Call Center Management Featured Article
Effective Hiring Includes Thorough Onboarding
Turnover in the contact center can be high, as anyone who has ever worked in one or managed one knows. Skilled call center managers can often predict quickly who is likely to stay and who is likely to go. But it’s important to remember that nobody is born to call center work. Even the most enthusiastic hires will fail if they’re improperly trained and coached.
Hiring the right people with the right temperament is obviously a big piece of the puzzle, but it’s important to remember that training, coaching and motivation are even larger pieces. In fact, mistakes in hiring can sometimes be mitigated with a thorough onboarding process that teaches effective habits as well as hard and soft skills. The onboarding process should include:
Thorough training on call center applications. Many contact centers assume that new employees will “figure it out,” but this often isn’t the case. New agents need to know how to navigate the customer relationship management (CRM) solution, the telephony and/or unified communication platform, any knowledgebases where information is stored, the workforce management solution and even the call recording system. Just because you think it’s “instinctive” doesn’t mean that new hires won’t need thorough and ongoing training navigating these systems and getting used to them. Take advantage of training materials vendors might be offering.
Communicate your expectations. Newbies may not realize how important every call is. It’s important that you communicate your high customer experience standards to them. Help them understand how to escalate calls that are getting out of their control, and train them to use positive rather than negative language. (Instead of “No, I can’t do that,” have the try, “Let’s find another solution.”)
Ensure they ask questions. Supervisors are often pressed for time and have many agents to oversee, so consider setting up a mentoring program with experienced agents so rookies can ask questions without feeling stupid in front of a manager.
Drill them in handling complaints. Contact center experts will advise you to pay special attention to training employees to deal with customer complaints. A large percentage of the calls and other contacts agents take are a complaint of some sort – even if only a mild one – so this is the most important soft skill agents can gain. Consider engaging in role-playing and simulations before you let new employees loose on an angry customer, or an angry customer loose on your new employee.
With a thorough onboarding program in place, your newest contact center employees will feel better able to handle any type of call that comes their way.
Edited by Maurice Nagle