Inbound-Calling Certification Seeks to Boost Agent Skills

Customer service agents are often the face of their company, as they are the first people customers interact with on a one-to-one basis. That makes quality agents a top priority for business, as even the best products, sales and marketing can come to naught if customer service agents are not up to snuff.

With that in mind, Utah-based Power Selling Pros has just released a new certification program for inbound customer service agents. The certification program, based on the principles from the company’s ‘The Pattern of Excellence’ training, guides agents through greeting, rapport development, reassurance, building confidence, booking the appointment, and call closure, according to the company.

“We've spent the past decade providing home service companies with tools for success," noted Brigham Dickinson, president and founder of Power Selling Pros. "In order to be most successful, we found that call-handling teams needed a set of principles and processes to be able to create a ‘WOW Experience.’”

The program includes three levels of training and takes roughly 18 months overall. The first certification level, which takes about four months, establishes two outcomes and eight principles. The second level focuses on consistency, accountability and negotiation techniques that can be incorporated to overcome customer objections. Lever three in the program is customized training for those that have already gone through at least eight months of level two training and maintained a call booking rate of at least 85 percent or higher for 60 consecutive days.

“Every company needs to grow their most important asset: their people,” Dickinson said in a company statement. He said the firm’s training process is unique because it works with each member of a company’s team one-on-one and over time.

Training is, of course, one piece in a larger program to create a successful inbound customer service program. Also important are the right tools and proper evaluation to discover which agents are performing at the top of their game, and which are struggling. In-house or third-party call monitoring solutions also are important for ongoing customer service success.

Good customer service is about a lot more than a quality script, some phones and a room full of agents. It also takes the right training and contact center processes to ensure that the first impression a customer gets from a business is not the last.

Edited by Rory J. Thompson

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