visible.

Next, we set a scenario. For example, we are sitting in a food court after lunch, just chatting or relaxing. I pick up a newspaper and begin making comments about the articles, such as “Mr. So and So won the lottery!”, encouraging them to reply. Each time they don’t, I point and say, “Silence is not an option!”. They burst into giggles, literally. If they reply too late, I snap my fingers and explain that the reply must be in a heartbeat.

Once I am successful in getting most of the class to reply, I break them up into small groups of 3 to 5 and have each participant within the group set a scenario and make three comments, with all giving a Quick Reply. I follow up by choosing a group or two to model for the class.

On Day 3, we play for the class a recording of a call-in radio show about a happy postal carrier named Jim, in order to illustrate and reinforce how pervasive backchanneling is in phone conversations. While listening to the tape, students may notice that the replies are so quiet that the caller does not slow down or pause to acknowledge the listener and some may agree with me that the interviewer breaks in so often that some are even annoying interruptions.

Practicing backchanneling is integrated into every fluency activity or discussion on an American Culture article. When we have them break into pairs or small groups for oral practice, we remind them to give Quick Replies as well as asking questions, challenging others’ opinions and peer-correction. Our success rate is uneven. Up until Day 10, our last day, we are still reminding them. Our most common “correction” is to remind them that nodding cannot be heard over the phone.

For future classes, we plan to elicit from our trainees the adjectives that they associate with the noun “silence”. For North Americans, frequent combinations are “uneasy, strange, awkward or leaden.” North Americans rarely, if ever, speak of an “exuberant or happy” silence.

To end our talk, we’d like to acknowledge a couple of comments made by the trainees themselves about why they do not always backchannel.

1. In Many companies the use of “uh-huh” is not permitted. CSR’s must reply with “yes”.
2. If the customer is ranting and raving, CSRs are trained to let him or her get it all out and to make no sounds or interruptions of any kind.
3. Agents say that they are working hard to listen actively, speak accurately with warmth, follow the client’s SOP, take notes, read a monitor and resolve the customer’s concern—all simultaneously. Remembering to backchannel is simply difficult.

In addition, English is a second language to most of our inexperienced agents and they may need more time to plan a response than the more experienced agent. The cognitive pause may, therefore simply have its origin in learner-language limitations.

The use of backchanneling is one of the criteria that we use for giving the trainees a final oral score. While we understand that using backchanneling is both reflection of the adaptation to the cultural expectations of the customer as well as a fluency skill, it is an integral part of customer service communications.

Backchanneling builds rapport. While it does not make or break a call, it does increase customers’ comfort and confidence.