5 Tips for Training Your Contact Center Staff

Written by KOVA Corp

Managing a workforce, whether it be a room of 20 people or a room of 200, is never an easy task. It is hard work that requires excellent people skills, the ability to multi-task, as well as the composure to remain calm under pressure. Being manager, you are given the job of not only handling a team but also keeping an eye on operational costs. Your managerial skills can mean the difference between a successful call center and a disastrous one. The trainee is only as good as the trainer. That being said, here are 5 tips for training your call center staff.

Use free online tools

With technology constantly changing and the internet ubiquitous, some training tools are right at your fingertips for free. One prime example would be using YouTube, which is not only cost-effective but also bound to make the training sessions more interactive and fun. Videos can range from humorous to more serious, while at the same time also encouraging staff members to share their stories, thus turning training sessions into group discussions.

Keep a trainee observation log

An observation log can come in very handy when training new hires. When a new employee has trouble with a particular concept, the notes kept by a manager can assist in helping clarify the challenge. If the issue is about understanding how to handle an upset customer, for example, a manager can easily step in and offer more examples or further instruction on the concept, which is usually very helpful.

Conduct passport tours

One of the more pressing issues for new staff is understanding how a call center functions and operates on a day-to-day basis. It can be very beneficial to conduct tours of various parts within the center so new staff can comprehend how everything comes together. Along the way, new staff can obtain a signature on their “passport” at every stop made.

For live calls, group new staff

Making the transition from training to taking a live call can be pretty intimidating, to say the least. New staff may know how to do the job, but may also have a lack of confidence - or not have the speed or accuracy to take a multitude of calls without having numerous questions throughout. An easy way to make the transition smoother would be to group new staff together and have them take calls under the watchful eye of a seasoned worker, whether it be you or a trusted employee. This allows each individual new hire to be productive through answering clients’ calls in a normal manner, while still having access to advice, if needed.

Have new staff score their own calls

Numerous call centers use their quality assurance form as a rubric of sorts for training. This idea makes sense because you want to train new staff to be up to par with the same standards used to evaluate a good call. You can further this approach by having new agents score their own calls. These calls can either be role-played recordings or live calls. This technique enables new agents to view their performance in an objective manner and helps them analyze their performance for future improvement.

And there you have it. 5 tips to help you train your next set of contact center staff. For more details on the workforce training software KOVA offers, check out our Enterprise Workforce Optimization Solutions.

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