SPOKEN COMMUNICATION

Spoken communication requires a number of elements to make it effective and successful. One of these is fluency, which helps the communication to flow through the correct choice of words and avoiding unnecessary and ‘deafening’ silences.

Another important aspect of spoken communication is for a voice to have intonation. This is the melodic rise and fall of a sentence and if a person doesn’t have this in his or her spoken voice then it can become very boring to a listener.

Pitch is the level or frequency at which a person speaks. A deeper pitch is considered to communicate authority, which is why many news-readers have deep voices to convey the gravitas of what they are saying. Yet voices that are higher in pitch are often more accessible and may explain why women are particularly successful in call centres.

It is important to communicate certain key points during the call. The English language is stress-timed ie, we emphasize certain key words at regular intervals while the less important ones are spoken more quickly and with less emphasis. Compare this to languages that are syllable-timed such as French or Italian where there is o en equal emphasis placed on each syllable.

Neuro-linguistic programming

It is becoming increasingly common for aspects of neuro-linguistic programming principles to be incorporated in training. NLP, developed by Bandler and Grinder (1976), is an interpersonal communication model that draws on a wide range of sources to inform its practices.

The particular elements that are useful in call centres (and which, incidentally, have been used by people in the distant past, long before NLP) are to encourage employees to mirror the speed, tone and volume of a caller, and to adjust their vocabulary to suit the caller. In this way it is possible to quickly develop empathy with the caller and thus encourage a productive interaction.

SOUNDING RIGHT – THE AESTHETICS OF SPOKEN LANGUAGE

It is taken for granted in call centres that advisers should be able to speak clearly and this ability is looked for during recruitment and selection. ‘Sounding right’ is a very important component of the image an organization wishes to transmit to callers:

In relation to customers’ aural aesthetic, the voice and accent of employees was important. In the hotel, the personnel manager was adamant: ‘We don’t want someone who spoke in a very gu ural manner.’ In the banks, again, one respondent claimed that having a ‘clear accent’ was an absolute essential. 

So, because it is o en very difficult to change the way in which a person speaks (which is o en an important part of their personality and therefore is very difficult to change) people are frequently selected who already possess the language qualities required. It would appear that some employers are prioritizing aesthetic ‘sense knowledge’ over ‘intellectual knowledge’ and seek to recruit workers with ‘embodied capacities’ that they can ‘commodify’ and thus create a specific type of service experience.

It is argued that some employers select staff who already possess the qualities needed to work as advisers and just style and polish these surface features:

This, arguably, would be a more accurate description than ‘skilling’ of what goes on in many regimes of customer care, where there is little engagement with the underlying purposes and principles of verbal interaction, but rather an intense concern to manage what might be called its aesthetics. 

Of course, where only styling happens, employees may not fully understand what they are doing nor be able to improve their performance without guidance. It is essential that training involves providing the conceptual understanding to make sense of what is happening. Without this, advisers may know what to do but don’t know why – it is the essential difference between training and education.

Traditionally, English grammar was based on Latin structures, which are not fully suited to explain the various grammatical forms that have developed over the centuries. These traditional grammars have now been partly replaced by descriptive grammars that illustrate structures with examples of language taken from everyday situations.

This approach to grammar, which recognizes that language is dynamic and cannot always be shoe-horned into a particular structure, is enlightening. Communicative competence is more than just understanding the grammatical rules: it is also about knowing when to use them. ‘There are rules of use without which the rules of grammar would be useless’.

Such a short-term styling approach by employers, where it occurs, is strongly discouraged. Instructing people from scratch about the nuances of language is difficult, and even linguistics specialists find it difficult to fully describe all the interacting aspects of language. So it is understandable that people with life experience, perhaps raising children, are actively sought because they o en have the innate language skills required for successful communication. But, if contact centres wish to raise their skills levels and raise the public’s perception then deeper knowledge and understanding have to be developed.

Scripts and prompts

Scripts, or prompt sheets, are commonly used in call centres because they allow a consistency of approach and maintain a level of quality that may not be the case if people are allowed to go in any direction they choose. However, the extent to which they are helpful depends very much on the circumstances, for example, a telephone directory enquiry is a brief transaction that only lasts a short period of time and needs standardized procedures. On the other hand, a call to an advice line may require much more flexibility, particularly if the caller is emotional.

If advisers are constrained too much then the spontaneity of conversational language is lost and monotony and boredom can set in. Normal everyday conversations tend to be relaxed and informal and it is these elements that many organizations try to replicate so that they can build a relationship with the customer. It is therefore a balancing act between allowing flexibility and ensuring consistency and quality of service.

Although scripts can be helpful they cannot fully anticipate the response of the caller. There is a grammar of consequences in which ‘Speakers are free to make any choices, but how their choices will be interpreted is not free’. Where there is an unanticipated response the strategy encouraged in many call centres is to repeat the question in the hope that a more suitable response is obtained. This sometimes works but the overall conclusion is that the customer should not and o en cannot be constrained by pre-judged questioning.

Where scripts are too tightly enforced they may inhibit the adviser, and this verbal straitjacket may then have repercussions for a caller requiring an individualized response. The scripts used by Lloyds Bank overseas call centre so annoyed customers that it abandoned them.

Some call centres do not require linguistic uniformity and allow a considerable amount of flexibility. At one centre that focused on technical telecommunication enquiries, there is little enforcement of protocols. It ‘hardly regulated employees’ communication strategies at all, nor did it record or systematically monitor calls (a manager told me he believed that would be “devastating for morale”)’.

So what can be learnt about the use of scripts? Essentially, scripts provide a guide for the adviser, and for probationers and novices they are an important tool that gives confidence and support, helping to improve the interaction. As advisers become more experienced they internalize the language structure, making it more fluent and natural, allowing them more scope to personalize their communication with the customer.

Words, tones and gestures | COMMUNICATING EFFECTIVELY

To counter the barriers to communication it is necessary to adopt a number of strategies, which can be seen in Figure 1, and among these are timing, trust, empathy, repetition, feedback, etc. To help customer service representatives operate effectively it is valuable to inform them about the communication processes described here and to practise each of the elements. Many of these elements will be discussed in detail below.

 

Figure 1: Communicating effectively

Words, tones and gestures

In face-to-face communications it is not the words alone that convey meaning: it is also how we say them, eg the loudness, intonation or stress. Even though the words are the same the meaning of a sentence can differ enormously depending on the stress placed on particular words. Try speaking aloud the following sentences with emphasis on the italicized words:

• I didn’t say you stole that purse. (But someone else said that you did.)
• I didn’t say you stole that purse. (I agree with you.)
• I didn’t say you stole that purse. (I might have implied or written that you did.)
• I didn’t say you stole that purse. (I said someone else stole it.)
• I didn’t say you stole that purse. (I said you might have borrowed it.)
• I didn’t say you stole that purse. (But you might have stolen another purse.)
• I didn’t say you stole that purse. (I might have implied you stole something else.)

In addition to the impact of tone, loudness, etc on the meaning of what is said, there is also the effect of gestures and body language. How a person physically communicates can convey very strong messages too. Research conducted by Mehrabian (2007) into communication suggested that of the whole communication:

• 7 per cent of meaning is conveyed in spoken words;
• 38 per cent of meaning is conveyed in paralinguistic features: tones, loudness, stress, etc;
• 55 per cent of meaning is conveyed in gestures, facial expressions, etc. Based on this research, telephone communications can only use less than half of the communication channel compared with face-to-face interactions. Of course, Mehrabian referred to specific circumstances that don’t fully translate across to telephone interactions. However, what this research does indicate is that extra attention needs to be given so that the potential for miscommunication and misunderstandings is minimized.

The importance of tone was illustrated by research by Reed Employment Services, which revealed that the main reason for ‘phone rage’ was a perceived ‘insincere tone of voice from the person handling the query’ 

The actress Jenny Agutter, who appeared in ‘The Railway Children’ and other films, once acknowledged that conversations with her parents on the telephone were more challenging than when she was face-to-face with them. She explained that if she was in their company and they asked, ‘How are you?’ she could respond, ‘Oh, just fine.’ Even if she was unhappy her acting skills and body language could mask and hide her unhappiness. She admitted that this was much harder to do on the telephone because it is challenging to remove all underlying emotions from one’s voice.

The structure of the communication process will depend on its purpose; however, there do appear to be a number of standard elements that are included in most interactions. In this section we will consider three interactions that increase in order of complexity: directory enquiries, telephone enquiries, and a medical advice line. In each of these organizations the agent is expected to learn the general process of the conversation and use it achieve a satisfactory conclusion.

With directory enquiries there would appear to be three main considerations. The first stage is to obtain the required name and location of the person. The second is to correctly input the information into the computer in order to get the right information. The final consideration does not involve practical information but instead pays attention to the interpersonal nature of the call. Customer care training documents include a section on ‘salutations’, which are concerned with politeness and treating the customer with respect.

In the telecommunications company, Telco stated that agents had to adhere to a detailed procedure, which consisted of five tasks: ‘greet and build rapport with the customer, fact find, provide solutions, close conversation, and follow (or wrap) up’. The agents were allowed 600 seconds to complete the transaction and were monitored to ensure that this operational target was achieved; however, they were not evaluated on the quality of the call.

The third example of a call structure comes from medical help lines in Quebec. These centres were largely staffed by experienced nurses who consulted with the patient. This process followed regular nursing procedures and had four stages: assessment, planning, intervention and evaluation.

In each of these different organizations the structure of the interaction is dependent on the function required by the caller and the organization. In all the circumstances, both hard and so considerations are taken into account.

Providing a mechanical description of the communication process tends to remove some of the vibrancy and dynamic nature of an interaction between the customer and the agent. The requirements in a financial services company listed below provide a greater feeling of intimacy with the customer and there is an almost equal split between the use of the voice and managing the interpersonal nature of the call:

Call structure

• Smiling: The adviser has a smile in his or her voice.
• Pitch: A deeper pitch of voice conveys sincerity and confidence.
• Energy: There should be energy in the voice to make it interesting and a ractive.
• Volume: A balance is required to ensure that advisers are neither too loud nor too quiet.
• Pace: The adviser’s speed of speech should be neither too fast nor too slow.
• Idea: Simple words and short sentences with brief pauses in between increase understanding.
• Rapport: Building rapport with the customer will encourage the caller to listen, follow directions and stay loyal to the organization.
• Vias: This indicates where the adviser’s words say they will do something but perhaps tone or some other parallel message communicates that they won’t.
• Attention: Advisers should get and hold the attention of the caller.
• Understanding: The adviser needs to carefully listen to understand the caller’s message.
• Acknowledge: Advisers should indicate they understand the caller’s message by making acknowledgement noises. If this doesn’t happen the caller may think they were not understood.
• Space: The caller should be encouraged to enter the conversation by giving them space or asking questions. Talking over callers and completing sentences for them is impolite.
• Direction: The call has direction and the adviser and caller have a balanced exchange of information.