The success or failure of an outsourced customer care operation often lies in the procedures it puts in place to train agents. Effective agent training can lead to a whole host of benefits: better agents, happier customers, higher first-call resolution, more customer retention and lower employee turnover. (Turnover is one of the costliest, if not the most costly, factor in running a call center.)

 

Poor training leads to driving away customers, bored and burned out agents, customer churn, sky-high turnover and manager and supervisor burnout.

 

Many companies have worked hard on their initial training package for new agents. But often where they fall down is in ongoing training that keeps agents current with new initiatives, new campaigns and revamped company policies. As a result, effective training needs to be done throughout an employee's entire tenure — not just for 30 days after hire.

 

Outsourced customer care provider Convergys (News - Alert) has always put itself forth as a leader in agent training. The company this week announced it has won two Bronze Brandon Hall Excellence in Learning Awards. This is the fourth consecutive year Brandon Hall has recognized Convergys as one of the leaders in learning strategy and outsourcing.

 

Convergys received the first award in the Best Learning Team category for the development of its global curriculum. Convergys’ global curriculum is a single global course for identical content areas that is applicable across all countries of operation. The curriculum serves as a platform for all current and future training needs for over 60,000 call center agents reducing the time and costs associated with the traditional practice of rebuilding complete course materials for new projects.

 

Convergys and one of its learning clients received the second award in the Best Blended Learning Program category. The award-winning Convergys program improves an account managers’ knowledge of the technologies that match actual customer needs. Account managers who went through the training reported a 50 percent increase in knowledge of the technologies, which led to a 20 percent increase in sales.

 

“We are thrilled that Convergys has been recognized by Brandon Hall as one of the leaders in learning strategy and outsourcing for the fourth consecutive year,” said Marianne Langlois, vice president of Learning Solutions in Convergys' Employee Care business. “By developing innovative learning solutions, Convergys is ensuring that our clients utilize learning initiatives that drive business value. With our learning solutions, our clients gain measurable performance improvements and better return on learning investments at significantly lower costs.”

 

The Brandon Hall awards, now in their 13th year, recognize the best in learning content, technology and initiatives from around the world. The winners of the 2007 awards were announced during the Brandon Hall Innovations in Learning Conference in Santa Clara, California.

 

For more information about Convergys, visit www.convergys.com.