[September 13, 2001]

E-learning Benefits Customer Contact Centers

BY OSCAR ALBAN

Improving customer loyalty is a major driver for corporate expansion. In fact, 70 percent of Fortune 1000 companies cite the lack of trained employees as their number one barrier to sustaining growth, according to PriceWaterhouseCoopers. Nowhere is this challenge more evident than in the contact center, where customer sales/service representatives (CSRs) comprise the front line to optimizing customer relationships and enhancing customer loyalty.

In today's fast-paced multimedia contact centers, CSRs are required to process more information than ever in a shorter amount of time. They're challenged to operate a greater number of complex technologies and systems. And they're charged with meeting and exceeding customers' service and support needs through multiple communications channels that have expanded well beyond traditional telephone calls to include Internet-based communications, such as e-mail and Web chat. Additionally, because companies' customer relationship management (CRM) initiatives are directly tied to their contact centers, CSRs must master and truly understand the role they play in the big picture. What does this mean for agents? More to think about, more to master, and more to multi-task!

With high stakes involved in being able to differentiate your company's service standards, forward-thinking organizations are investing now, more than ever, in their contact centers; arming them with well-trained personnel, effective business processes and the latest technology innovations designed to make agents' jobs more efficient, concise, and quality-focused. Turning to the next wave of CSR development to prepare their staff and ensure their customers receive the consistent, quality service they expect, contact center management teams are increasingly investing in electronic learning solutions.

Reducing Training Costs With E-learning
In the contact center, e-learning represents an automated way to bring training and development courses directly to your staff's desktops. In this environment, electronic learning enables companies to augment existing one-on-one coaching and training sessions with newer methods that allow agents to drive training and learn at their own pace. Research has indicated that e-learning content is retained at a rate of more than three times that of classroom training, largely because agents are becoming active participants in their own development.

E-learning is not only more accessible, it's more cost effective. It reduces the soft costs associated with traditional learning practices, such as instructor-led classroom sessions, that take agents away from their workstations for extended periods of time. It also helps eliminate hard costs like those associated with CSR travel and expenses to and from off-site training venues. And finally, it enables agents to learn anywhere, anytime because training is all browser-based. For remote agents, this is an especially strong benefit in that they are now guaranteed the same level of training as those who work within the contact center itself.

While the market for e-learning and technology-based training is just taking off, studies conducted by Corporate University Xchange indicate that 40 percent of corporate training will take place electronically by 2003.

Identifying Learning Opportunities Proactively Drives Development
Today's forward-thinking companies have experienced first-hand the value and benefits that automated quality monitoring and analysis bring to multiple areas of their business. With the advent of electronic learning in this environment, these same leaders are increasingly embracing what e-learning software can add to the mix. With a fully automated and integrated "closed loop" performance optimization package that includes multimedia customer interaction recording, evaluation, analysis and e-learning management software, companies can quickly identify training opportunities and skill gaps based on agents' performance evaluation scores. They can then use those results to measure how well performance stacks up against the training thresholds that have been established by your company's quality assurance and training and education groups.

In order to direct training to your agents, you must first have a basis to know where their skills gaps and learning opportunities lie. That's where performance evaluations based on customer interaction recordings can help. Though the selective recording of interactions that CSRs have with your customers, management teams can capture these contacts and later replay them in real time, evaluate performance, and then analyze effectiveness. With automated multimedia customer interaction recording, the results you gain can tell you volumes about your center, its performance, and your revenue opportunities. You also can gather great insight into the effectiveness of your contact center's technology resources, determine whether the business processes you've established are working, and gauge how well your agents are servicing your customers. As a result, you have a road map of knowledge about what types and topics of training are needed to optimize your customer relationships and business practices. Additionally, you can quickly find out if those training areas are required enterprise-wide, applicable to a certain group, or just necessary for a specific individual, who needs a refresher course to fine tune his or her proficiencies.

As soon as learning opportunities are identified in this manner, "chunks" or segments of training can be delivered directly to CSRs' desktops through the latest e-learning management software. A skill gap might trigger an e-learning session focused on upselling and cross-selling techniques -- a concept referred to as "one-to-one selling" -- or even tips for managing customer interactions through newer communications channels, such as e-mail and collaborative Web chat. By prioritizing and delivering segments of training, contact centers can now automate how they apply organizational learning. The result is an effective environment for continuous performance improvement that helps companies ensure their customers receive consistent service across all touchpoints.

Streamlining Customer Service Across Multiple Channels
With the increase in the number of customer communications taking place through Internet-based channels, e-learning opportunities abound as centers work to perfect quality, consistency, and efficiency. Regardless of the medium your customers select, CSRs remain the human factor that bridge your company to the consumer world. As a result, companies must shape the quality and effectiveness of each communication. Whether it's voice-to-voice over the telephone or keystroke-to-keystroke via the Web, customers still expect quick, efficient, and personable service. One dissatisfied customer can create a domino effect that makes it difficult for an organization to maintain service credibility.

The more sophisticated inquiries today's agents receive require continuous training and education. Also, most companies try to upsell or cross-sell their products and services, and agents need to have a thorough knowledge of their company's product and service lines. The more complex and sophisticated the companies' products and services, the more training is necessary.

In this era of "virtual" service delivery, properly training your CSRs and developing their ability to communicate effectively, as well as personably, across a variety of technical mediums is vital to sustaining your organization's success. Training is the key to facilitating the proper balance of high tech with human touch. Companies that master this combination will experience a more consistent level of quality service, enhance customer loyalty, and achieve greater profitability. To ensure this happens, contact center managers are turning toward technological solutions, such as e-learning software, to influence their CSRs' service behaviors and promote more efficient and effective interactions.

Focusing On Corporate Communication And Career Development
The merits of e-learning, however, extend well beyond agent training and skill enhancement. E-learning in the contact center can serve as your communications channel to unveil new company policies, such as human resource announcements about a new medical plan or open enrollment for participation in your employee stock purchase plan. It can be directed to your entire organization due to its impact on each and every employee.

Some companies direct group or team learning sessions to all CSRs to get them up-to-speed on a new product or service introduction just prior to its launch in anticipation of consumer inquiries into the center. To avoid a "ready, shoot, aim" world, regular communication via an electronic learning management vehicle can be a breath of fresh air for CSRs in ensuring they are completely up to speed on the latest news and procedures.

The recording, evaluation, and analysis information that drives e-learning points to another great advantage for contact centers in the area of agent retention. By focusing on performance and helping your agents set goals and milestones -- many of which are achieved with the help of e-learning -- CSRs, for the first time, have a true career path. They can become active participants in the course of their own development and advancement -- an enabling, empowering, and motivational aspect. With the knowledge and understanding that the company is investing in the agent's development, he or she will be more motivated to stay and grow within the organization. Employee retention still remains a big challenge for centers as they strive to offer competitive packages, a team-focused, healthy work environment, and a path to move to the next level. Studies have supported the effectiveness of employee "buy in" to such programs by stating that after their CSRs go through training, they become more highly motivated and effective.

In addition to having a significant impact on customer loyalty and retention, staff satisfaction, and morale, e-learning introduces another important facet to how centers examine performance. Contact centers can now, for the first time, accurately measure the quality and effectiveness of the training programs they implement. As agents complete learning segments and take a short test, the results can be fed back into the e-learning management system to trigger recording of subsequent customer interactions. Feedback on these contacts helps determine the impact of training and how well agents are applying their new skills and knowledge in real-world customer scenarios. The result is a closed-loop performance optimization solution.

Tracking your service standards, customer satisfaction levels, and agent development and retention rates can point to how well you're meeting your customer-focused goals, revenue targets, and overall corporate objectives. But in order to do so effectively, you must first invest in the right tools -- especially those that eliminate the guesswork, automate the process, and provide sound, meaningful results. With a direct closed-loop performance optimization environment, companies can continually enhance their service delivery, agent development, and even measure the impact their training programs have. The visibility and benefits that e-learning solutions deliver will only continue to become more evident as forward-thinking companies worldwide deploy the solutions and watch their satisfaction rates climb.

Oscar Alban is a principal market consultant for Witness Systems, an Atlanta, Georgia-based global provider of multimedia customer interaction recording, performance analysis and e-learning management software for the contact center market.