Malaysia urged to encourage English usage

Malaysia's national ICT association PIKOM has urged its government to push for the continued use of English if the nation is to achieve developed status by 2010.

Malaysia's Deputy Minister of Education Mohd. Puad Zarkashi, has said that Malaysians in the private sector should use Bahasa Malaysia and not English in all communications in the private sector and government-linked corporations. "While PIKOM acknowledges Bahasa Malaysia as the national language, and supports competence in and fluency of Bahasa Malaysia among citizens at all levels in all sectors, industry-wise, there are strong reasons for English to continue to be the language of choice for communication among private sectors, GLCs and government agencies," PIKOM chairman C.J. Ang said.

Ang said that with the outsourcing industry expecting to recruit 300,000 workers by 2012, encouraging English-speaking citizens is essential, especially in servicing global clients in the US and Europe. "Some of the much-sought-after jobs in the outsourcing industry are call center, payroll processing, finance and accounting, all needing English competency."

India's Tech Mahindra eyes Philippine entry: reports

Indian outsourcer Tech Mahindra is reportedly considering a new BPO operation in the Philippines.

If the company moves into the Philippine market, it will be its third overseas operation after setting up offshore contact centers in Northern Ireland and the UK. Tech Mahindra is reportedly attracted to the Philippines' so as to be able to better cater to global telecom clients in the Asia-Pacific and North America.

If Tech Mahindra sets up in the Philippines, it will follow Indian rivals Wipro and Infosys who have already opened contact centers in the country. At present, Tech Mahindra has five facilities in India across Kolkata, Chandigarh, Noida, Pune and Chennai.

China's fund industry needs to improve its customer service, according to a new survey from the Customer Service Committee of China Association of Trade In Services (CNCSC).

The CNCSC, a newly established organisation aiming to promote better customer service within China, released data on the entire 60 funds registered at the China Securities Regulatory Commission. The survey indicated funds generally do not provide phone services at night and on the weekends.

Only 12 of the 60 funds' phone services extend to 8pm or 9pm; 13 funds offered phone service on Saturdays while only 11 provide service on Sundays. According to CNCSC's survey, 35 of the total 60 funds have advertisements on their service hotlines which can not be skipped. The shortest lasts seven seconds and the longest is 46 seconds. The CNCSC said the average correct answer rate for a customer service staff in the fund industry was 83.37 percent, and their survey showed 30 percent of the funds were under that level.

More agent involvement and better customer service

Organisations should encourage greater work participation among their agents to enable them to deliver better customer service, according to consulting firm Engagement Matters.

Engagement Matters CEO Kevin Panozza told the Customer Contact Philippines conference that agents need to be more involved in their work. "There should be staff engagement. Call center [is] boring work but if you engage the agents, agents are happier," said Panozza.

Panozza said companies should encourage their agents to help in the development of their respective teams. He said agents would also do better if trained in a setting outside of a classroom.

Virtual Contact Centre Study and Sexual Tension at an Industry Event...

This Thursday will see the CEOs and senior Execs from Salmat, Excelior, Stellar and Aegis UCMS join me to host an event in Melbourne, ‘Outsourced Offshoring - Does it Empower Women?" where we will discuss with an audience from industry, media, and development groups the social impacts of Australian based companies offshoring work to developing countries in the region. We will hear from Ms Jamea Garcia from The Philippines and Ms Saswati Mittra from India, as they tell the stories of their lives and the lives of women they work with.....

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