One thing every call centre agent is required to possess is English language proficiency. Due to economic changes most of the countries prefer setting up an offshore call centre where of course the native language is not English. Therefore, for an average agent success in the industry is determined by how strong their command on the language is. Therefore, it’s the HR department’s duty to screen each candidate for solid understanding of both written and spoken English and utilize English Assessment tools and methods to hire only those that clear the evaluation this can help lift BPO and outsourcing industry in Pakistan.
Here are some of the reasons why a proper English assessment is needed to screen candidates and how it can result in better customer satisfaction and more business:
- Helps Reduce the Language Barrier
The whole point of a call centre is to communicate to the customers without having any language barrier. And when you are hiring the staffs from and in a non-English speaking country, an English assessment tool becomes almost mandatory.
- Can Make or Break A Deal
The emphasis placed on different parts of a word can make or break a successful call and for someone to understand a non-native language this deeply is not easy. English assessment tests let you determine the correctly and incorrectly stressed English words spoken by non-native speakers.
- Helps Maintain A Neutral Accent
Accents can be distracting and difficult to understand for some people. While a call centre agent needs to be trained in listening and comprehending different types of English language accents, they have to maintain a neutral accent to convey their message clearly to the other person. English assessment lets you do that as well.
- Helps You Find Agents With Better Listening Skills
Understanding a non-native language is difficult because of the speed with which sentences are usually delivered and accents do not help much but increase the non-native’s problems. Asking a customer to repeat their problem more than once may fire back. Therefore an English assessment test combined with proper training for chosen candidates lets you choose those with better listening skills.
These reasons are good enough to consider having an English assessment tool and a proper training program for your chosen candidates to ensure maximum customer satisfaction while providing customer support service to international clients.
