How long does it take for most new contact center agents to get up to speed?
About three months, according to contact center professionals in a recent research report by Omega and Coveo.
About 45% of contact center agents train for three or fewer months before they’re effective, researchers found. About 25% get new agents up and running within six months, and it takes as much as a year for agents at another 25% of contact centers to become efficient.
Every contact center has different training needs, but there are a few ways to shorten the training cycle.
- Regularly review the material and cut the fluff. One company did it like this: Kept the “must know” info in training and eliminated the “nice to know” info. They saved that for regular, recurring training sessions.
- Switch it up. Cover the most important topics in a variety of mediums to make the biggest impact on retention. For instance, take agents through privacy rules in the classroom, online and during side-by-side sessions with senior agents.
