Call Center Management Featured Article
When Call Center Training Becomes Critical
It’s easy to talk time and again about the importance of properly training both new and seasoned agents in your call center. You want them to always be delivering quality services to your customers. This helps win new business and could even increase the bottom line. However, for some industries, it can also be a matter of life and death.
For 9-1-1 Call Centers and emergency dispatchers, their work includes some of the most intense environments – fielding calls throughout the day where every moment counts.
It is critical that these agents are up to date with all proper procedures for how to answer calls and what to do after they’ve received a request for help.
Any breakdown in communications becomes the unfortunate catastrophes we see on the news reports.
These situations can be avoided with better training and processes in place.
One recent report out of Savannah, GA regarding a local woman who found out that the only way she could get the help she needed in her emergency was to call back a second time, is a reminder of the urgency for this change in the call center environment.
In many cases, that second phone call for help is a moment too long.
In this particular incident, a woman in a dangerous domestic dispute thought quickly to dial 9-1-1 and then conceal her phone from her attacker. The assumption was that a dispatcher would locate the caller and send help. Instead, she received a call back and voicemail instructing her to please dial them back if she needed someone to come out to her.
This was an obvious breakdown in the system. Fortunately no lives were lost and the call center has now implemented changes in how they handle calls with no voice. They’ve also implemented a new technology system that is able to locate a caller on a map versus just the closest cell tower to them.
Being proactive about change is important in the call center. While this particular case didn’t turn out sadly, there are many incidents that do.
To ensure the agents are always prepared, they’ve also hired a quality assurance officer who will screen calls and ensure proper protocol is happening between agents and callers.
Have you reviewed and revamped your call center processes lately?
Edited by Maurice Nagle