Advantages of Using English as the Single Global Language and Outsourcing Customer Care Services - Coursework Example

Contemporary Business Communication Name: Course: Tutor: Institution: Date: Introduction Communication is a major concern in multinational organisations. In this case, communication plays a critical; role in any organisational market success and effectiveness. On one hand, internal communication enables organisational internal stakeholders, including the employees and the management to communicate effectively. Effective internal communication reduces potential disagreements among the organisational members, enabling them an effective and focused approach on the operations and functioning of the venture operations in the market. The second category affected by organisational communication systems is the external stakeholders. These include the customers, potential customers, regulators, and the society at large among others. In this regard, in order to ensure that an organisational communication system is effective, most of the organizations have adopted the single official language. In this case, most prefer to sue a single communication language as a means of providing a proper uniform coordination (Marschan-Piekkari, Welch & Welch, 2014, p.26). One such commonly used language is the English language in multinational organisations, especially for their call centres. However, although the use of the same English language offers a series of advantages, it similarly exposes organisations to a series of challenges. This essay offers a critical analysis on this concept. In particular, if reviews the increased off shoring and outsourcing of call centre services by the UK organisations in the Philippines and India respectively. As such, it reviews the advantages offered by such centres as well as the risks and challenges that potential variances in Language use pose to its customer’s satisfaction with its overall services respectively. Advantages of Using English as the Single Global Language and Outsourcing Customer Care services The use of English as the common and uniform language in an organisational communication process offers a series of merits to the venture. This essay analysis section reviews the potential advantages and merits that the organisations accrue as a result of using the English as a standard and single communication language in their call centres. Services Uniformity The first main advantage of using the English language as the main customer call centre communication enables a venture serve its international customer base. In this case, the call centre numbers are open to a majority of the customers in the global market, beyond the UK borders. In this case, the UK customers can at times travel beyond the UK and reside beyond their borders such as in Asia and in Africa. However, it is possible that while at these regions the customers are bound to have issue and a number of problems they would want resolved by the company customer service department. In the event that the local customer service call centres such as in India and Philippines were to have their own domestic language, it means that the customers cannot be assisted if there are beyond their normal English speaking language regions. As a result, this would limit the responsiveness and the global nature of such customer care services. An evaluation of the global market illustrates a rising trend in global tourism as well as international migration and movements over the years. This means that most of h customers in Europe and USA are increasingly travelling and moving to other areas such as Asia and Africa based nations. Similarly, ease of movement has enabled Asians and Africans an increased access to the European and USA continents respectively. Hence, this serves as an indication that the customer base movements in the market has exponentially increased in the recent past (Corbett, 2004, p.27). Therefore, as organisations expand their services in the market there is need to simultaneously expand and globalise their call centre services, a move that starts with the use of a common and single official language for the call centres globally. Ease of Staff Management and Coordination in Call Centres The second merit for the use of a single language call centre language and official language use is a mainly aimed at ensuring provision of quality in the market. On this case, it has increasingly become a challenge to manage customer care services in the developed nations, as the cost of labour and operational costs increase. As such, organisations have resolved to offshore and outsource the services. Initially, the customer care services were outsourced from India. However this has in the recent past, over the last decade expanded to the Philippines in the market. In using these call centres, the organisations employ and outsource the services from these nations to serve their global market customers, including the UK and others in the global market. This means that a single call centre in the Philippines serves virtually the entire global customer base for a venture in the market. As such, there is need to review and establish performance and operational standards for the company call centres. This can only be achieved through the use of a common approach in the market. If the call centres were to use different languages for different customers, this would imply that the organisations would have to hire a series of customer care representatives in different call centres and call lines for specific languages. This would have two negative implications. First, it would create a challenge in evaluating performance levels. Different languages have different communication rules and as such, the harmonisation of the process would be a challenge. Secondly, this would increase the overall costs of operating and running the call centres, a virtual that the off shoring process was aimed at. As such, this analysis indicates that the use of a single uniform language enhances coordination and ease of operations in terms of cost and employee performance levels respectively. An additional merit under this line of argument is the ease of training the customer care staff. In this regard, the use of a single common language offers an opportunity to develop the employee communication and customer care kills. Through the use if a single language, the employees can be easily trained in conference calls and seminars on customer case. This would be the inverse if the call centres were to use different languages. In such a situation, the time and costs of training the staff would be high. Moreover, there are the aspects of employee relationships and coordination within the organisation. Through the use of a single English language communication, there is increased ease of communication between staff, and the elimination of potential miscommunication and barriers of communication. As Mello and Mello (2014, p.249) argued, this has the effect of increasing an organisations staff and call centre communications efficiency consequently reduce the potential for miscommunication and the risk of employee conflicts in a venture. Based on the above analysis it is apparent that the use of the English language in the communication process as the single official language in customer care has a series of merits and advantages to both the organisational global customers, but also the entire organisational workforce. On one hand, the review indicates that the increased customer movement globally, increase the need to ensure that any queries raised at any part of the globe are addressed effectively through a language familiar to the client. On the other hand, the review notes that the use of English as the ingle official language enhance ease of call centres management ad performance review process globally. Moreover, it facilitates the ease of staff training on customer care, as well as coordinating and easing communication between staff members. The ease of communication between staff members implies that there are reduced instances of miscommunication and barriers to communication, consequently reducing the risk of employee conflicts occurrence to the workforce and the call centre staffs. Disadvantages of Using Standard English and Outsourcing Call Centre Services Although as illustrated in the above review, it is apparent that besides the positive implications of using the English language in offshore call centres, there are a number of negative implications as well. This essay review section offers a critical analysis of the potential challenges that the venture is likely and bound to occur though the use of offshore call centres using the English language for the global customer base. The key challenge in the use of the offshore call centres is the assumption that the English language is standard. In this case, through setting up call centres in India and Philippines, the UK based organizations are of the assumption that the used English language in the UK applies equally and similarly for the Philippines, the Indian, the American and the global market as well. However, this assumption is misguided. In this case, the English language has variances in the global market. In this case, this can be analysed through a review of culture and language. Harzing, Koster and Magner (2011, p.281) conducted a study evaluating the relationship between culture and language use. In this case, a number of findings and realisations come to the fore. First, the analysis revealed that culture plays a key role in shaping the use of a language in the society. As such, this was attributed to the existence of different dialects for a single language in the global market. In this case, the review argued that the existence of cultural variance across a region led to the emergence of dialects on the same language. The second key finding in the analysis is that different cultures have varied perceptions on issues. In this case, it established that people moving from one region to the other aced language challenges such as through ascents and use of phrases respectively. Although the new regions and societies could be applying the same language, the variances in ascents and usage posed a major challenge in fluent language use. The above cultural impacts on language use can be directly applied in the case of UK companies off shoring their call cents in India and the Philippines for their global English speaking customers. Language Ascents The first variance in the use of the English language is the diversity in the language use ascents. In this case, the UK English version has its own language ascent. Moreover, this ascent is normally different to the USA, Indian and the Philippines English speaking. As such, unlike the written language where the ascent is bound to have minimal impact on the customers, the spoken language ascent has a diverse implication on the level of understanding and satisfaction between the stakeholders. In this case, the UK and American customers calling the call centres in the Philippines and India are likely to encounter a new ascent of language use. As such, although the customer care representatives could have the right skill and understanding of how to handle and create with the customers, their language use ascent could be a major challenge. This could and in most cases pose a major communication barrier as the pronunciation of terms and issues is normally different. In the end, the pronunciation of different terms could lead to customer care representatives and the customers’ misunderstandings in the communication process. The presence of heavy ascent differences make communication hard and even spend longer period of time with little and reduced overall customers satisfaction. In this case, Ballard (2006, p.13) noted that in phone calls, the only communication tool used is the voice. As such, unlike in the face to face communication where the communicators could rely on the use of non-verbal communication cues to boat understanding, they are left with the need to struggle to understand one another over variances in ascent. This has been a major cause and challenge in the off shoring of customer care services. Proper to the UK off shoring its customer care services, the US multinational organisation had been the first in line to offshore their customer care services from the USA to India, where the cost of labour was relatively and significantly low in the market. However, one of the key reported challenges was a failure of communication between the customers and he Indian representatives due to ascents variances. As a result, reviews on the USA customer market review analysis indicated that the level of customers’ satisfaction on the call centre services declined over time, as the communication process grew harder and less fulfilling to the customers. In this regard, it was indicated that in order to ensure that a customer acquired the right and satisfactory information, the time spent talking to the international call centre agents increased by 20% over the normal period undertaken to resolve a customer issue. This was a clear illustration that the international outsourced customer care call centres were less effective in handling and offering customer solutions to their problems by 20% as compared to the domestic call centres in the respective markets. This was quoted as the key reason as to why a majority of the USA based organisations re-shored their customer care services into the USA in the long run period. This was because, although the off shoring allowed for reduced operational and call centre management costs, the level of customer satisfaction was reduced significantly (McWhorter, 2014, p.27). Thus, based on the above analysis, it is apparent that the variances in the English language based on cultural aspects in the language ascents pose a major communication challenge. In this case, the analysis review argues that the English language ascents vary between the native and the non-native speaker. Moreover, even for the native speakers, the ascents vary depending on the culture, as illustrated in the case between the UK and the USA in the market. Hence, the analysis offers the deduction that the use of offshore English call centres, although saving on operational costs decrease the effectiveness at which the respective customer needs and as such decreasing their overall objective effectiveness, which is to address customer needs in the market. Different Meanings The second key challenge in the use of language as a standard language on off shored call centres is the fact that different cultures have diverse meanings on certain elements. This ranges from the diversity of language phrases meanings to similar words as well as the cultural impacts on the courtesy and language use and speaking approaches used. This section reviews how differences in speaking courtesies and meanings impact and reduce the efficiency of the international call centres use of English language as a standard language of communication. Variance in Meanings The first key challenge in the use of the English language on the international market is the fact that different terms have diverse meanings on the international platforms. Through this challenge, it means that there is the increased potential for misunderstandings between the customer care representative agents and the customers on the communication of the different aspects. In this case, the argument could be illustrated through a review developed by Van Heuven et al (2014, p.1181). In this case, the key focus of the analysis was to evaluate the existing phrase variances between the English language in the UK, USA and the global markets respectively. In this regard, the analysis argued that the cultural set up and backgrounds in the different nations illustrated that there are fundamental variances in the perception and definition of terms. One of the classic examples can be illustrated in the Harry Porter book series topic in the UK and in the USA respectively. On one hand, in the UK, the book topic was ‘Harry Potter and the Philosopher stories. This topic was changed in the USA to Harry Potter and the Sorcerers’ stories. This was a change aimed t appealing the market. In this case, the change was hedged on the understanding that the UK society was less spiritual and was bound to believe and associate with publications that were linked to educational and philosophical arguments. However, this was the contrasting argument and perception in the USA society. On its part, the USA society was perceived as increasingly spiritual and as such would most likely associate with characters who were perceived as increasingly spiritual. As such, although the book contents and characters remained the same, the readers were able to perceive the same character as both a philosopher in the UK and a sorcerer in the USA. The above example forms the basis for the arguments that although both using the same English language, they have varied forms and phrases attached to a series of meanings in the market. Additional examples of meaning variances between the UK and the USA English languages are illustrated below. First, is in the description of house and buildings. In this case, the floor numbers use varies between the USA and the UK. On one hand, in the USA, the floor that is on the street level is called the first floor. On the contrary, in the UK, the same floor in the UK is referred to as the ground floor. In this case, if a customer care in the Philippines is versed with the UK understanding of the building floors, they are bound to raise confusion with an American caller who is versed with the American version of the floor naming. As such, if the customer was enquiring and requesting for a delivery service, there is a high likelihood that the specifications of the delivery address is bound to be different and mistaken, risking customer dissatisfaction. Thus, based on the above example, it is apparent that although the international call centre agents in the Philippines and India could be trained to improve on their ascent and pronunciation aspects, the fact that different phrases mean a variety of issues in the market cannot be controlled. Thus, through this review, the analysis illustrates that there is a major challenge of misunderstandings and miscommunications between the customer service agents and the customers. In this case, as already indicated above, a review of USA customers’ dissatisfaction with international call agents cited a lack of communications efficiency and understandings between them and the customer care agents as a key dissatisfaction challenge. In this case, the customers noted that there were often obvious miscommunications as both parties had different understandings of the same phrases used, which led to obvious lack of customer need satisfaction and problems resolution. Speaking Courtesy The aspect of courtesy in communication plays a critical role in deciding and determining the communication process. In this case, Hubler (2007, p.10) described a conversation courtesy as the guiding principles and factors directing the speakers behaviours in the society. One of the courtesy aspects includes the tone variations and communication voice in the market. In this case, different cultures have a variance in the manner at which they perceive the use of tone variations and communications volume respectively. On one hand, the Indian and the Philippines customer care representatives are accustomed to a highly collective and high power distance culture. According to the Hofstedes cultural dimensions theory, both India and Philippines cultures have a high collective. This means that the society adopts a social approach to issues, which is characterised by courtesy and high respect and concern for others in conversations. As such, shouting is perceived as a rude communication approach in the society. However, this culture is different in the UK. In this case, in the UK, the society is highly individualistic and to an extent self centred. In this case, rather than focusing on the communication partners feelings and emotions, as is the case in the Indian and Philippines cultures, the speakers are focused on personal interest and well being. As such, the key focus is on personal needs and interests. As a result, the use of emotive conversations and high pitched conversations and shouting are common in this cultural set up. As such, this exposes the two parties, both the customer and the customer care agents to the risk of misunderstandings. On one hand, while as the customer in the UK could perceive shouting as a convenient and elaborate means of expressing their displeasure and satisfaction, the customer care agents in international organisations would perceive this as a rude tendency. Hence this is likely to cause communication barrier between the two, limiting the potential for limiting the customers problem solving and satisfaction respectively. Conclusion In summary, the essay offers a critical review and analysis of the application of English as a standard and single official language in organisations. In this case, a special focus is applied in the wake of increasing use of offshore international call centre agents by UK companies in India and Philippines respectively. On one hand, the analysis illustrates that the off shoring process and the use of the single English language enables the organisations reduce the overall customer care costs. As such, the offshore services present an opportunity for the ventures to increase the scope and quality of their customer care at minimal and reduced overall market costs. Similarly, the use of English as the single official customer care language enables the ventures to serve its customers regardless of their movement across the globe. This means that the customers can acquire required customer care support services irrespective of their strategic geographical locations. However, the analysis indicates that there are a series of challenges which are based on the assumption that the English language is standard across the globe. Ti this end, the analysis reveals that there are variances in ascents, courtesy, and variance in phrases meanings. Thus, this essay concludes that although focusing on use of the English language should focus on localising the language use rather than standardising it. References Ballard, C., 2006, Dimensional modeling: In a business intelligence environment, IBM International Technical Support Organization, United States Corbett, M., 2004, The Outsourcing Revolution: Why It Makes Sense and How to Do It Right. Kaplan, New Delhi Harzing, A. W., Köster, K., & Magner, U. 2011, ‘Babel in business: The language barrier and its solutions in the HQ-subsidiary relationship’, Journal of World Business, 46(3), pp. 279-287. Hubler, A. 2007, The nonverbal shift in early modern English conversation. Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company. Marschan-Piekkari, R., Welch, D. E., & Welch, L. S. 2014, Language in international business: The multilingual reality of global business expansion. Cheltenham, UK : Edward Elgar McWhorter, J. H. 2014, The language hoax: Why the world looks the same in any language. Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press Mello, J. A., & Mello, J. A. 2014, Strategic human resource management. Australia : South-Western Van Heuven, W. J., Mandera, P., Keuleers, E., & Brysbaert, M. 2014, ‘SUBTLEX-UK: A new and improved word frequency database for British English’, The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 67(6), pp. 1176-1190. Read More