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Editor’s Note: Whether you have offshore facilities in India, are considering a move to the region, or are a customer experiencing frustration with the agents abroad, you must read this article. Written by a training specialist in accent neutralization, it gives you an appreciation of what of is going on, and why.
It was just 13 years ago, in 1991, when India integrated with the world economy. Prior to then, the concept of customer service in India was somewhat limited. Today, as the Indian economy moves toward a service-based economy, this attitude is beginning to change.
Context Setting
The business climate. The concept of doing business over the phone (or even remotely through the Internet) was traditionally not a part of the standard Indian business
psyche before 1991. Therefore, Indian society had not faced the need to articulate creatively via telephone. Although telemarketing, paging services and the concept of making money over the phone are still relatively new to the country, local services have now geared up to handle customer service and sales through telecommunications and electronic media. Moreover, India is a vast and culturally diverse country with a fascinating contrast in the internal culture of various regions. These realities have made recruiting and training for call centers a tricky proposition.
The language. Most Indian languages are flat and do not entail much voice modulation or waviness. Most regional Indian languages are spoken with horizontal jaw movements, whereas the standard American accent requires vertical jaw movements. In addition, for many Indian speakers, English is a second language. As a result, they reflexively carry the horizontal jaw movement of their mother tongue into English speaking. So, Indian English is spoken with the mouth closed and with rapid lip movements. This often makes it difficult for an American to comprehend the offshore agent. Dropping the jaw as in the American speech automatically slows the speech.
Unique Training Needs
A specially designed and focused training can effectively address the fluctuations in speech patterns. Graduates of well-designed, focused programs are testimony to the fact that it is possible for a middle-class Indian, who has never left the homeland, to effectively service global callers. In our experience, we''ve found most students to be excellent imitators, with a persistent desire to upgrade their communication skills. They possess an inherent need to please and the application of an appropriate—albeit extensive—cultural immersion program with accent training seems to work well.
Understanding and imitating the sounds of the U.S. vowel system is integral to setting up a foundation for further study. An ideal training program should focus not only on accent, but also dialect to affect a meaningful shift in perception and provide the agent with an appropriate attitudinal reference point. Many times, an agent will possess the right accent but tend to speak in a dialect that may impede communication.
An effective training program also needs to be well-designed and -structured. While most of the focus seems to be on speaking correctly, it is equally important to realize that speaking correctly is usually a by-product of listening and understanding the culture, which should be given enough prominence in the training program.
Listening: It is a scientifically verifiable fact that better listeners become better speakers. To be effective, training programs should provide sufficient relevant colloquial listening exercises in the target accent. Agents must be taught to listen.
Even in U.S. call centers physically located in the United States there is an extensive focus on teaching agents to listen effectively so they can ask good questions to better understand and anticipate client needs. In India, agents put in extra efforts to acquire the above skills as they carry the added burden of comprehending the accent simultaneously. Hence, listening becomes essential.
Culture: Understanding the culture is important, and training programs should have at least a cursory overview. This includes identifying important geographical locations in the target country. For example, training could address the Indian-to-American English word conversions as well as other aspects of the target country, such as national holidays and pastimes. Contrary to popular opinion, culture training in this application is not limited to certain cultural stereotypes that are often portrayed in the U.S. media.
Culture training must focus on enabling agents to understand the “spirit” of the communication, rather than just the intricacies in the accent, to enable them to deliver a better solution. Agents must be able to pick up on certain social cues, certain nuances and subtle underlying signals.
International callers often reflexively use creative expressions to communicate. This communication conveys an attitude that mutates to various situational circumstances, and is often “made up” on the spur of the moment. It may not always be possible to trace the exact meaning of this sort of phraseology down to slang books and dictionaries. It is therefore important to impress upon agents the overall mindset of foreign speakers.
For example, examine the phrase: “Sounds like you’re having a bad case of the Mondays.” Meaning: The speaker is referring to the fact that after a weekend, employees are in a transitional mind set on most Mondays, as they adjust to the demands of the upcoming workweek. Therefore, most people do not like Mondays.
Training must focus on simulations and role-plays where actual culture-sensitive situations such as these are re-created and resolved.
Additionally, the vast number of regional languages in India requires the program to be flexible to effectively address various idiosyncratic needs of students of various language communities. On a scale of 1 to 10, where 10 would be an acceptable neutral/augmented accent, a south Indian may enter at 4 while someone from a city such as Mumbai may enter at 6. Many existing accent neutralization/accent augmentation programs work on a standard template for all programs. A uniform training template can be used for 60 percent of the training, with the remaining 40 percent of the program structured to meet individual language deficiencies. This way, a training program for every group will have certain unique elements designed to combat their specific language issues.
It’s also important that there is also post-training dilution in speaking skills acquired. Because there is a strong propensity to speak in the mother tongue at home and during non-working hours, the speaking skills must be continually practiced. Trainers must engage in a relentless and collaborative post-training effort, through periodic refresher programs, to see the accent and attitudinal shift come to fruition. A comprehensive training program produces a convincing vector of improvement in accent, but maintaining permanence and quality requires follow-up attention. A voice coach on the floor can offer further guidance and on-the-job training.
Alignment with Recruiting and Selection
The ultimate aim is to make the program work within the overall prescriptive framework outlined by the client contact center. To achieve success in this, the training team needs to extend itself to assist the Human Resources department with recruitment.
The most critical aspect is the right selection process. Prior to placing the advertisement, HR needs to identify the appropriate demographic factors they are looking for with respect to age, sex, educational, cultural background and English-speaking skills. Personality Profiling Techniques can be used and Personality types such as sophisticated, vivacious, extrovert, etc., should be defined. These need to be assessed and identified through scientific testing and screening procedures. Candidates should also be rated on mental poise, inherent confidence factors and the like. The propensity of candidates to culturally adapt to a target culture needs to be determined. One necessary characteristic is that the individuals need to be curious about foreign cultures. It has been found that Indians in non-metro areas have only a superficial understanding of many target cultures, and no inherent “feel” for those cultures.
It is recommended that a pre-training aptitude test be given to determine the point of entry of the students. Total training time/hours per day and other criteria need to be confirmed in collaboration and based on empirical evidence obtained through the pre-testing procedure. Training programs must be able to quantify results, benchmark students and take responsibility for performance, subject to other things being equal.
Finally, an audio-lingual (hearing and speaking) method of instruction should be adopted. This means that hearing is practiced for the purpose of comprehension, and speaking is done for the purpose of expression. Both these skills are crucial aspects of any accent neutralization program. For contact centers, learning these skills is a very high requirement that cannot be accomplished simply through writing and reading. Such skill sets are physical rather than intellectual; they must be practiced to attain mastery.
We find that offshore agents are incredibly enthusiastic and earnestly try to soften their t’s and roll their r’s. There is nothing more positive than the self-confidence and the optimism that these young and intelligent employees of the contact centers show in an accent training class, and nothing more important than when it works for the benefit of the customer. |
