It’s been over a year since I’ve posted about training dollars; when I received a Contact Center Pipeline article about the topic, it seemed like a good time for a refresher!  Get the Most Out of your Training Budget by Mike Aoki offers ten tips to “maximize your training investments.” The article is worth a thorough read because all ten points are valid and critical in managing a training program.  However, I’ve distilled a few highlights for you regarding some of the key steps you must implement before and after any training program to help ensure its success.

Before you roll out any training program, you must carefully analyze your needs and establish a training plan.  Your first step must be to identify your training needs and goals.  Whether it is a multi-day new agent course or a one-page job aid, it is critical that you isolate the learning gap and ensure that training is the solution.  It may be easy to jump to training as your solution to a performance problem, but ensure that you are not facing an issue with the environment or motivation of your agents.  Once you’re sure that training is the appropriate solution, set clear training goals and objectives and ensure that the content strictly adheres to these.

Prior to implementing any training, you should find ways to obtain buy in from the rest of your organization as well as the participants themselves.  Ensure that the training content aligns with quality assurance goals, your organization’s mission, as well as departmental goals.  In addition, Aoki also recommends asking an executive to sponsor the training session because his or her presence will certainly highlight the importance of the material.

After the training has been completed, your job is still not done!  As Aoki writes, “going to a training session is like going to the gym…once!”  One visit is not enough to make a change; you must continue to reinforce the training content.  Team managers (who should have also completed the training) should coach their employees to reinforce the content.  Reinforcement tools are an immensely helpful addition for these managers.  Consider developing job aids for both managers and agents:  process flowcharts, posters, or quick reference cards.  Aoki also suggests stretching your dollars even further by leveraging existing channels of communication to reinforce training; email, wikis, and the intranet are all easy ways to share training updates, reminders, and tips.

Maximizing your dollars in the call center is a critical goal that can never be ignored.  Many contact center managers are not experts in the fields of training and education, so it can be overwhelming to try to ensure that you are getting the most bang for your training dollar.  Aoki’s ten tips are vital aspects to include in planning and implementing a successful training program.

I recently came across an article on the Customer Management IQ blog that discusses the hesitance of many customer service representatives to take on more of a sales role. This is not an uncommon problem in many call centers that hope to make the most of their human resources by cross-training agents. At Inova Solutions, we encourage cross training, because real-time contact center reporting tools can notify you when one skill group is idle while another is slammed. Our customers have improved efficiency significantly by automating alerts to notify the idle agents to jump on the line to help out busy queues. This often means an employee trained in customer service or tech support needs to jump on the sales line. Admittedly, this is not an ideal situation, but any call center manager looking at the bottom line would rather see sales calls handled by CSRs than dropped due to a high abandon rate.

However, if agents are not really on board with handling calls outside of their department, this strategy may not be successful. The problem is usually rooted in one (or both) of two things: a lack of interest in the sales process or a lack of knowledge about products/sales. Depending on the individual, these obstacles may be overcome.

First, it is important to address the agent’s lack of interest in selling. It is, after all, not what they were hired to do, and they may have no interest in pursuing it. However, a little training and an incentive program may go a long way for the hesitant CSR. After all, sales people get a commission, and it’s not fair to ask your customer service team to field sales calls without the same compensation. Their attitude towards selling may change dramatically just with this step.

In addition, it’s human nature to avoid tasks outside our comfort zone. If agents have received little or no training in handling sales calls, they will understandably feel ill equipped to handle the unexpected. Product brochures and talk tracks are a good start, but there is nothing like shadowing a sales agent on the phones for a day to give other employees a better idea of how to sell. Make this shadowing a regular, repeating training ritual, and the time investment will pay dividends.

Your non-sales agents may grow to enjoy handling sales calls once in a while when the call volume is high. After all, a change of pace and variety of tasks is key to a happy, well-rounded employee. However, keep in mind that not everyone will enjoy it despite your best efforts. Try to acknowledge this sentiment and charge this kind of employee with other tasks, if possible. It is important to show them that you hear their concerns, and value the good work they do too much to let a secondary task cause them too much stress. But you may find that with the right training and incentives, employees are willing to venture outside their department and try new things.