If you or your clients are planning to expand into China
or other growth markets in the Asia Pacific region, there are a number of issues
to consider when offering contact centre services.
The first of these is that of language. If you would like to cover all of China,
agents should be able to communicate in both Mandarin and Cantonese. If you plan to reach out to the region as a
whole, you should include Filipino, Thai, Vietnamese, Korean, Japanese and both
Malaysian and Indonesian Bahasa too.
Second, it is important that customers can call in by
means of a domestic regional telephone number.
Making an international phone call remains a psychological and economical
barrier not only in emerging markets, but in established ones like the United
States too.
Next, consider the communications channels available to
you.
Like us in the West, the Chinese are voracious consumers of social media. But twitter and Facebook are irrelevant in
China, whereas Sina /Tencent Weibo, Renren, Qzone and WeChat are not.
Of these, WeChat is fast becoming defacto the
standard way to communicate in China, and already boasts a user base of
600m and growing. Furthermore, Its number
of international users is also growing exponentially, so a WeChat Channel
should be integrated into any contact center activity.
Whilst the concept of the virtual office is nothing new,
for western companies looking to expand into China the benefits of a virtual
office versus the costs and risks associated with establishing a real one are
particularly attractive, and they instantly help bridge the cultural and linguistic
challenges associated with overseas expansion.
Those involved in the contact centre industry probably
already have clients that are using their services as part of their
globalization efforts. Rarely do such
companies wish to focus on just one market.
By offering multi-lingual voice and data solutions, or by teaming up
with a company that does, you will be able to add value and help clients grow
and prosper internationally.
Doing so, will help customers grow domestically too. After all, there are over one million Chinese
speakers in the UK alone. Mindful of the
fact that the vast majority of the Chinese population worldwide cannot read or
speak English, those companies that interact with them in their own native
language stand a much better chance of benefiting from the enormous opportunities
afforded by the Chinese market than those that do not.
Finally, when working with your clients with regards to
promoting any new engagement channel, it is best to engage in the services of a
native speaker for translating purposes, since automated translation tools can sometimes do
more harm than good.
Given that China is set to become the World’s largest economy,
contact centers that look eastwards will be able to add value both now in in years
to come.
In his bestselling book ‘The World is Flat’, Thomas
Friedman describes it as a level playing field in terms of commerce, where
all competitors have an equal opportunity.
That metaphor is particular apt for those
involved in the contact centre space.
