Call centres are used in almost every industry, from retail to legal. They are vital for looking after customer service enquiries and complaints in a fast paced, hectic work environment.
Unfortunately, a high staff turnover is fairly typical in contact centre environments. Managing agents well is critical if you are to deliver a consistent quality customer experience. One way of addressing this is through ensuring that your agents are knowledgeable and comfortable in their skills and ability. Any uncertainty or lack of understanding can leave an agent feeling anxious in their ability to perform, which will deliver a low level of job satisfaction and potentially increase their propensity to leave.
Of course there is always the knock on effect of a poor and ineffective customer experience, which no one aspires to. This is why good training should be a constant requirement in contact centres to ensure employees continue to be productive and efficient, but that the training is designed around their individual needs, as well as a general awareness of best practice.
At MPL Contact, we believe that proficient training should be part of an agent’s general mentoring and development. Methods of delivering training have also advanced, and approaches such as gamification make it less time-consuming and more interactive. Alongside this we ensure that updates and briefings are regular, and no agent is expected to handle any customer interaction without confirming they understand the processes first. This ensures that we continue to provide a high standard of customer service for our clients and that any new policies and regulations are integrated effectively.
Without adequate and ongoing training, you could be damaging your business reputation and even impacting your profits. If team members are not properly trained, they are more likely to make mistakes or break important legal regulations. This can lead to staff de-motivation and low job satisfaction which could, in the long term, cause them to leave the organisation entirely.
Here are our tips to implementing efficient training:
- Implement mandatory training procedures
Whenever there is a new member of the team, it is vital that there is a strict training plan that details exactly what training is required, how frequently and how it will be implemented. This shouldn’t all occur in the first couple of months, but should be provided throughout their time at your organisation. Even an employee of 10 years still needs new training.
- Provide on-hand training techniques
Telling staff members how to do something is less effective than getting them to do it themselves. Providing a variety of training techniques to suit the needs of each employee will make the training more effective and engaging.
- Make sure training is provided by a skilled agent
There is nothing worse than providing training of a low standard. Whoever does the training within your organisation needs to have the skills to effectively get your agents’ call handling up to a high standard and ensure they are doing their job well. Think about the top agents within your contact centre, could they transfer their own experiences onto new members of your team?
- Review your employees’ training needs on a regular basis
While you should be providing training frequently, it is also important to review the progress of each employee to see if any areas could benefit from extra guidance. Everyone’s skills are different, so some employees may need additional support in different areas.
If you would like to know how outsourcing your call handling to MPL Contact can help grow your business, please contact us on 0800 0835 159