Nothing Good Happens… Until You Understand Each Other
The importance of clear communication in the call center between agent and customer—
“Seek first to understand—then be understood” is a famous line from the Steven Covey book, Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, a late 80s and early 90s phenomenon. It applies to many situations, but I can think of few it applies more to than great customer service. In this age of creating a great customer experience and emerging technology that delivers unparalleled insight and information on customers, it’s easy to forget a fundamental support requirement: Can the person providing the support… be understood?
More emphasis has been placed on this critical element in recent years because, let’s face it, dialects—even in the same language—can be difficult for many people to understand. Accents and regional phrases, such as uh-huh, ya’ll, you betcha’, Eh?, and “prolly” (for probably) can roll right over the heads of agents who don’t speak English as a first language, leading to long, awkward pauses and strained conversations.
We’ve all been there—I know I have—here’s how this particular issue recently lost me as a customer:
I recently had to fire my internet service provider. For a variety of reasons, but a big one was that they had outsourced support to an extremely low-cost voice support provider in a different country that knew little about Americans. For reasons unknown to me and the majority of their customers, they chose to drop their previous, award-winning, high quality phone support for the cheapest they could find. My calls typically went something along the lines of this—
“Hi, my service is down—I think the modem isn’t working.”
“(Unintelligible) you (unintelligible) the modem?”
“I’m not sure what you just said, but it’s not working—no lights are lit, and I have no internet access.”
“Please check the (unintelligible).”
“What?”
Louder this time: “I am asking you to please check the (still unintelligible).”
“I’m sorry… what??! I still can’t understand you.”
And then it started to go downhill.
Needless to say, interactions like these didn’t exactly create customer advocates—their business is now a fraction of what it used to be. I quickly realized that this company valued me— and my business— so little that they had chosen to outsource it to the lowest cost per minute provider in the free world. Oddly, they were shocked when my last call like this ended our relationship. .
The net result was having to tell an agent— who in fairness, was sincerely trying to help me but lacked the proper dialect and language skills to properly do so—I could not understand what they were saying, and needed to be transferred to someone who spoke English as their primary language.
Sometimes when I would say this, it would suddenly become apparent to me that they couldn’t understand me, either- they were still stuck trying to solve my problem, when I’d asked them for a transfer over a minute ago. Unfortunately, I’m not alone—the support world is littered with stories like this.
An elemental key to providing a great customer experience—critical in the era of online reviews and customer service functioning as the marketing—is providing support agents who the caller can relate to and converse with in a meaningful way. When in place, exceptional things happen on the call; increased customer satisfaction, greater customer retention, faster issue resolution, repeat sales, better online reviews, opportunities to upsell and cross-sell, and more.
However, none of that can happen… until you understand each other.
Astute companies have realized the importance of evaluating dialects and matching English— spoken as a first language— is critical. The same thing applies for Spanish, French, Portuguese, or any other language support. First language should by now be a mantra of all support organizations involved on phone support.
Surprisingly, confusion and misunderstanding can even occur within US-based support companies. Imagine having a south Boston support agent trying to communicate technical instructions to an elderly person from Mississippi. The world may need a new version of, “Who’s on First” written, but I wouldn’t want it coming from my service department.
But these conversational disconnects go further than even language; cultural considerations must be taken into account as well. Just because a prospective agent has a good accent doesn’t mean the conversation will, “click” as should. CSRs can benefit from understanding the background and culture of the customer as well. Understanding the music they listen to, the sports they play, and the TV shows they watch all allows for a greater connection. This creates chemistry between the customer and agent, resulting in a much more seamless customer experience, better online reviews, fewer customer deflections, and more customers driven as a result of people sharing these experiences.
So what should companies do to ensure a great language experience? First, staff for each language with people who speak the language they support, as a first language. First-language speakers are important as they substantially reduce dialect-related misunderstandings and slang or contractions that non-first language agents may never have heard before. Think of it in these terms—if you had to learn a new language, how would you feel talking to an angry person who was talking quickly and using slang at the same time and expected you to understand every word? Challenging to say the least.
Secondly, screen for people with strong language and listening skills. In our own operations, we have a rating scale based on the language and dialect that the agent will support. Score below a certain score and they can’t go on the phones. Score above it and they will qualify for training. Simple and effective, it helps ensure everyone on the phone is easily understandable and meets a minimum requirement.
Third, train agents—beyond language—to understand the unique accent and dialect of the areas they are supporting. Supporting people in the south? Have someone from that part of the country train them regarding words, slang and culture with which they may not be familiar. . For example, supporting Canadians? Agents may need to be able to understand a strong French/English accent. It may help if they also can discuss hockey or culture related to their products and services. If agents are immersed in the language and culture of the area they will support—for even just a few days—it’s been shown to improve the overall quality of support and customer experience.
Done well, customers may not even realize they’re working with someone from outside their local area. And even if they do, it likely won’t matter—the agent has still been able to connect with them.
They were understood—and good things are bound to happen.
About the Author
Errol Greene is Solutions Development Manager, Clear Harbor, a strategic near-shoring firm based in Atlanta, GA (www.clearharbor.biz ) with operations in the Caribbean. Founded by call center industry veterans who had, “seen it done wrong more than done right.” They dreamed of creating a strategic “co-sourcing” company that focused on specific core competencies and delivered world-class customer experience as a result. With this collaborative approach clients achieve remarkable improvements in customer experience and revenues, while at the same time, reducing operational costs. To learn specifics on how they do this, contact the author, Errol Greene at egreene@clearharbor.biz or at 678-566-3212, ext. 304.