India call centres low on communication skills: study

Monday, 02 February 2004, 20:30 IST
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CHICAGO: While representatives at call centres in India score high on motivation compared to their US counterparts, they are perceived to have lower communication and call management skills, says an American firm's study. The lack of skills of call centre employees in India leads to lower customer satisfaction, according to the study done by Aon Consulting. "The less developed communication and call management skills of India-based representatives, combined with their more frequent failure to resolve customer issues, lead customers to generally view contacts with them in a more negative light (than with US-based representatives)," said Miriam Nelson, senior vice president of Aon Consulting. Aon monitors the call centres -- two in the US and one in India -- set up by a large US-based credit card processing company. Aon's assessors rated the representatives from the US and India on specific behaviours using a set of call monitoring standards that reflect the best practice service in three areas of performance. These include service orientation (courtesy and professionalism towards customers), communication (clarity of speech and grammar) and call management (using time efficiently on the phone). Aon's assessment also included the percentage of calls transferred out by the representative and repeat calls, in which a customer indicated that he or she was calling back about an issue that was not resolved on a previous call. Representatives from the India call centres outperformed the US-based call centre employees in service orientation. They were especially skilled in using the customer's name, offering additional assistance and closing the call. But the US-based representatives were rated higher in overall communication skills. Most notably, US workers sounded more confident, spoke more clearly and used language that was more appropriate to the call. US-based representatives rated higher in overall call management. They were particularly more adept at controlling the call, using time efficiently and extending transfer courtesies. India-based representatives received almost twice as many repeat calls as did their US counterparts. According to Nelson, this suggests that those in the US are more effective at resolving a customer's issue, or directing a call to where it can be successfully resolved in the first call. Calls placed to the India-based call centre were placed on hold twice as often as were calls to the US centre, although for shorter periods - 49 seconds compared to 90 seconds in US centres. "The call monitoring and customer survey results demonstrate that there are substantial differences between how reps within the US-based and India- based call centres handle calls, and in how their service is perceived by customers," said Nelson. "The stronger service orientation skills of India- based reps may indicate a higher level of motivation. This would not be surprising, given the fact that the job of the customer service rep is a higher status position within India than within America, in that it pays relatively well compared to other positions in India," Nelson said in the study. Nelson cautioned that her conclusions "does not mean that US companies should reconsider plans to establish a call centre in India" but rather "on a need to focus selection and training of reps within India-based call centres on communication and call management skills. Improvement in communication skills may also help to improve the flow of a call, as fewer misunderstandings between the rep and customer lead to fewer interruptions of call flow." The study noted that "the low call management skills of India-based reps may have to do with the fact that the call centre industry in India is relatively new. Aon has found that there tends to be a trade off between service orientation skills and call management skills, but that this trade- off diminishes as reps become more experienced and receive more training. "With time and training, the overall skills of reps within the India-based call centres may match, or even exceed, those of their US-based counterparts."
Source: IANS
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