Understanding the customer

At Convergys Phils., having an American accent is not as important as understanding and being understood by customers.

"We’re more concerned with giving our people a knowledge of the culture of the customer, a deep culture knowledge rather than just surface culture knowledge," said Ma. Luisa Ros, Director For Global Communications And Culture Training Or Cct Of Convergys Corp. "There are three principles involved here. One, communications is a process requiring an understanding of the context in which the other person operates. Two, using the language that the other person is familiar with facilitates the exchange. Three, true understanding comes only when one takes ownership for communication. This wholistic view is what allow us to gain some ground in communication effectiveness."

Based in Ohio, Convergys Corp has been a Fortune magazine "Most Admired Company" for the last five years of its more than 20 years of existence. Last year, it generated revenues of $2.5 billion on three core services–customer care, human resources business process outsourcing, and billings/business support system.

Continuing Education

In the first quarter of 2004, the company’s headquarters for training, quality, and instructional design in Florida expanded the company’s program to include the continuing education of agents on the job, starting with trainors across 14 sites in the Philippines and India.

The heart of CCT is an intensive 15-day program on language accuracy, reasoning skills, comprehension and customer rapport, which all agents must go through and for which all agents are paid their full monthly salaries instead of being given training allowances. The pass score for the Philippines is 85%; for India, 80%.

"It is an end-to-end program that looks at not just the initial three weeks training. It looks at how do you pick the right kind of people. It covers everything from hiring to initial training to ongoing refresher courses. We expect gains in customer satisfaction as a result of this program in the next 12 months," said Ros.

Environment

To minimize turnover, the company has in place engagement teams to help employees with issues like work-life balance.

"It’s important for our employees to realize that there is a career for them in Convergys. The potential for advancement is huge," said Ros, one of the first employees of the company’s Philippine operations. "In less than two years, they are team leaders, coaches, trainers, senior operations managers, at very young ages of 24 or 25. We give them the best training they can get and a career path to follow."