Most of my customer support calls with brands, such as AT&T, go this way when they want to verify my information.

“Sir, can we have your first name, please?”

“Kurian.”

“Sir, can you please spell that for me?”

“K-U-R-I…”

“Sir, can we try your last name instead?”

“Sure, Babykutty.”

“Sir, can you spell that for me, too?”

“B-A-B-Y-K-U…”

“Sir, can we go back to your first name, please?” ??

I take a deep breath and then say, “I’m already a customer in your database. Can’t you easily locate me by confirming my phone number instead of my name?”

“Err… yes, I can, sir.”

I’m not the first immigrant in the U.S. with a hard name to spell and pronounce, I’m not the only such immigrant, and I’ll definitely not be the last.

If you want to follow the playbook, it’s very easy to make this call long and hard. 

If you want to fight friction, it’s very easy to make it short and sweet.