Accent translation in offshore call centers can improve customer service by removing language barriers that commonly result in misunderstandings and slower problem resolutions. Such software allows agents to communicate like native speakers, boosting their confidence, as well as decreasing stress levels and burnout. Here are five of the ways accent translation platforms improve customer service in call centers.
What is an Accent?
An accent refers to the way a person enunciates a given language.
Fun fact: We all have accents, even if we don’t think so. Imagine for a moment how a native of Massachusetts sounds to someone who has lived their entire life in Texas.
Accents can lead people to make certain inferences about the person speaking; including their social status, cultural background and whether the language is the speaker’s native tongue. These preconceived notions are referred to as accent bias.
Why Accent Translation?
Sadly, these prejudices often manifest themselves in the form of ridicule and isolation, which can trigger diminished self-esteem on the part of the speaker, along with a host of other negative consequences. What’s more, accent bias can exist at every level of society, including educational, social and professional settings.
The phenomenon tends to be prevalent in situations that rely upon a great deal of verbal communication, such as customer service call centers. Some callers experience difficulty understanding agents when they encounter unfamiliar accents, The resulting frustration can lead them to distrust call center agents, doubt their competence, and treat them rudely.
Accent translation and neutralization platforms such as the Tomato.ai solution can help mitigate unwarranted prejudices against those whose accents differ from that of a dominant culture in which they find themselves. This can be particularly useful in call center environments.
Prioritizing Call Center AI Solutions
Framework call center leaders can use to prioritize which AI solutions to implement first
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A Better Customer Experience
A call center’s success is highly dependent upon its customers’ experiences. Encountering difficult to understand accents, callers often ask agents to repeat themselves. This can lead to annoyances on both sides, resulting in slower, more drawn-out conversations. Or, the caller will ask to be transferred to a supervisor, hoping to speak to someone with whom they can communicate more readily.
Accent translation platforms minimize these instances of miscommunication. The resulting conversations flow more naturally, which helps put callers at ease. This, in turn, promotes customer satisfaction, improves the call center’s productivity and boosts the company’s reputation.
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Improved Productivity and Issue Resolution
The main goal of every call center should be to deliver fast, efficient and effective resolution of caller concerns. This can be challenging to pull off when accents present impedances to ready communication. Accent translation software facilitates quicker first-call resolutions and reduced average handling times. This leads to more call resolutions and fewer follow-up calls, both of which improve overall productivity. Additionally, fewer call escalations lower supervisors’ workloads.
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Less Training Time
A significant aspect of the training of new call center agents entails a focus on communication skills, including language clarity. Accent translation platforms help tremendously in this regard, as the software automatically adjusts speech patterns to help make agents more readily understood. Further, translation accelerates onboarding because new reps can start handling calls sooner, which improves productivity right from the start.
Instead of spending weeks on pronunciation and voice training, agents can focus on developing technical knowledge, customer service skills, and issue resolution strategies. This also reduces the stress new agents experience, as they are freed of the need to consciously modify their accents.
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Helps to Increase Global Scale
Call centers must assist customers from varying regions. With accent translation, centers can defeat communication obstacles, rendering their global scalability more efficient and feasible.
The software also fosters the propagation of diverse workforces, which expands a company’s prospective hiring pool and enhances communication with international customers. The platforms also obviate the need for region-specific communication training, which streamlines operations and slashes localization costs.
Accent translation also increases flexibility in call routing, as concerns about accent-based misunderstandings are diminished. This flexibility ensures customer support across disparate time zones and regions.
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Happier and More Satisfied Agents
Confident agents enjoy their work, which leads them to perform better. Accent translation platforms help by improving communication and removing stresses associated with diverse customer interactions.
Simply put, communication anxiety and stress levels are all but eliminated. This improves agent job performance and encourages their professional growth. It also heightens agent retention, while promoting diversity and inclusivity.
Summary
Modern call centers are increasingly deploying accent translation software to improve agent communication and efficiency. The tool reduces instances of misunderstanding, improves customer interactions, and speeds up new agent training. The overarching result is a more productive, efficient, and profitable call center.
The Tomato.ai Solution
Unfortunate though it may be, people are often judged by their patterns of speech.
Tomato.ai offers an upending solution in the form of an AI linguistic filter that clarifies agents’ voices in real time. As a result, perceived intelligibility is improved, frustration levels fall and call centers deliver more success.