Call Center Scheduling Featured Article
Tricks for Efficient Agent Training
Without agents, it’s impossible for a call center to run. However, simply having agents on the job is not enough. They have to be well trained in order for a call center to run successfully. This may sound obvious, but you’d be surprised how many call centers don’t have actual agent training best practices in place. There are plenty of training best practices to choose from, and some may work better for your individual call center than others. With that said, here are a few tips to train the most effective agents for your call center.
Empower your agents with the right tools. If you don’t have the right tools in place, it doesn’t matter if you’ve recruited people with the potential to be the absolute best call center agents on the planet. Agents make crucial decisions that impact the company every single day. Implementing the right software, and then training agents to use it, will empower trained agents to ensure higher customer satisfaction and increase the chances of single call resolution.
Have agents handle calls during induction training. It is important for new hires to receive practice handing real time calls during their initial training sessions. Role playing is great, but it’s not the same thing as handing actual calls with real customers. Trainers can work with new hires throughout the call to help them with proper responses and equipment.
Make all feedback clear and actionable. Of course it’s important for managers to give advice during and after the training process, but all of that is useless if directions are not clear and actionable. Agents need to be able to understand and respond to feedback.
Pair new hires with best performers. The buddy system is used for a variety of purposes, but in the call center it can be a great way to offer support to new hires. Not only will new agents feel more welcome to the call center if they have a close connection to someone, but they’ll also be learning from the best. The last think a manager wants is for a new hire to take advice from one of the worst performing agents.
Use speech analytics to improve agent training. Speech analytics can help managers pinpoint any trends in call behavior that need to be addressed. This allows managers to point out example of great customer support, but also lets them see areas that need improvement. These insights can help managers understand what aspects they should focus more on during training.
As I said earlier, there are hundreds of training tactics being used in call centers around the world. However, some methods tend to work better than others. Remember, each call center is different, so agents may react to some techniques better than others. But once you have your agent training best practices in place, the process should be smooth sailing from that point on.
Edited by Maurice Nagle