Call Center Training: Tips & Best Practices for Call Center Success [2023]

The Importance of Training in Call Centers

Effective training programs have a direct impact on agent satisfaction, retention, and performance, which ultimately affects the overall customer experience. 

1. Agent Satisfaction & Retention

Call center agents are the frontline representatives of your brand. When they feel equipped with the necessary skills and knowledge, they're more likely to feel confident and fulfilled in their roles. Training empowers agents to handle challenging customer interactions with ease, leading to increased job satisfaction and reduced turnover rates. 

2. Improved Agent Performance

One of the primary goals of call center training is improving agent performance, from reducing average handle time to improving first contact resolution rates–all without sacrificing the customer’s experience. Training programs provide agents with a deep understanding of products, services, and company policies, enabling them to provide accurate and relevant information to customers. 

3. Better Customer Experience

A frictionless customer experience is the ultimate goal of any call center and well-trained agents are better equipped to consistently deliver exceptional customer experiences. When customers feel heard, understood, and well-assisted, businesses can see increases in loyalty and customer satisfaction.

4. Better Support for Remote Workers

Remote work has become increasingly common, which has presented new challenges for call center training. Call center management must implement novel training methods that ensure remote agents receive the same level of support as their in-office counterparts. 

Leveraging data and technology can play a crucial role in addressing this challenge. For example, the Operative Intelligence platform supports both remote and in-house workers through AI-powered, data-centered, personalized training. 

Agent dashboards allow agents and managers to see exactly where they can improve through objective, data-driven feedback–which is more impactful and actionable than subjective feedback. 

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Call Center Trainer Duties & Responsibilities

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Setting Clear Objectives

Setting clear objectives is crucial to ensure that your team knows what they are expected to achieve. This involves setting performance targets, establishing key performance indicators (KPIs), and outlining the expectations for the team's behavior and attitudes toward customers. 

Creating a Positive Culture 

As a trainer, you have the power to shape the culture of the call center. Creating a supportive training environment is essential for fostering agent growth and development. 

You can begin various employee engagement programs to instill company values in your team. Encourage collaboration, good work ethic, positive attitude, open communication, and a sense of camaraderie among agents. By fostering a positive culture, you create an atmosphere where agents feel comfortable asking questions, seeking feedback, and taking risks. This, in turn, promotes continuous learning and improvement.

Determining Training Materials

Another integral part of your role as a call center trainer is identifying the proper call center training materials, which involves staying up-to-date with industry trends, best practices, and customer expectations. Identify the specific skills and knowledge areas that need to be covered and develop a knowledge base that includes learning materials in various formats including videos, presentations, simulations, case studies, and role-playing scenarios. 

Remember to tailor the materials to address the unique challenges and requirements of your call and contact center agents. 

Evaluating Training Effectiveness 

The final duty of a call center trainer is to evaluate the effectiveness of the training program and identify opportunities for improvement. This means regularly assessing how well the training objectives have been met, gathering feedback from employees, and monitoring performance metrics. 

Operative Intelligence makes this easy by analyzing and reporting on agent performance for all inquiry types. The agent effectiveness dashboard shows managers the specific customer inquiries that each agent is struggling with, as well as the associated volume and cost to the organization. This allows call centers to identify what changes that have the highest impact on their bottom line. 

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What to Include in a Successful Call Center Training Program

A well-designed and comprehensive call center training program is essential for equipping agents with the skills and knowledge they need to excel in their roles.

1. Training Software Tech Stack

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A comprehensive call center training program should leverage a range of training software tech stacks. This can include: 

• Call center analytics tools that provide valuable insights into agent performance 
• Customer insights software for understanding customer behavior
• Learning management systems for internal training materials 
• Video software for create onboarding series and product training videos 
• Digital adoption platforms to enable time, location, and learning flexibility
• And much more! 

Call center coaches should not only be adept at a variety of technologies but should also be on the lookout for any new technologies that make the training process more efficient and effective. They should also actively seek feedback from agents on the tech that they’re using so they know it’s working for the learners too. 

2. Contact Center Metric Measurements

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Contact center metrics encompass analysis at the agent, call center, and customer experience level. Some include: 

• First Call Resolution (FCR)
• After Call Work (ACW)
• Average Handle Time (AHT)
• Agent Effectiveness, and 
• Average Talk Time (ATT)
• Customer Satisfaction (CSAT)‍

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While they’re key for coaching, it can be challenging to gather metrics objectively and on a large scale. Given the varied nature and high volume of customer requests, humans alone cannot analyze and comprehend the phrases, frequency, implications, volume, cost, and sentiment associated with each of them. 

Without the proper call center technology,  many contact centers and BPOs have to rely on anecdotal, subjective feedback and small sample sizes. Even when using some call center software, contact center leaders are still left with measurements of lagging indicators that don’t provide actionable suggestions for improvement. 

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Read more about the data challenge in the customer service industry. 

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This is when call and contact centers turn to Operative Intelligence. The Operative Intelligence platform has revolutionized the way businesses understand contact center metrics by transforming 100% of inbound data into actionable insights. Instead of sifting through a mountain of data, contact center leaders automatically get access to: 

• Detailed insights on inquiry drivers, including volume, cost, sentiment, satisfaction, and resolution
• Reasons behind customer support interactions on a large scale
• Customer pain points and their impact on the business
• Factors contributing to increased handle time and costs
• Drivers of negative customer sentiment and satisfaction 
• Comprehensive assessment of agent and team effectiveness, evaluating resolution rates and customer satisfaction across 100% of inquiries.
• Identification of both top-performing and lowest-performing agents for each inquiry type
• Areas where performance variability is observed at the team and agent levels

Operative Intelligence pulls, analyzes, and visualizes customer demand data so organizations can have a better understanding of their customers’ needs. By automating the entire process, contact center leaders save time, money, and effort while gaining accurate results–every time. 

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Learn more about Operative Intelligence

3. Agent Insight Dashboards

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Agent insights dashboards should provide accurate, data-driven insights that are crucial for improving agent performance and enhancing overall call center operations. They can reveal why and how some agents excel in handling specific inquiries compared to others. This objective data can be more impactful than subjective suggestions and allows for more collaborative training initiatives.

Comprehensive insights should be presented in a clear, readable format that enables both agents and managers to gain clarity on the factors contributing to agent success and replicate best practices across the board.

4. Cross-training & Microtraining

Encouraging cross-training and microtraining opportunities can broaden agents' skill sets and improve their versatility. Cross-training allows agents to learn different roles within the call center, enabling them to handle diverse customer inquiries. 

Microtraining, or microlearning, focuses on short, targeted bursts of learning, delivering specific skills or knowledge to address immediate needs. These approaches promote continuous learning and adaptability, empowering agents to handle a wider range of customer interactions.

5. Gamification & Engagement

Adding elements of gamification to the training program can also boost engagement and motivation among agents. Gamification involves incorporating game-like elements such as challenges, competitions, rewards, and leaderboards into the training process. 

By making learning enjoyable and interactive, agents are more likely to actively participate and retain information. Gamification also fosters healthy competition and a sense of achievement, driving agents to strive for continuous improvement.

6. Soft Skills Training

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While technical skills are crucial, soft skills are equally important in delivering exceptional customer experiences. Incorporate training modules that focus on developing essential soft skills such as communication, empathy, active listening, problem-solving, and conflict resolution.

 These skills enhance agents' ability to build rapport with customers, understand their needs, and provide personalized solutions.

7. Consider Revenue-Generating Activities

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Traditionally, customer service has been a cost generator because it primarily deals with resolving customer issues— which personnel and resources go to, rather than driving revenue. However, the future of customer service lies in identifying and addressing the root causes of customer contacts, enabling contact centers to increase the interactions that contribute to value generation. 

Using the right software and tools, customer service leaders can pinpoint customer issues that can be eliminated or minimized, thus freeing up agents' time to focus on value-generating interactions rather than solely addressing problems. Agents can be trained on upselling, cross-selling, and identifying key opportunities to enhance customer satisfaction while driving revenue. 

This additional training equips agents with the skills to maximize customer interactions and contribute to the organization's bottom line.

8. Virtual & In-person Training

Balancing virtual and in-person training approaches based on the needs of your call center is important. Virtual training offers flexibility and cost-effectiveness, allowing remote agents to participate anywhere. In-person training can provide a more immersive and hands-on experience, fostering collaboration and relationship-building. 

Consider a hybrid approach that combines the benefits of both virtual and in-person training to cater to diverse learning styles and preferences. Ensure that both teams have access to the same training materials and knowledge base, to create a cohesive team that can solve all types of customer queries together.

Of course, if you have remote workers, you’ll have to stick with virtual training. Using the proper contact center software can help you implement equally effective call center training for your remote employees. 

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Improve Your Call Center Training

An effective call center training program is essential for delivering excellent customer service and driving organizational success. With motivated agents, informed coaches, and great call center training software, call centers can ensure that their agents have the necessary skills and knowledge to handle customer inquiries and resolve issues efficiently.

The Operative Intelligence platform unlocks both customer and agent data with AI-powered insights. This data allows companies to have a broader conversation about what to adjust in the customer experience–whether it’s within agent training or requires larger changes to their product or service. 

It’s time to unlock the full potential of your call center data. 

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Book a demo with Operative Intelligence.

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