4 Training Challenges Call Centers Face
The quality of the training you provide for your agents can be the thing that determines the success of your callcenter. Agents who have not received enough training or have received low-quality training are more likely to grow frustrated in their roles, submit subpar performances, and even quit. But taking the time and putting in the effort to provide the best training possible will directly support your agents’ success.
However, providing top-notch training is easier said than done. The reason: Call center managers, supervisors, and trainers are facing many challenges that could hinder their ability to provide that necessary training for their agents. Here are four of the biggest training challenges call centers face, plus some easy ways to combat them.
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Evolving Technology
We are certainly not the first ones to tell you that technology is constantly evolving. Whether it’s your call center software itself, the CRM you are using, the apps you use to process sales, or even the products you are selling, things are always growing, changing, and updating. Call center agents are expected to be not only aware of these changes but also well-versed in how they impact the customers the agents are serving—and the responsibility of ensuring that the agents have this knowledge falls to the trainers. The challenge here is primarily with scheduling trainings and the frequency with which training is offered. If refresher training or new product training is only offered every six months, for example, that may not be often enough to ensure agents have the most up-to-date information.
One way to approach this, if holding more frequent live training sessions is not an option, would be to push training modules with every product launch or technology change. These can take whatever form best communicates the information that agents need to efficiently use the technology or confidently speak about it to customers.
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Incorporating People Skills
Customers who are interacting with contact centers these days are needier, tougher to please, and have a shorter fuse than ever before. With so much at their fingertips thanks to the internet, they expect to get answers and results much quicker than they once did, which puts a lot of pressure on call center agents. Most of the time, they are not going to be dealing with patient callers. For this reason, it’s absolutely critical that people skills are incorporated into training. Agents need to be exceptional listeners, expressing empathy and sensitivity to customers’ needs while also moving the call forward in a productive manner. In the past, these skills may have been bypassed or minimized in favor of teaching hard skills, but trainers can’t afford to do this anymore. The emotional maturity an agent possesses and expresses on a call can make or break the customers’ experience.
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Ever-Changing Regulations
Even though the laws and regulations that govern call centers are not technically changing all that much, the ways they are interpreted by lawyers and courts are. Call center managers and supervisors must always be aware of these rulings and what they mean for how agents need to move through calls, the questions they are allowed to ask, and the information they are allowed to collect—if they are not aware, they are opening themselves up to potential litigation. It is up to the managers and supervisors to stay up to date on these changes, determine if and how the changes affect their call center, and then effectively communicate this information to their agents through training. These are things that, even if they are small, can have huge consequences for the call center if they are overlooked, so it is crucial that training is always up to date.
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High Turnover Rates
Perhaps the most obvious training challenge call centers face is the high turnover rate for agents. High turnover means constant onboarding, which means constant new hire training. Not only is it challenging to be constantly scheduling new hire training, but it is also made more difficult by the fact that new hires may be in different locations and/or time zones. What’s more, constantly training new hires leaves little time for on-the-job training for existing employees, putting them at risk of falling behind or leaving them unable to adequately do their jobs.
The best way to combat this challenge? Make your new hire training the best it can possibly be, and then be patient. Clear, thorough training that creates knowledgeable and confident agents is one of the most powerful ways to reduce turnover rates. While it may be tempting to rush through new hire training to get more agents on the phones, don’t do it—doing so will only keep you stuck in a cycle of underprepared, overwhelmed agents who won’t stay. Give new hire training the time and energy it requires and the payoff will be more effective, more confident agents who stay with you for much longer.
When you’re working through and creating training regimens, you don’t want a complicated call center platform to take up more time than it needs to. That’s why CallShaper’s software is intuitive and easy-to-use and doesn’t require an IT department to set up or run. For more information, request a demo today.
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