10 THINGS EVERY FILIPINO CALL CENTER REP SHOULD BE THANKFUL FOR

As Americans celebrate Thanksgiving, half a world away in the Philippines, over a million workers in the outsourcing industry have a lot to be thankful for, as well. Here are 10 things every Filipino call center rep should be thankful for:

• As of 2017, the Philippine outsourcing industry (contact centers, transcription, IT, animation, accounting) directly employs around 1.4 Million employees- from college dropouts to university graduates, from millennials to retirees, from newbies to tenured rockstars, men and women from all walks of life- who found a steady source of income working to make customers' lives a little bit easier;
• Indirectly, several thousands more are employed with allied industries (construction, catering, engineering, security, housekeeping, etc) to service the various needs of a rapidly growing outsourcing industry;
• The outsourcing industry has pumped US$25.5 Billion into the Philippine economy this 2017, the second biggest provider of much needed revenue after remittances from overseas Filipinos;
• In the Philippine real estate market, outsourcing companies are currently leasing as much as 7 Million square feet (650 Thousand square meters) of prime office space and had spawned a construction boom to accommodate an increasing demand for more office space;
• The outsourcing industry has enabled average Filipinos with the right set of skills to earn well above minimum wage plus comprehensive health care and other benefits to boot;
• The outsourcing industry has pretty much transformed major metropolitan cities from sleepy communities into 24/7 commercial hubs with coffee shops, convenience stores, fast food restaurants and service stations open all night to service the thousands who work graveyard shifts;
• Thanks in part to outsourcing, Starbucks, Seattle's Best, J.Co and other specialty "hangouts" are everywhere to cater to the Filipino rep's acquired lifestyle of good coffee, good company and free WiFi;
• With the success of U.S. companies that outsourced to the Philippines, Canada, the UK, Australia, and other countries have hopped on the outsourcing bandwagon as well;
• As a testament to the Filipino's English skill and professional work attitude in handling customer care issues, income opportunities have opened up online for highly-skilled Filipinos to work from home as English tutors, writers, or even as virtual assistants;
• More than the money, practically every worker in the Philippine outsourcing industry has a compelling purpose to persevere inspite so many challenges and continue serving the customer- a younger sister who needs to finish college, a sick parent who needs continuous medication, a single mom who needs to ensure her child's future, a working student saving up to enroll next semester, a father paying the mortgage for a new house, a millennial looking to buy his first car. As long as the calls keep coming, every worker is assured he has the means to fulfill his purpose. So whenever a customer service rep says "Thank you for calling...", he means it.

Although we don't have Thanksgiving in the Philippines, we wish to say "Thank you!" to all our customers for allowing us the opportunity to assist you and the bounty y'all have given us in return.

Maraming salamat po.

SUP CALL CHALLENGE: ENGLISH PROFICIENCY TEST

“If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained, you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.”

                          Sun-tzu,          

                          The Art of War

Suffice to say, knowing yourself – your strengths and your weaknesses – is crucial in winning over every challenge you face in your professional and personal life. If communicating effectively using the English language is of vital importance with the work you do, then knowing your English proficiency rating can go a long way in identifying your strong points as well as your opportunities for improvement. And it’s always a good idea to rate your English proficiency against internationally recognized benchmarks such as IELTS, TOEFL, CEFR and CAMBRIDGE since these organizations not only certify English proficiency rating but also identify areas where you need to improve. A certified English proficiency rating is so much better than just saying your English is “good” or “above average”.

And because in the course of my research I have come across and had taken a CEFR ENGLISH PROFICIENCY TEST, I strongly urge you, in fact I challenge you, to take the CEFR ENGLISH PROFICIENCY TEST yourself just for you to certify and rate how good your English really is. CEFR rating ranges from A1 (NOVICE) to C2 (SUPERIOR). The challenge is to rank at least a B2 (ADVANCED MEDIUM) or better. If you’re up to the challenge, CLICK on this LINK.

After you have taken the test and rated, CLICK this LINK to show you where you need to improve on. After all, the objective here is to identify your weak spot and improve on it. After brushing up on your grammar, take the test again and see how much improvement you've made. BRAVO!

Since effective communication requires effective speaking as well as effective listening, I encourage you to take the LISTENING TEST as well. An effective speaker MUST also be an effective listener. The challenge here is to rank B2 or higher for both listening and English proficiencies. Just a heads-up, the LISTENING TEST has a couple of chaps speaking with a thick British accent. If you can understand what these Brits are saying and get a high proficiency rating for your listening test, then you should have no trouble understanding American accent. To take the LISTENING PROFICIENCY TEST, CLICK this LINK

You can finish both proficiency tests in under 30 minutes. Should you get a high rating for both tests (B2, C1 or C2) do a screenshot and post them on FB. You've earned your bragging rights. Then TAG a friend or friends you want to challenge. That would be so much fun!!!

The challenge has been set. Go ahead and take these proficiency tests and certify how good you really are. Enjoy.

THE COST OF A DISSATISFIED CUSTOMER

While doing research, I came across a very interesting INFOGRAPHIC that clearly illustrates how much a dissatisfied customer could cost a company. Somehow, I felt vindicated knowing I was right all along going the extra mile for my customer even to the point of going against the policy my penny pinching managers imposed. Every time you help out a customer, you are actually helping not just the customer but the company itself. And this infographic proves it. I scoff at management's policy of keeping customer credits to the barest minimum and even giving awards to reps who gave no credits at all. I kept arguing with management that those pennies they "saved" will cost them big time some day. And God how I hate it when I'm right! The account pulled out a few months after I left. I hate to say I told you so but yes I told you so.

Enough talk. The infographic is self-explanatory so I'll just let the numbers do the talking. Credits to www.providesupport.com for letting me use their infographic.



From: www.providesupport.com

CUSTOMER FEEDBACK

Quoting an ARTICLE by customer service expert Shep Hyken:

"Customer service can make, or break, your reputation. Being known for your service earns you a reputation in the marketplace that can give you a competitive edge. Charging for these services can erode that positive experience. And you really don't have to charge more, because customers are willing to pay more for good service. The stats and facts prove that a large majority of customers- as high as 90%- would be willing to pay more if the company provided better service. So, rather than charge for each time a customer calls, build it into the price of your product."

It is mind-boggling to hear of some companies asking customers to pay extra for better customer support when in fact customer support should be an integral and vital part of every product or service companies sell. Why ask customers to pay more?

Consumers, Americans in particular, love to look at product feedbacks and surveys before they decide to purchase. Feedbacks are the barometer of a product's quality and reliability, and customer service is an integral component of product reliability. Customers would not mind paying more for a product or service as long as they are assured that they will have competent customer service when they need it. Any customer who finds a negative feedback about a product's reliability and customer service will definitely look elsewhere.

Bad news travels fast. Social media makes bad news travel exponentially faster. This is a fact. A company may spend millions on advertising and public relations only to see their marketing efforts trumped down by a negative feedback gone viral. That's how powerful feedback is. Feedback could be your best friend or your worst enemy.

In a perfect world, the ideal product should have the best quality backed up by the best customer service. Again, customers would not mind paying more as long as they know they're getting the best.

Read Shep Hyken's complete article HERE.

CALL BACK AND CSAT

Here's a fact: CSAT is inversely proportional to Abandoned Calls, i.e. the higher your abandon rate, the lower your CSAT. Any customer who had to call more than once to report or resolve an issue will more likely be a detractor. This is why we all dread those toxic days when calls spike through the roof and we wish we all had just stayed home. We already know it will be raining detractors that shift. It gets even worse when a customer who had been waiting forever for a live rep is put on hold by the rep. Most reps would probably start digging into their bag of TRICKS just to try dodging those incoming detractors.

In a recent ARTICLE about why we need to call back our customers, fonolo.com illustrated the financial cost of an abandoned call. It doesn't matter whether it's a customer calling about a complaint or a prospect calling to buy, every abandoned call adversely affects your site's profitability.

As a front line rep, you might argue profit doesn't matter much to you. But when you realize that your incentives and bonuses depend entirely on your site's profitability, you might rethink that argument.

The good news is, there is an option now available for customers to request for a call back instead of waiting on the line. This automated call back option would put the customer on a queue for a live rep to call back, setting the customer's expectation how soon a rep will call. I noticed this new option when I recently called my phone provider and was surprised to hear an option to request for a call back. Although I opted to wait for a live rep, the call back option certainly is a welcome improvement.

Imagine how convenient it would be for your customer to just request for a call back and then go about her usual task while waiting for the call back. This certainly beats the agony of waiting forever for a live rep to pick up.

With the option to request a call back, there's a much higher probability that the customer would be happy, or at least not irritable, once a live rep does call back. Happy enough to buy a product or give a good CSAT score.

Customer call back is a WIN-WIN solution. Everybody's happy. Read more about the article HERE.

ROCKSTAR TODAY, TERMINATED TOMORROW

We're all only as good as our last call. Often, no matter how best we took care of our customers, we still get hit with detractors. And when our performance (and survival) on the job is based on NET PROMOTER SCORE (NPS), it's easy to see why some reps resort to "vet moves" and other "unconventional tactics" just to avoid those detractors.

And it's not too difficult to spot who's doing those "vet moves". Usually, they prefer to sit far away from the team and often linger after shift doing "notes". And you really can't blame them for resorting to vet moves. Their job is on the line. I mean, thank heavens for pitstops but you can only be on pitstop once or twice before management endorses you to HR. And good luck with the so called HR "hearing" because that's just a formality as required by law but 99.9% your fate is already sealed.

Survival is one thing but using vet moves habitually just to be a top performer is something else. I must admit I had resorted to and tolerated certain "unconventional tactics" as a sup mainly for the team's survival and only for survival. I am not proud of what I had to do back then and I paid a high price for that. But to see teams and individuals proudly flaunting their top performer awards and rockstar status knowing they had resorted to vet moves and unconventional tactics makes me sick. They're only cheating themselves. Am I being bitter? You bet I am!

It's sad to see people habitually resorting to unconventional tactics and vet moves to avoid detractors instead of simply going the EXTRA MILE to make certain the customer is happy with the resolution.

Sure they're a rockstar today but what's their guarantee they won't get caught and terminated tomorrow?

Letting your customers feel that you are genuinely sincere listening to their concerns, providing solutions efficiently and going the extra mile for them are among the best ways to get your promoters. Go check previous notes or ask your customer if this was the first time they called about the issue. If this was the first time then GOOD JOB for solving the problem right away! First Call Resolutions almost always become promoters!

However, if customer had already called several times about the same issue and you feel there is a possibility that your customer is not too happy even if you were able to resolve the issue, it would be wise to let the customer feel that "although the issue was not resolved right away as much as we all wanted to, there was a continuous team effort on our part to help find the best solution for you." I know this is bull but this sure beats guessing whether you get a promoter from a customer you helped or getting a detractor for some other rep's failure to resolve the issue much sooner.

Detractors will always be there. It's a fact. But as long as you can CONSISTENTLY provide excellent customer service efficiently, then you should have more than enough promoters to cover for your detractors. That's how the NPS math works. That's how you become a true Rockstar!