Taking Call Center Training the Extra Mile

Employee training can be a bit of a Catch-22. Spend too much time training new workers in the contact center, and you’ll fall behind your other duties as well as the carefully created schedule. If you don’t train your agents well enough, however, the chances of them being able to handle customer contacts properly become slim. Finding the right balance is essential.

Mix Up Your Training

Training can take a lot of forms. It’s inevitable that there will be a bit of classroom-style training. After all, you need to communicate your expectations and your organization’s mission. There will likely be some hands-on training with a supervisor or mentor. But there are other creative ways that call center management can add to training on a regular basis that doesn’t feel like training as much as a classroom.

Choosing a variety of training methods will keep employees more engaged with their jobs. Consider desktop based simulations, short videos, fun exercises, shadowing more experienced agents and even “gamification” of call center solutions to build in a little competition and fun. It’s also worth taking a little time to personalize agent training to the agents strengths and weaknesses.

Teach Empathy

One of the most valuable traits a contact center agent can have is empathy. Empathy is what helps him or her go the extra mile to truly listen to a customer’s problem and find the best solution. This is one of the most important “soft skills” you can provide to agents.

“Teach your employees how to make a connection using empathy statements, actively putting themselves in the caller’s shoes,” wrote Pablo Luna for the USB Port. “Whenever possible, encourage your agents to avoid using negative words, even something as simple as ‘no.’”

Use Mentoring

There are times when supervisors and managers reach the end of their bag of resources when it comes to helping agents build skills. In these instances, it’s time to turn to other agents. Build a pool of experienced agents from which you can draw mentors that can help newbies develop hard and soft skills and learn tricks for staying cool and calm in the face of difficult calls.

With this increased toolbox, call center managers are better equipped to strengthen the weak spots of their existing call center agent training programs.

Edited by Maurice Nagle