In part one of our two-part series on call center training for multi-skilled customer engagement, we covered a plethora of strategies and best practices – including shadow training, call blending and whisper alerts. Now, we’re going to wrap this list of training tips up with another five, which were originally provided to us by UK-based website, CallCentreHelper.

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So without further ado:

1.)    Not only train call center employees, but motivate them: A good way to do this is by using multi-skilling as a means for career progression. “If multi-skilling is not part of career progression, then you may find that staff are not motivated,” the site warns.

2.)    Multi-skill all hands on deck: Depending on the nature of your call center (inbound or outbound), you can have other employees such as case managers who do outbound calls and handle correspondences well-versed in multi-skilling to help further strengthen the initiative.

3.)    Multi-skilling more means less IVR: For some, interactive voice response (IVR) is still a highly needed communications/self-service technology; however, if you’re looking to ditch IVR, you can also reduce ‘wrong option calls’ and IVRs, the site reasons.

4.)    Get the newbies on-board, too: The biggest way to start really strengthening your multi-skilling in the call center is to train new starters right from the beginning with this in mind. You can’t teach an old dog new tricks – similarly, it’s very difficult to teach a seasoned call center agent new practices.

5.)    Provide the agent with flexibility and choice: Part of the call center training process is giving your employees the flexibility to work on the skill-set they want to take and mature with. As the site perfectly puts it: “Why not allow an existing agent that wants to be multi-skilled to choose a set/band of skills they would like, which can be utilized within the business?”

To see the full list of the report’s multi-skilling training tips, click here.

To learn more about how you can partake in leading, innovative training initiatives for your call center business today, click here.