Call Center Scheduling Featured Article
Do Call Centers Focus Too Much on Technology Training with New Hires?
Recruiting and hiring are two of the most constant and familiar tasks in the call center for managers. Turnover tends to be high in call centers – even in good ones – so hiring is generally an ongoing process. After hiring, of course, comes training, and this is where the challenges become even greater.
Schedules are tight in the contact center to ensure smooth operations, and diligent managers build a certain amount of time into the schedule for training. The question becomes: it is enough time, and are managers focusing on the right things?
A recent blog post on Call Center Express theorizes that too often, it’s technology that dominates the training conversations.
“Because the agents interact continually with computers, dialing systems, and ever-improving technology, agents now begin their first days on the job more concerned about the technological requirements of the position, and less focused on the communication and product aspects of the position,” writes the blogger. “The first questions out of an agent’s mouth generally are: ‘How do I use the computer?’ ‘What type of computer programs will we use?’ ‘Am I required to learn a dialing system or database programs?’ ‘Can you tell me about the technology and how to use it?’”
While it’s natural that new agents would be concerned with technology, too great a focus on technology can slow down an agent’s readiness for the job and the entire training process. Contact center work is about interacting with customers, and it’s extra critical that agents learn a call center’s culture and policies, a company’s products and services, and the right approach to solving customers’ problems.
“When management begins to look at technology as the medium that motivates and supervises employees, then management begins to allow technology to take over a people-oriented job,” according to the blog. “Leadership, motivation, coaching, supervision, growth, structure and opportunity are people jobs that technology can support, but not replicate.”
Scheduling can ensure that new hires are getting the right balance of training: set aside some time for hard training on the call center’s systems and technologies, but also ensure that agents are receiving the kind of coaching they require to master the soft skills: listening, empathy, responsiveness and taking ownership of the problem or issue to be solved.
Edited by Stefania Viscusi