
Call or contact centers are the point of contact between businesses and customers. Customers get their problems resolved with one dial at call centers and customer experience gets enhanced. The happier and more satisfied the customers are, the more chances there are of businesses coming in. What are the potent reasons for amplifying businesses? More businesses indicate more sales and more profitability. The growth of the company also points to better incentives and facilities for the employees of contact centers. To upgrade customer experience (CX), customer service representatives or employees of contact centers should have vital skills and abilities. To hone the skills of the call center representatives, there is a need for training and development in call centers to ensure agent excellence.
As mentioned earlier, call center training and development programs prop up customer experience as these call center training meliorates agent productivity and skills. These programs enhance their customer service voices along with their capabilities to tackle any kind of customer-related issues. The training and development programs may focus on honing communication skills, answering etiquette, usage of AI technology and tools, etc. There is an interrelationship between customer experience (CX) and training and development programs. With employees being trained on the skillset, they can improve their problem-solving and communication skills leading to satisfied customers and satisfied customers are those who let the business strive and thrive in the long run.
1. Such programs enhance agent call center skills such as empathy, active listening, ability to use call center tools. The product knowledge and technical sessions for employees of contact centers make them proficient in handling any kind of customer inquiries leading to customer satisfaction.
2. These programs boost the morale and productivity of the employees as they feel more confident eventually reducing agent turnover rates and enhancing employee experience.
3. When agents are provided enough training, they can be professional in data security and understand other business policies that ensure compliance with regulatory and business legislative obligations.
Contact centers work as the bridge between businesses and customers as they are the only means of interaction for both entities. From product knowledge to contact center escalation guidelines, call center agents must have comprehensive training, coaching, and other quality assurance programs.
Before initiating the first conversation with the first customer, the agents should be aware of the organizational goals and objectives. The call center goals must also align with the organizational business strategy. To frame an agent training content, the organization must have developed its mission, objectives, and goals earlier. The agents should be educated on the company's internal goals, product specifics and knowledge, industry trends, and core values as call center agents are the brand ambassadors of the company.
When the call center agents answer the calls with due respect and confidence, the positive image of the company is set amongst the customers. If an agent replies to the call rudely without asking the customer about his/her issues at first, the expectation upon the resolution of the issue and business may go down. Hence, they should be provided training on:
i) Speaking in a soft and friendly manner i.e. Good Communication
ii) Answering calls on a polite basis even if the customer talks rudely
iii) Muting and unmuting the calls whenever necessary
iv) Notifying the customers if the calls are to be recorded
v) Transfer of calls to other subordinates
vi) Pausing recording if the customer wants to share some sensitive information
For all these call center manners and other etiquettes that are mandatory for all call centers, the customer service agents must extrapolate about the tools and technology and their usage. There are multiple call center software used to prioritize the best customer service. If the agent is unable to use the system of transferring the calls to the immediate resource person in the meantime, the impression of the agent and business upon the customer may last as not good. The lack of proper guidance is reflected. Hence, training on call center etiquette and technical onboarding should be provided to boost their confidence in handling any kind of complex situations.
There are multiple technologies and trends used in contact centers. As stated before, agents should be made aware of the usage of technical stuff. When AI-powered tools are introduced, customer interactions become easier and data are recorded for future purposes to use whenever required. When the customer calls frequently, their data can be stored and whenever the customer calls another time, agents can check the data and pinpoint his/her issues on an immediate basis without the inquiry of the issue multiple times. As AI-powered QA tools can automatically perform strenuous tasks like recording, transcripts, post-call/after-call summaries, etc the agents should be provided adequate knowledge on usage of such tools and technology trends. They should embrace the role of AI for best call center quality control. Real-time coaching for agents is recommended.
Not every training is required for every agent of the contact centers where the agents lack knowledge of the analysis and examination should be done at first. There should be identification of performance gaps through various techniques like regular checkups of the agents’ skills and abilities, interviews, questionnaires, etc. The KPIs should be established for the ROI analysis. There are various performance measuring tools such as:
i) First call resolution rate
ii) Average handle time (AHT)
iii) Customer satisfaction
All the metrics may not matter. According to the situation and need, the training programs should be implemented. Specific time frames should be set for providing training. The skills, certification, experience, and proficiency in the sector should be examined before introducing training programs. The training programs can be backed up by:
i) Shadowing: Pairing of recruits and struggling agents with seasoned call center reps to examine how the confident agents handle the customer conversations
ii) Nesting: Two to four-week formal training approach
iii) Refresher training: Retraining the agents if see deficiencies or shellacking
iv) Asynchronous training: Continuous training to the staff within the time frame of the hire date of recruits by building a knowledge base
The training programs should be delivered according to the agents’ preferences as well. The same training may not be fruitful for other agents. Hence, the training programs should be designed in diverse ways too depending on the learning goals of the agents.
There should be agents’ collaboration in designing training and development programs like sharing of ideas and creative solutions amongst the training designers and the call center agents. Cross-training opportunities should be flourished. Contact center managers should integrate training with quality through feedback performance methods. Along with this, the agents should be provided rewards as well based on quizzes, professional development, projects assigned, testimonials, and more.
Training and development programs are not just one-time activities but continuous approaches. Workforce engagement management (WEM) tools can be used to identify training needs. The agents should be well-equipped with product/service knowledge, internal company policies, support channels, and many more. With the evolving times, new concepts and technology regarding T and D programs are to ensure agent excellence for the best quality service delivery to the ultimate customers.