In this series we will look at some useful tips for contact centre management, as seen by our work in the Australian contact centre industry. They are not presented in any particular order.
This article is the second of nine articles in the series.
Provide Appropriate Training
Training is often focused on induction training – staff are recruited, put into a classroom and/or on the phones with a ‘buddy’ and crammed with as much product and service knowledge as possible. The new staff member is unable to remember everything they have been taught, and are not confident when they are put onto the phones. This results in stress and can contribute to poor staff morale and high turnover.
A better approach is to only teach new staff what they need to know to get on the phones quickly, and allow them to reinforce their learning while they gain experience. Where possible, this should be a single product, a single function or simple tasks – and use the capabilities of the technology to only feed them calls they can handle. As their confidence grows, teach additional products and skills and include those calls in their capabilities. This aids confidence with a corresponding improvement in morale and customer service.
Training doesn’t stop after induction – it is ongoing forever. As new technology (including new phones and CRMs), new products, new services or new processes are introduced or updated, thorough training should be provided to all staff to ensure they are appropriately equipped and confident to handle customer queries.
Staged training as advocated in this article should be complimented by:
- A quality assurance and evaluation program
- A reward and recognition program
- Multiple levels of staff skill to allow recognition and promotion of staff as they achieve a higher skill level
- Frequent feedback and coaching.
Customers expect staff to already know the answers to their questions, not to have to look them up or go and ask someone. It is highly stressful for staff to have a customer on the phone and not know the answer to the question they are being asked.
For more information please email spels@ccaction.com.au or call +61 3 8648 6577.
All previous articles are available on our web site – www.ccaction.com.au \
Next article – Recruit The Right People.