The core of any call center would be the agents that are talking to the client’s callers. It is very true that a call center is only as good as the agents that it can field. However, a common mistake in the industry is for companies to expand an account or operation without taking the time to properly train their agents. Yes, the first few batches of agents fielded into an account are likely to be among the best that the company can provide. However, that does not necessarily mean that their level of competence is going to be the general level of skill that all incoming agents will possess. There are numerous factors that need to be considered, after all. Discrepancies in the relative level of skill between any two agents will exist, and most call centers would do well to train their agents in such a manner as to minimize those discrepancies when possible.
The training programs used by the successful call centers always take a long time to complete, meaning that they are a significant investment for the company’s resources. However, aside from investing resources into agents, a prolonged training period can also help a company ensure that the agents they are putting to the field are qualified to do the jobs assigned to them. Just sending in new agents into the field is asking for disaster, regardless of how skilled the agents that came before them are. As such, the time in training is spent not only on honing their skills, but also telling the agents the things they need to know if they’re going to survive their jobs.
One thing that a number of the bigger call centers utilize near the end of the training program for new representatives is to make them listen to live calls as they happen. While it is quite possible for agents to learn things by listening to recordings after they’ve been told about guidelines and specifics, there’s simply no better way to learn than to actually listen to a call as it happens. Listening in to a live call can not only show the prospective agent how experienced representatives talk to the customers, they can also observe how the software works and how to use it during an actual call. Another benefit is that they can glean bits and pieces of advice from the person taking the call, allowing them to learn things that no training manual, no matter how comprehensive can possibly teach them.
The timing, along with the duration, of training programs is also something that should be watched out for. New agents, ideally, should be undergoing training while the older, more experienced agents are still in the field. Call centers have a notoriously high rate of employee turnover, which means that new employees tend to come in at a faster rate than they would for any other job. So it is best to constantly be training new agents while still making use of the old ones. That way, there ought to be no real shortage of trained, qualified representatives to handle the account.
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