Only a portion of contact center training sinks in. The rest of it fails to get results. Here’s how to make sure yours doesn’t fail.
Focus training efforts on these five keys:
- Don’t harp on repairing weaknesses. Instead, foster individual strengths and spend less time trying to get people (or the whole department) to master skills or behaviors that don’t directly impact customer satisfaction.
- Make the connection. Every skill, behavior or bit of knowledge that is covered in training should be directly linked back to how it will be executed on the job.
- Support it. Give contact center agents time to embrace and master the new knowledge. Be available to guide them through the changes. Give them materials to stay up to date on it.
- Be accountable. Managers and reps need to be accountable for performance improvements after training. Set goals and time lines for meeting them. If possible, offer incentives for achieving the goals.
- Get it done. The most often overlooked reason that training fails is that it doesn’t get done. Managers need to consider training time an investment, not a cost. And then they must schedule time to do it.
