Today, offshoring does not only continue to offer cost efficiency, but it is also well on its way to becoming a viable solution that offers a good customer experience.  A close look at offshore call centers and actual customer interactions reveals that beyond language, there are other factors that need to be addressed to further close the gap that exists between offshoring and performance improvement.

 

As an increased number of organizations turn to offshoring for cost savings, there is a need to find out what these "gaps" are to achieve performance improvement.  Because the people working in these centers are highly skilled and motivated to do a good job, they are earning the right to exist; now all that is needed is to bridge the gap. To do this, we need to understand how we can help them to be more effective.

 

While language barriers do have an effect on callers, those barriers have begun to diminish offshore as accent neutralization training has allowed agents to concentrate on pronunciation and as a result, speak better. Even after this improvement, frustration with these offshore centers continues to exist. The reality is that there is more to customer experience than just the language barrier.

 

As Dina Vance, Senior Vice President at Ulysses Learning,a provider of call center training solutions explained when she took some time to speak with TMCnet recently regarding offshoring and performance improvement, "Spending time overseas in different call centers within India, the Philippines and South America, accent wasn’t the issue - it was cultural. They didn’t understand the cultural nuance of Americans and this was attributing to the gap."

 

In America, something that is seen as offensive can be seen overseas in a completely different light. This is where the gap in the customer satisfaction these centers can provide, widens.

 

An example is the difference between empathy and sympathy, Vance commented. In the offshore centers, agents had been told to show sympathy to callers who expressed a problem—saying things like, "I feel bad that this has happened" or "Wow, that is unfortunate."

 

From the American perspective, those types of statements are culturally taken as insincere. Instead, focusing on changing those sympathetic statements to show empathy with, "I can understand how frustrating that is" or "I can see how frustrating it would be to…," has proven more effective from the customer perspective.

 

To better train agents to be aware of these differences, call centers provide in their training manuals a section on cultural differences. Unfortunately, someone from within their culture who does not grasp completely the American perspective or customer experience typically writes these manuals.

 

While overseas, Vance said it was interesting to find one large company's training around the cultural gap included such things as, "Americans lack patience", "they are more inclined to use credit", "they want to feel understood."

 

To better train agents with an understanding of the culture, it is important to start back at the customer experience.

 

Another difference that can be seen is that of ownership of the call. Americans want agents to take ownership of the call. Something as simple as making different word choices can provide this, explained Vance.

 

Culturally, they (the offshore agents) seem to feel that by ingratiating themselves and using a lot of "we" statements they are building stronger relationships--saying things like, "Let’s look at this together" and other "we" statements. When really, American callers want to hear the agent owning up to the problem at hand with strong I can statements like, "Sure, I can help you with that" and "Absolutely, you've reached the right person."

 

There is also a difference when it comes to probing callers that creates a gap between asking questions and ensuring first call resolution. Culturally, agents overseas tend to see probing as intrusive. For Americans, it promotes customer experience and helps to reassure that the situation is understood.

 

"We want to make sure that our situation is understood--that they’ve validated their understanding of what we want and that our questions and needs are all being addressed during one call resolution. That isn’t a direct match when culturally they feel if they’re asking too many questions, it shows a lack of knowledge or that they're bothering the Americans," Vance explained.

 

Good call center training can inform agents about when and how to ask the right questions in order to bridge this gap.

 

Another gap Vance pointed to is one that relates to a satisfying customer experience.  

 

Noting research done by SQM Group, Vance explained that at the end of the day, what callers really want is their problem solved. And often times, limited capacity keeps these offshore centers from completing that task.

 

"Within these offshore centers, we have not given them enough autonomy, control, direction, or access to all of our systems. They can only take it to one point. To bridge the gap, we have to make sure that we've given them all the same tools, accessibility and processes necessary to be effective at their job, so  they aren’t the scapegoats for poor service and  they can give customers what they want, which is the answer to their questions and  problems."

 

As an example, Dina turned to one company she visited while overseas where people were calling into the contact center for help with a certain subject but the agents  were given enough knowledge to answer only basic questions and anything more complex had to be transferred to the American center.  Because they were never solving the issue, feedback on the Indian call center was always negative.

 

Looking to these "gaps" and focusing call center training and performance improvement tactics around them can allow offshoring to continue on the path towards ongoing performance improvement and a better customer experience.  

 

In keeping on the subject of offshoring, Vance also highlighted some of the best practices that are emerging from the offshoring world. Here is a quick run down:

 

-Coach to Agent Ratio: Because labor rates are lower overseas, centers can invest in universal coaches and offer a much better ratio. Instead of 1:20, which is standard in the States, they achieve 1:5.

 

-Bringing in the American ear: Bringing in someone with the American ear to the site to work side by side with the agents helps them to get accustomed to not just the literal interpretation of the call but the intuitive piece of what the customer really wants.

 

-Training Time: Offshore centers have the ability and capacity to offer more training time. We, here in the States spend somewhere between 6 and 12 hours a year on skill development, in India, Vance found from visiting sample sites, there was anywhere from 20-30 hours per year being invested in training and development. With the right call center training in place, this translates into a richer customer experience.