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CI-CD    Centre for Inter-cultural Development

Customer Service Training for Contact Centres in INDIA: Advanced Intercultural Communication (AICC) skills for Western outsourcing companies and Indian IT/BPO provider companies

 

If you are a Western company outsourcing customer services in India, or planning to do so, you will want only the best research on identifying and tackling the hidden costs of going offshore. And you’ll want to know only the latest and most authoritative findings on the extent and the causes of the offshore ‘C Sat deficit’, so that you can ensure Indian CSRs/Agents are equipped to meet Western consumer expectations and so avoid damaging your brand image.

If you are an Indian IT/BPO company, you will equally want to be best-informed about the latest tried and tested training materials that will equip your company to achieve customer satisfaction levels that demonstrably match the levels of Western call centres, and so gain significant competitive advantage in the Western market (and better survive the ‘credit crunch’).

Thanks to funding by British Telecom in 2007, on behalf of all Western companies offshoring in India, CI-CD designed the Advanced Intercultural Communication (AICC) scheme for up-skilling Indian front-line Contact Centre Agents/Customer Service Representatives (CSRs) to meet Western consumer expectatations and improve levels of customer satisfaction.  

 

For Senior Managers of Western companies outsourcing in India: CI-CD’s AICC scheme helps you

 

§         access the most authoritative linguistic research on the causes of ‘C Sat deficit’ from Indian call centres

§         discover the crucial competences missing in most ‘soft skills’ communication training offered in India 

§         enhance training for both ‘freshers’ and in-service CSRs to meet Western customer service expectations

§         operationally manage the conditions for maximising effective impact training ‘roll-out’ across a floor

§         discover ways to accurately measure performance in (a) skills improvement (b) C Sat levels

§         equip your Western managers/trainers for effective expatriate working in the Indian cultural context

§         supply Training of Trainers with what they need most, to make training relevant, credible and effective, including (a) a report analysing the specific difficulties encountered by Indian CSRs in meeting your customers’ needs

     (b) customised professional DVD training aids, selected from your own company’s authentic call recordings      

For Senior Managers of Indian IT/BPO contact centre companies:  CI-CD helps you

 

§         win a leading reputation in the West for providing top quality contact service – vital to surviving the ‘credit crunch’

§         understand how it is intercultural skills (not merely language/accent skills) that are the key to achieving high customer satisfaction rates in UK/The West

§         provide training that attracts and retains India’s best graduates – so reducing attrition/turnover rates

§         use AICC tests of ‘trainability’ in communication skills at recruitment – and so reduce costs of wasted training

§         up-date content and methods of your existing ‘Voice/Communication, Language/Cultural Alignment’ training

§         find out how AICC has been tried and tested by trainers at India’s leading companies

§         discover the managerial conditions for roll-out success: the steps of innovative leadership and ‘performance support’ by TLs, Quality staff and Managers that will maximise effectiveness of customer service training

        For Indian Heads of Training, Quality Controllers/Analysts, TLs, Coaches: CI-CD provides  

§         tools for checking on the success or failure of customer service calls, and analysing the quality of communication 

§         a complete set of ‘Language and Communication’ materials for up-skilling ‘freshers’ and existing Agents/CSRs in Language-based skills (ie, grammar, intonation, idioms) 

§         a complete set of ‘Intercultural Communication’ skills needed for successful service delivery in the West – ie. Linguistics-based skills (rapport-building, empathising, resolving irritation/frustration, etc), with training DVD of real calls, with content, analysis, methods and background information in a comprehensive Trainers Manual

§         practical exercises for use in formal group training, and in individual coaching of intercultural communication skills  

§         agendas for informal team intercultural on-going development workshops organised by TLs

§         ways to accurately measure training impact (skills improvement) and levels of customer satisfaction rates

STEP ONE: for both Indian and Western managers, click on to the Research Report which shows the scale of Western consumer alienation from Indian contact centres in 2006-09, as well as the research on its causes:  

à   Research Report: Media evidence of UK and other Western customer dissatisfaction with Indian call centres; the linguistic cause of the problem; the training solution  (extracts from AICC Training Handbook)

à   Executive Summary: What is AICC for and about? (2-page extract from AICC Handbook Preface). Describes the new research commissioned by BT into the nature and causes of Western ‘C Sat deficit’.

à   AICC Training Handbook: Contents page and Criteria for Accreditation (for an overview of the topics / skills covered by the 12 Modules of AICC and competrence criteria for achieving Bronze, Silver and Gold Certification). 

STEP TWO: for accessing and applying the AICC training scheme:

For Indian contact centres in partnership with Western outsourcing companies, CI-CD offers many options, eg, 

§         providing a linguistic analysis of a sample of your company’s calls, with a fully detailed diagnostic needs report

§         creating a powerfully credible customised training DVD, built from real call recordings, with trainer’s manual giving full analysis of each call, together with exercises for using the DVD interactively to optimum impact

§         supplying the AICC training scheme in E-learning format for individual self-development via Intranet

§         training existing trainers (Indian and Western) to how to deploy AICC in formal group training – both in ‘fresher’ courses and for in-service roll-out projects across whole floors – service available in London or Delhi

§         training for Indian TLs, Quality Controllers, Coaches in how to give performance support ‘on the floor’, assess call quality accurately, and liaise supportively with trainers

§         designing tools for accurately measuring ‘soft skills’ training impact + metrics for monitoring comparative levels of Customer Satisfaction 

§         training for Indian recruitment managers in predictive testing of CSRs’ communication skills, to reduce attrition rates

§         cultural awareness and communication skills for Western managers assigned to change manage or to conduct Customer Relations training in India

§         consultancy for Indian and UK training/customer service managers on the operational conditions of successful roll-out of Advanced Intercultural Communication in both ‘fresher’ and in-service training in India  

à   Click to see the full range of CI-CD Services for applying AICC in training in India or in UK, These include AICC Executive Briefings; full data of pilot Evaluation Reports; the Linguistic research base of AICC; Specialist topics covered within AICC; options for customising AICC to your own company’s specific needs.

à   For Western Managers assigned to Training or Joint Project Managing in India, or for Doing Business in India, see outline of CI-CD sample workshop: ‘From cultural orientation to intercultural competence in India’

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