Manila Call Center Industry - How English Lessons Can Help Your Career or Your Call Center

So you're good enough with English to be hired by a call center, so you don't need any additional English coaching right? WRONG

As an experienced member of the call center industry within the Philippines particularly Manila I have experienced the best and worst that call centers have to offer here. The one thing I have really noticed is the lack of initiative that most agents take in investing in themselves to further increase their skill set and in turn grow their career.

Most call centers would also benefit from using online English lessons as a part of their weekly training to assist agents in continual growth and development of their English communication skills. The problem is, most agents and call center owners think... well they can already speak English anyway right?

Well let me try to explain to you some of the many reasons why it is important, and why a simple understanding of speaking English just isn't enough to succeed in the call center industry.

• Most agents experience a large number of hang ups, these are mainly because the person on the other end of the phone in the western country you are calling automatically knows you are an overseas call center agent due to your accent or because you do not understand the culture well enough to engage the person in the first 10-30 seconds of the call. If you could master the skills needed to keep people on the phone then you would be able to dramatically drop your number of hang ups, in turn increasing your number of sales and positive results. 
• Many agents get confused when a foreigner is speaking fast or using slang, therefore not being able to listen correctly or overcome objections effectively. With regular coaching agents can learn to overcome this dis-advantage and again increase their results dramatically.
• Agents can give the wrong information or mislead customers when they do not have a complete understanding on the culture or English meanings. This can in turn not only frustrate the customer but also your clients.
• A lot of agents also loose sales due to misunderstandings or lack of technique. 

Now these are just a few simple issues that can result in a dramatic difference in production, sales and revenue for the call center as well as the agent. These can all be avoided and improved when agents are taking part in online English lessons as they will be able to ask questions, receive coaching, and be taught much more than just what a word means. They can be taught to understand, to really hear what customers are trying to communicate and can also become much more fluent in the English language enabling them to be much more successful.

For an individual agent, you can take this on board yourself with lessons as often as your budget permits and in return you can increase your salary by increasing your sales gradually. Of course it wont happen overnight but you will definitely grow in time and receive higher wages for doing so. It will also open you up to promotion because you will have the best skill set, most effective strategies and will be able to teach your fellow team mates what you learn as well. You could even get a few team mates together and all share the cost of each lesson and sit together at a scheduled time to learn together from an English teacher. 

For Call Centers, you can utilize this tool to educate your teams and dramatically increase revenue as well as increase the longevity of your campaigns since your clients will be happier with the service overall including quality and quantity. 

If you would like more information on English lessons to improve call center agents production please check out our website: www.easyenglish.com.au 

We offer lessons for all western cultures and countries and can help you get the best results possible for yourself as an agent or for your call center.