<h1>Best Ways to Handle Customers Who Ask Where You’re Located</h1>

“Where You At?”

This question sounds frighteningly familiar to practically every offshore customer service rep and, depending on your site’s policy regarding divulging your location, most would just gingerly say either “We’re offshore” or “I’m sorry we’re not allowed to tell you our location” and then wait whether the customer will go ahead and work with you or ask to be connected with somebody else or worse, ask for a sup.
I’m perfectly ok with “We’re offshore” in fact I use this quite often, but the “I’m sorry I can’t tell you where I’m at” spiel is just a bunch of BS like trouble just waiting to happen. How in the world do you think your customers can put their trust and confidence in you if you cannot even be honest enough to tell them where you’re located? If your site still has a Zero Tolerance Policy against telling customers your location, then I feel sorry for you and your site. Offshoring as a business practice had been going on since the late 80’s and most customers are already aware they will be speaking with an offshore rep even before they pick up the phone. In fact, most customers don’t seem to mind they’re speaking with an offshore customer service rep as long as they can both be on the same page and get the issue resolved efficiently.

”I’m Offshore”

Way back 2009 when I was a newbie handling hotel reservations, the account had a zero tolerance policy against telling customers where we’re at. It was a terminable offense to do so. I found this policy so frustrating considering most customers would always ask where I’m at since they will be making payments to book reservations using sensitive personal data such as socials as well as credit card info and I can certainly empathize with their concern. Telling customers we cannot divulge where we’re at usually results in customer asking to be transferred or just canceling the reservation. But the policy said nothing about saying I was offshore, so I found me a loophole and whenever a customer would ask where I’m at I would confidently and matter-of-factly state “I’m actually offshore AND we use the same SAFE AND SECURE payment system our US offices use. Which of our properties would you like me to help you with today?” Note that I used AND instead of BUT because I felt saying BUT at this crucial point makes me sound defensive and I don’t want to sound defensive when there is nothing to be defensive about. I immediately transition to going ahead with the transaction giving customer the impression that “Hey! I’m already here to help you. You can trust me. Let’s go ahead and do this!” Initially, my sup would warn me that I am bordering on ZTP with the “offshore” spiel I was using; QA would red flag me often for using a spiel that they have not approved. But that’s about as far as they can go unless they update their policy. Eventually, they allowed the “offshore” spiel especially after they saw it was working and customers were not asking to be transferred. Persistence does pay off!

Best Ways to Handle Customers Who Ask Where You’re Located

Talk Their Language

The first 10 seconds of the call will determine whether the customer will go ahead and do business with you or ask to be transferred. Your opening spiel should answer the customer’s question: “Should I go ahead and do business with this rep?” It will be helpful to learn to speak like a native English speaker and to speak it with confidence. Speaking like a native helps create an impression that you are on the same page with your customer. On the flipside, sounding tentative or insincere will create doubt in the customer’s mind, especially if processing payment is part of the transaction. Talking like a native alone should already be enough reason to convince your customer to continue the transaction with you.
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Reassure Customer about Personal Data Security

Today, more than ever, customers are increasingly becoming concerned about data breach and the security of their personal information. Personal data security is paramount in every customer’s mind. It isn’t so hard to understand why customers would have second thoughts about providing their personal data to a total stranger half-way across the globe. Using a confident tone, provide the customer your site’s commitment and strict adherence to personal data security. The sooner you reassure the customers about personal data security, the sooner they will trust you enough to do business with you.

Be Competent and Efficient

Customers value their time and expect customer service reps to respect that. Customers hate wasting time having to repeat information they have already provided. Any hint of incompetence and inefficiency within the first few minutes of the call will usually trigger the customer to ask for somebody else. Practice active listening and efficiency on every call.

Play By Ear

Not everyone who asks you where you're at has hostile intentions. Some are probably just curious while others may actually be just trying to start a friendly conversation. I remember one particular call from an elderly gentleman who asked where I'm at. Turns out the elderly gentleman used to be a Marine stationed in Subic Bay just North of Manila and he had fond memories of his stay in the Philippines. So, you really can never tell. Just play by ear and see where the conversation goes. Rule of thumb, let the customer initiate any conversation about where you're at.

Do Not Insist

You can’t win them all. Sadly, even today there are folks who still think people in third world countries wear grass skirts and live in caves or that offshoring took their jobs away. No amount of English communication skill or empathy can overcome this bias and convince these folks to do business with an offshore rep. There’s no point changing their perspective so don’t argue and don't insist. Simply follow your site’s policy regarding returning a customer back to the queue and politely release the customer.

If every call we get were easy calls, our shift would be so boring. Difficult calls and difficult customers challenge us to be better and push us to think outside the box. There is nothing more satisfying than receiving positive feedback from customers who proved difficult at the onset but eventually ended the call on a happy note. Next time a customer asks you where you’re located, use that as an opportunity to impress your customer and convince them that you are as good, if not better, than reps on the mainland.