Five Tips That Will Supercharge Your Call Center Agent Training
You have spent years and countless dollars honing and perfecting your training program. Now it is high time you take that training program up to the next level. ChaseData has spent decades developing call center software solutions that perform in real-world call centers. Along the way we’ve also learned a thing or two about innovative training programs from our customers. This article will provide you with our top five tips that consistently produce excellent call center agents. These five tips combined with your company’s proven curriculum will SUPERCHARGE the training of your call center agents.
Call Center Training Tip #1
"When training a new call center agent, facial gestures and body language are not your friends.
Our most successful call center clients limit the amount of "face to face" training because they realize one critical fact. Agents will spend most of their professional life viewing a workstation monitor and will not have the benefit of "seeing" the caller's expressions & non-verbal cues. Successful agents develop critical listening skills and ChaseData's software will kick-start this process by allowing trainers to conduct training via the agent's workstation and headset.
“Well what about engagement? How do I know that the trainees are paying attention? ”
The answer is simple. Trainers have full access to each agent's desktop and microphone. You can easily view their interaction with the workstation, listen to their responses, even send periodic "instant messages" that track response time and assure physical engagement.
Call Center Training Tip #2
"Training room costs are wasted operating capital - unless you are constantly hiring, training or conducting a consistent continuing education program."
After all, why continue paying for already expensive office space that is not producing direct call center revenue? ChaseData's software incorporates remote agent training features that will allow you to conduct training sessions while your trainees are at home, a temporary training center (think co-op workspace, daily rented conference center, etc.). This effectively frees up office space for what really matters – more agent works stations producing revenue for your company.
Call Center Training Tip #3
"Assigning your trainees to 'listen to a top performer' only hurts the top performer's numbers."
Why? Because it removes him/her from their bubble of optimum performance. Whenever anyone’s daily routine is interrupted – there is always a corresponding drop in focus, thus performance. Imagine assigning a new manager to follow you around all day asking questions while you are trying to perform your duties. How well would you perform that day?
Instead use ChaseData's digital call recording feature to drive your call center’s observational training program. Because every call is digitally recorded and accessible by your trainers, they can select from hours of your best agents’ calls. They then, simply select the best sample calls from your best agents and build training materials around those. These digital calls deliver all of the benefits of training by listening while allowing your top performers focus on their live calls and continue peak performance.
Call Center Training Tip #4
"Let your newly trained agents loose while keeping an unobtrusive, watchful eye on them."
Every effective training program culminates in the agent(s) fielding live calls and proving their mastery of listening, rebuttals and processes. However, speaking to live customers requires careful observation, correction and positive reinforcement from management without “hovering over agents.” Hovering creates pressure often resulting in fear, frustration and ultimately lower performance ratings and even more training.
Don’t hover – instead, observe remotely and let the agent focus 100% of their attention on the customer on the other end of the line. Every trainee's interaction during a live call is monitored from any ChaseData management console. Every call center manager and trainer can easily view any agent's desktop and listen to ever call in real-time. Call center managers, trainers and supervisors are also able to coach agents through their headsets. If required, managers can even “take over a call” and complete the process – all from the comfort of their desk. Say goodbye to walking the sales/customer floor, plugging into phones and hovering over agents in order to observe call interaction. Say hello to the most effective agent monitoring system available today.
Call Center Training Tip #5
"Agents learn faster and retain more training when they are trained using their own voice."
Again, ChaseData’s 100% digital call recording feature can be used to customize and fine tune the agent's training program. Every agent's call is digitally recorded and loaded with useful meta-data including: agent name, campaign, time/date, call duration, disposition and caller satisfaction ratings. Call center managers and trainers have 100% access to this data useful in training they are an endless source of high value “real-world” information used pinpoint areas requiring training. Having agents actually listen to themselves fielding calls is a proven training force multiplier.