One constant complaint we receive from customers would be the accent of the agent. You’ll always hear “I want to talk to someone who can speak English.” We’ve analyzed Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) Surveys, complaints and heard many calls. What have we found? It’s NOT the accent.
As call center agents, we receive hundreds of calls. We’ve interacted with so many people and heard the same issue over and over again. We then assume what the customer is calling about. We jump to conclusions, go right to the solution and the next thing we know, the call has been escalated. More often than not, we’ll receive surveys stating that they couldn’t understand the agent because of the accent.
Though this may be true as well, a call can be turned into a successful one if we were to stop and LISTEN TO THEM FIRST. We often hear phrases or select words than the whole sentence, after which we then process immediately. The accent is the first thing they notice (apart of it being obvious) and now assume you can’t understand them.
We’ve minimized the frequency of complaints on accents by training agents to listen more. It is simple. Try listening to your calls and pick out a sample size. Experiment with a team of agents who received these complaints. You’ll notice an improvement and they can become your best agents.
I have to agree with you completely. In my experience with offshore call centers, the goal in the agent's mind is to complete the call as quickly as possible. I have noticed that agents rarely take the time to fully listen to the customer's objections or complaints. Most of the time, they just talk right over the customer, assuming that they know what the objection is, and what their response should be. Remember the golden rule of communication - Seek first to understand, then seek to be understood.
Posted by: Jonathan | February 23, 2006 12:09 PM | Permalink to Comment