English for call centres

Course duration:       6 weeks – 4 hours once a week (24 hours)

 The aims of the course will be threefold

 Aim 1: The first objective of this course is to improve the agents’ elocution and pronunciation, mainly working on the mechanics of their speech. The trainer will make sure that the agents slow down their speech delivery, soften their accent, and improve their pronunciation so that their speech is clear, concise, and easily understood by native English-speaking customers.

This part of the course will be delivered like an acting workshop.

In the first place, the participants and the trainer will identify the problem areas: the sounds, terms, and structures that constitute problems for the agents.

Then the trainer and the participants will together create lists of similar terms, phrases, and sentences so that the trainees can practice and improve the problematic sounds/words through drills.

Then the trainer will design, again with the active participation of the trainees, a series of scripts integrating the identified difficulties (e.g. specific sounds / terms / phrases).

These scripts will be rehearsed in pairs in the classroom, one agent playing his/her role while the other one acting as the customer; then each pair of agents will perform in turn their role-play in front of the group while the trainer records the scene (audio or video recordings).

After each performance, the audio/video recording will then be played and analysed by the group and the acting agents in order to spot the strengths and weaknesses of the performance and how the agent’s lines could be improved. Note that the immediate analysis of each script will allow the next pair to take the recommendations on board and use them in their own performance. In this way, the performances should improve throughout the session.

Aim 2: The second objective of this course is to improve the agents’ understanding of regional accents through numerous listening-comprehension exercises involving speakers from Northern Ireland, Scotland, Dublin, Cork, Kerry, London East End and Birmingham. The trainer will select audio and video extracts from the Internet (e.g. via YouTube and Daily Motion) and will work on improving the aural skills of the agents so that they understand their customers better.

This part of the course will be delivered like an audio-lab workshop.

In the first place, the participants and the trainer will identify the problem areas: the various regional accents they are confronted with on a regular basis and in which scenarios they surface (e.g. specific queries, complaints from the customers)

The trainer will then compile audio and video extracts that will constitute the core material to work with. In these listening-comprehension exercises, the participants will repeat what they hear while trying to understand the gist of each proposition.

Specific drills and exercises will be created for each extract such as:

• Gap exercises
• Multiple choice questions
• Closed questions
• Paraphrasing the sentence
• Finding out synonyms and phrases used in other regions
• Giving a summary of the given comment/dialogue…

Aim 3: The aim of this section of the course is to improve the agents’ interpersonal skills in order to meet the expectations of the customers regarding social contact and courtesy. This section will cover a theoretical part presenting the various registers of the language expected by customers in terms of informality/formality in Ireland and the UK. It will then be followed by practical workshops to improve the friendliness of the agents.

This part of the course will be delivered like an acting workshop.

In the first place, the participants and the trainer will identify the problem areas: they will build up a list of situations when an agent sounds too abrupt / straight to the point without engaging enough in a social relationship expected by the customer.

The participants will then work together with the help of the trainer on various possible ways to reformulate the above into a better, more courteous and friendlier tone. They will thus build up a glossary, a bank of user friendly terms and phrases that they will be able to use in recurrent situations.

The situations covered will involve general telephone skills (using smile!) and specific functions such as:

• Introducing oneself
• Engaging with the customer in a friendly manner (first contact)
• Enquiring about the problem
• Asking questions to narrow it down
• Introducing a solution
• Making sure the customer understood the solution offered
• Making suggestions
• Recommending actions….

These will be performed in role-plays in order to improve the agents’ telephone and interpersonal skills.