Call Center Management Featured Article
Call Center Management Excellence Starts with Training
When it comes to delivering quality customer service, no one pays more attention to the details than those in call center management. These professionals know the importance of each and every interaction and what the outcome can mean to the bottom line. A failure to implement the right strategy can mean failure in the numbers and more money spent on replacing customers lost through churn. To prevent such an outcome, organizations need to invest in the right training.
For some, this training means showing call center agents how to answer the phones, how to manage the system that integrates with calls, how to select call recording when needed and how to escalate the call when the customer can’t be satisfied. The script may include the right words to say in the right order, but has call center management really made the investment in the right training to enable the optimal customer experience?
A recent Business2Community piece by Tamara Irminger Underwood offers a few training tips for call center management to improve outcomes. While we do expect call center agents to be professional on the phone and address the customer accordingly, he or she may not be as knowledgeable about the company, a product or a service as they should be to really affect the outcome of the call. Likewise, a failure to understand the navigation of the system provided can also lead to a frustrated caller.
The knowledgeable agent is more than someone who knows how to handle any type of caller. This individual also knows more about the company and your products than the customer placing the call. Think about it – years ago, customers made a call because they wanted information. Today, customers place that call because they are already informed and want to go to the next step. If call center management isn’t making learning an ongoing focus, customers will always be one step ahead and it will always be a struggle to set the brand apart from the competition.
System navigation is not something often making the top of the list in important agent training, yet it can affect the outcome of the call. Customers don’t want to be put on hold while an agent figures out the system. Likewise, customers don’t want to have to repeat information at each step of the call. If the automated operator requires the caller to input account information, the live agent shouldn’t need to ask for it when he or she connects.
If call center management is hoping to drive better outcomes through effective and efficient interactions, it has to start with training. Customers are simply looking for competent agents to help them solve a problem or answer a question. If you’re training your agents to take it one step further, you’re already ahead of the game.
Edited by Stefania Viscusi