Customer Satisfaction: Offshore Language Woes

"The representative didn't understand me."

"I had to ask them to repeat what they were saying."

"Get employees that speak English!"

"Don't send our jobs offshore."

It looks like customer satisfaction complaints about "understanding," customer service representatives have grown since outsourcing offshore. How concerned should you be? And, what actions should be taken?

A knee-jerk reaction is to focus on the language and comprehension skills of the representatives. Many vendors ramp up language programs to improve grammar, reduce accents, or focus on many accents within a market. In most cases, this is a focus in the wrong direction and will not achieve the results you're after. Why? Well, great diction, enunciation, or even the ability to sound like your customers, isn't going to make them happy. Solving their problem in a quick and friendly way will.

If you're unsure about this, take a look at the correlation of any "language" metric on the customer satisfaction measurement and compare it with the metric most related to issue resolution. Without a doubt, there will be a high correlation.

So we know what to look at, but where should we focus our attention? Three areas:

• Issue resolution
• Average handle time
• Tenure

The three areas above are all related. Your front-line representatives who have done the job longer, will likely be more knowledgeable and comfortable with resources (such as systems, knowledge bases, etc.). As a result, they'll have the ability to resolve customer concerns faster. And, they'll typically have higher returns on customer satisfaction all around.

Waiting around for customer satisfaction to get better might be the most sure-fire way for it to happen. But, the lost revenue, customer churn, and bad public-relations justify a short-term solution as well. Not to mention, risk reduction is one of the reasons outsourcing was chosen and your reputation is on the line.

For new representatives: Build call simulation into the solution. High-tech or low-tech solutions will help to achieve the desired result. Ultimately, you need these new employees to have as much exposure to tools and resources as possible, before getting on the phone with customers. Don't wait until they're on the phone with your customer's to perform dress rehearsals with them.

Extend on-the-job training (OJT) and build in graduation requirements for new employees into the plan. This might hurt in the short-term as productivity will be lower, but the return on investment (ROI) will be quickly seen in the lift to customer satisfaction. A phased approach to OJT will be discussed in a future blog.

For existing representatives: Hold "Good to Great" sessions with existing representatives. In teams or in a classroom, discuss with representatives aspects of a great call. Listen to examples of good calls and great calls and discuss the difference.

Finally, ensure each representative has a solid understanding of how customer satisfaction is measured. This includes knowing the questions asked, how it is reported, current results, and desired results. For more impact, display customer satisfaction results prominently -- use a quantifiable way to display results and show, visually, where we are and where we need to be.

For management: In addition to what we would do for representatives, quality specialists and supervisors, should calibrate on good and great calls regularly. They should also receive coaching to better understand how to address behaviors that impact customer satisfaction.

Adjust your focus and reduce the risks for offshore language woes.

Before Outsourcing: Define Company Culture

Why is it important? Having a clearly defined and communicated company culture is essential for loyalty, vision, and driving results. When outsourcing your customer service, it is critical to be able to communicate expectations and have a theme of culture and values to tie those expectations to. Defining your company's culture in a strong and sustainable way will make the outsourcing experience consistent for your customers.

How? Most individuals within a company have some idea of what their company's culture is. You might be surprised though if you were to ask others to interpret the culture of the company. At the core, a company's culture is a set of shared values and practices. We've already established this is critical to the success of outsourcing, but where do you start?

There has already been work done for you in most cases. First, take a look at:

• Mission / Vision Statements
• Company Values
• Existing communication processes
• Logos and other related collateral
• Strong representatives of company culture

Here are some example characteristics of company cultures that others have used successfully:

• Mission clarity
• Employee commitment
• Fully empowered employees
• High integrity workplace
• Strong trust relationships
• Highly effective leadership
• Effective systems and processes
• Performance-based compensation and reward programs
• Customer-focused
• Effective 360-degree communications
• Commitment to learning and skill development
• Emphasis on recruiting and retaining outstanding employees
• High degree of adaptability
• High accountability standards
• Demonstrated support for innovation

Also consider these factors and their importance:

• Industry recognition (e.g., customer service awards)
• Communication style (dignified professional communication vs. relaxed friendly communication)
• Management engagement with employees
• Executive engagement with employees

Going Overboard: In the end, you are outsourcing because you trust the experts who will handle your business. Yes it is critical to establish your company's culture and gain commitment from your vendor to ingrain, promote, and foster the same culture, but there are limits. The vendor's culture will likely have points complimentary to your organization's culture. Use these complimentary points to your advantage. Also, realize the vendor will have processes in place that will enhance the experience of your customers. Allow within your culture, the opportunity to experiment and innovate and also accept variance from vendor to vendor when it comes to processes. However, demand the same results regardless of the vendor.

Make it stick. Defining and communicating your company's culture once will never be enough. Set up a clear and recurring method of communicating the culture of your organization. Utilize those who exemplify the company's culture and those who help to define and shape the culture to communicate this message. Test, that's right TEST, your vendors on the culture through audits, questionnaires, and discussions to ensure your customer service partners understand the culture inside and out.

What if? What if we've already outsourced, and our culture hasn't taken with the vendor? Use the above tips to define and communicate your company's culture. Do it now, do it again in a month, three months, and continually going forward. If you're behind with this, you're going to need to hit it big and keep plugging away to get it into the fabric of your vendor's business.

Customer Service Outsourced is...

Welcome to Customer Service Outsourced. Customer's know right away when their call has landed in a country far away. When companies first start outsourcing customer service, there is often a corresponding decrease in customer satisfaction. It doesn't have to be that way however. This series will address ways to make the best of the off-shoring situation for companies, their employees, and their vendor's employees.

Follow this blog today to begin getting the most for your customers and their experience with customer service outsourced.