Call Center Training

Trust and Guidance in the Call Center Training Initiative
By STEFANIA VISCUSI
TMCnet Assistant Editor for Channels

Achieving success is not something that comes easily. Without practice and skill development, top performance may be impossible.

Attempting to reach a goal, or learn a new skill, usually involves guidance or support of some kind. This is especially true when it comes to call center training.

Sports players need coaches to show them key strategies for winning the game; employees need training to learn new job functions; students look to teachers for help developing life skills; and call center agents need coaches to guide and model successful behaviors.

Coaching is an important aspect of call center training as it reinforces performance improvement and creates a winning environment. In the past, coaching was sometimes overlooked because of limited resources and time. But including it as part of the call center training initiative, and ensuring that proper guidance is provided, has proven beneficial.

As a result, call center training is becoming more focused on specific customer-focused service and sales skills that improve overall performance.

Mistakes are inevitable. For this reason, successful call center coaches act as guides by taking a step back with the agent and showing that person where a wrong turn was taken and what can be done next time to avoid it. Doing this helps to develop further their customer interaction skills.

When a coach steps up to the plate and provides this type of guidance for agents, “winning the game”—in this case, making sales and ensuring customer satisfaction and loyalty—becomes achievable.

Properly trained call center teams can together celebrate successes, boosting morale and facilitating future wins. Call center training makes it possible to win the game by creating successful customer contacts—one customer and one agent at a time.

Stefania Viscusi is an established writer and avid reader. To see more of her articles, please visit Stefania Viscusi’s columnist page.