Can an Indian CSP be the Brand Ambassador for Global Clients?

Customers of Global 1000 companies in the United States and United Kingdom are increasingly speaking with an Indian Customer Service Professional (CSP) when they call in on Toll Free numbers designated for Customer Service. Are the reputations of these Global Giants at risk during these moments of truth - when they speak with an Indian CSP?

In an increasingly competitive world where corporations are stretching every sinew to retain customers - for example in the U.K, the citizen to telephone connection ratio is about 1:1.3. This means that every U.K citizen has a telephone connection already. In such a market it would make sense for every telecom major to retain its customer base, wouldn't it?. Now, the existing customers call into the toll free lines of these telecom majors, don't they? Are the reputations of these telecom majors (British Telecom, Orange et al) at risk when customers call into these numbers and speak with an Indian CSP? Let us get a little deeper into this challenge.

The reputations of these Global Giants and consequently their brands are at risk when the customer comes in contact with any employee of these great companies. For sure, the reputations of these companies will either fall or stand tall based on these "moments of truth" interactions with any employee of these corporations and this would include the outsourced employee working for an India based Service Provider. In short, the answer is Yes.

Is this a fair comparison of CSP ability? The Insourced CSP working for Orange in the U.K has a much better chance of understanding the Orange Culture, its Vision, Mission and Values than the outsourced CSP in India, isn't it? Now how can this be bridged? How can we increase the competence of the Indian Outsourced CSP so that he/she can deliver on the Brand Promise of the clients that he/she is working for through their employer?

The following are the critical steps:

1) Hire for Delivering the Brand Promise : Hiring needs to be based on the Behavioral, Foundational and Functional Competencies required to deliver the Brand Promise. Pick any typical job description and you will find a jumble of skills, experience and qualifications all rolled into one paragraph. This practice of haphazard hiring will not deliver the results that Global Clientele are looking for.

2) Training for Delivering the Brand Promise : The newly hired CSP needs to be taken through the realization that they are Brand Ambassadors for their clients. This "realization" creates the necessary environment for what follows - namely the understanding of the Client's business and CRM strategy. Any U.K based employee of Orange would know that Orange provides mobile telecommunication services to businesses and consumers in the U.K and that they are part of the France Telecom group. They would also know that Orange has services in the Prepaid and Postpaid range. They would also know the profile of the typical Orange customer and their expectations of Orange. The Indian CSP needs to understand these dimensions. The Indian CSP also needs to understand the methods and tools that are used by the U.K based insourced CSP and how to use these tools to deliver the Brand Promise.This would create a level playing field.

3) Managing for Delivering the Brand Promise : Through Operational Best Practices, Technology Implementations and Performance Management measures (Monitoring, Measuring and Motivating) On Brand behaviour needs to be enforced and encouraged. For example, the CSP who exemplifies On Brand Behavior for a month consecutively needs to be publicly and dramatically rewarded (paid $) and recognized (certificates).

From my experience, I can confirm that the Indian CSP is more than willing to focus and commit to being the Brand Ambassadors for the Clients that they work for. They are in fact thrilled to represent these Brands. The Service Provider that employs them needs to prepare them for the Brand Ambassador Job. The Indian CSP needs to believe in the behaviour that is expected of him and its importance - it has to come from his/her heart.This means that we will need to follow the "rules of the farm" - hard work, natural fertilizers, plenty of water and sunshine. Short cuts won't get you there.

The Indian BPO Service Provider who cracks this code will have truck loads of jobs coming their way - it would be simply too juicy for the Global Clientele. Too good to resist!

Cheers

Paul Simon Arakkal