Strategies : Pacific Bell Reaches Out to the Vietnamese

Inside the classroom, all eyes were on Pacific Bell employee Yolanda Villines as she attempted to show students the art of dealing with angry customers.

“Remember,” said Villines, who has heard earfuls in her 11 years with the telephone company, “try to be a good listener, apologize and never, never interrupt someone who’s angry.”

The Vietnamese students, listening attentively, nodded their heads in agreement.

Another night and another lesson learned by participants in an innovative course sponsored by Pacific Bell.

The new program, which introduces students to American business while teaching English as a second language, is part of Pacific Bell’s first marketing strategy directed at Southern California’s 250,000 Vietnamese.

“PacBell is learning that the marketplace in California is changing so dramatically. We’re not dealing with just white, Anglo-Saxon customers any more,” said Linda Bonniksen, a spokeswoman for Pacific Bell in Orange County.

The class, which began as a community relations project, was designed to stimulate student interest in jobs within the telephone industry and to help them become better telephone users and Pacific Bell customers.

“If we can increase their telemarketing techniques or sales technique, then it improves using our telephone network,” Bonniksen said.

Alex Nguyen, a 53-year-old computer manufacturing representative, was among those who took the class to improve his telephone skills.

“I deal a lot with customers on the phone,” Nguyen said. “But because my English needs help, dealing with customers, especially when I’m under a lot of pressure, is always difficult for me.”

During the course, the 25 students learned to fill out employment applications, wrote cover letters and resumes, and were instructed, with the help of outside lecturers such as Yolanda Villines, on the delicate skill of telephone use in a business situation.

Pacific Bell, the state’s largest telecommunications corporation, does not now have any Vietnamese-speaking service representatives--considered “front-line” employees who field the complaints, billing inquiries and connect-disconnect orders. By late fall the company will have an 11-member bureau in Tustin that will field all inquiries from Vietnamese speakers statewide.

Although students were told that enrollment was not a guarantee of employment with the telephone company, 12 students applied for jobs as service reps, Bonniksen said.

“We weren’t interested in recruitment when we started the program,” Bonniksen said, adding that if students remain in their present jobs, “that’s fine with us.”

GTE, second in size to Pacific Bell in California, presently has no service reps who speak Vietnamese but is conducting surveys in the Vietnamese, Chinese and Cambodian communities in Southern California to determine their service needs, said Larry Cox, a GTE spokesman.

Pacific Bell donated $7,500 to help create the class, which was conducted three nights a week and three hours on Saturdays at the Vietnamese Community of Orange County Inc., a private, nonprofit organization in Santa Ana. The program was offered on a one-time basis as an extension course through Fullerton College. More than 170 refugees applied after reading about the program in Vietnamese-language newspaper advertisements.

The class, which began in March, ended with the 25 students receiving certificates of completion during a graduation ceremony April 16. If the results satisfy Pacific Bell executives, the approach could be used as a model to reach other Asian communities, Bonniksen said.

The project, which was spawned as a community relations idea, took on greater significance after Pacific Bell executives recently approved a new Asian marketing plan for Chinese, Korean and Vietnamese communities in Southern California, Bonniksen said.

In addition to Orange County, Pacific Bell plans to train and hire 19 Korean-speaking service reps by July for a similar bureau in Los Angeles. San Francisco is expected to have 10 Mandarin- and Cantonese-speaking reps by June.

The marketing plan was also an attempt by Pacific Bell to head off further criticism for not better serving its non-English-speaking customers. After complaints from Latino groups last year, Pacific Bell reached an agreement to improve the corporation’s minority employment record and customer service.

In addition to Pacific Bell, the class was developed with the help of Fullerton College instructor Francine Kaplan, who customized the course to suit the students’ needs. This meant increasing the students’ proficiency in English, which is a prerequisite for employment with any telephone company, Kaplan said.

“Many of the Vietnamese people in the past have always had a very rough time with the language. During the class, I would have them speaking English in different situations, such as having them sit in the front of the class and act as (telephone) operators. This allowed them to increase their understanding of English by simulating a work environment,” Kaplan said.

However, not all students took the class to learn about the telephone industry.

Trinh Pham, 26, who works as a telephone receptionist in a doctor’s office in Los Angeles, took the class to pick up some tips on how to get ahead in the working world.

“I lack business skills. I don’t want to just be a receptionist but I needed more experience. I want more opportunity.”