Stressful customer calls can lead to stessed employees, which can lead to decreased motivation and productivity. Don't let this happen to your business! Call center training programs have been found to educate employees regarding how to best manage difficult situations, reduce stress, boost morale, and ensure customer satisfaction. Use this information to learn more about the benefits of call center training and suggested program content to promote efficient business.

from www.allbusiness.com

Training your workers can be a tremendous drain on your time and resources. But before you dismiss the idea of helping your employees learn new skills, consider the ways that skill-based training can positively affect your employees and your company.

Training increases employee productivity.

In addition to learning how to complete new tasks and take on more responsibility, employees can learn advanced techniques to help them complete everyday tasks more efficiently. For example, sending your bookkeeper to an advanced Excel class may help him or her learn shortcuts to simplify the accounting processes.

Training reduces turnover.

Employees who don't receive guidance or have difficulty learning the ropes are much more likely to leave your company. Employees are less likely to leave if they have the opportunity to learn new skills and keep up within their industry.

Training improves job satisfaction.

Investing time and money in employees’ skills makes them feel valued and appreciated, and it challenges them to learn more and get more involved in

from www.catalogsuccess.com

As direct marketers, we spend a great deal of time and money developing campaigns to make the phone ring. But it’s the call center that can truly make “the cash register sing.”

Thus, I believe it’s imperative to spend a great deal of time training customer service representatives (CSRs) to be powerful brand advocates and difference makers with all customers. Personally, I hate calling a company and having to hear some disinterested rep take my order in a lackluster way. I believe it reflects that the company I’m dealing with doesn’t necessarily “get it.” The people on the phone are the voice of your company.

Increase conversions through training

I like to train CSRs to think on their feet. You have to do more than just interact with customers and prospects by reading a script. Of course, good call-center software within a scripted environment can be effective, but sometimes even the best scripting can’t beat a well-trained CSR’s instincts. It’s important to hire reps who can work this way. It’s always possible to mentor and monitor them on an ongoing basis (and make sure you analyze their call times as you can burn phone time getting personal).

Develop the proper instincts during “play time”

Another extremely powerful technique at your disposal is role-playing. Role-playing is simply having two people “act” as if they were in a live-call situation, with one playing the role of the customer and the other playing the CSR (essentially himself). Some CSRs may feel uncomfortable being put on the spot this way, so it’s important to stress that the environment is safe; no right, no wrong can be done. And make it fun. Keep the spirit light, add humor and make sure even the dumbest mistakes aren’t taken too seriously. What’s important here is not to scare your CSRs, but to have them really get behind your products and company. Make them feel like you’re adding value to their jobs. One thing to stress is that this training program will help them now and in any future career endeavors.

Plan for the unexpected

Role-play the entire sale process — opening, closing, upselling, cross-selling — with your customer service representatives (CSRs), and pay special attention to handling objections. Be aware of all of the potential customer objections that could come into play with your product, and come up with multiple rebuttals that your CSRs can use for each.

Consistently train your reps until they can respond to any customer objection or situation with ease. I like to get progressively tougher with each CSR as role-playing continues. Eventually you want to have the person playing the customer role to be really tough, trying to get the person in the CSR role frazzled and off-track.

Say it with a smile

Always make sure you role-play with enthusiasm! No level of product knowledge or any sales technique can beat enthusiasm. I actually teach CSRs to smile while speaking with customers and prospects. Believe it or not, the person on the other end of the phone can actually hear a smile. Your voice sounds different when you smile, even over the phone.

Use incentives to help motivate your CSRs. Set up contests that reward the CSRs and training teams that generate the highest results once they’re back live on the phones. One word of caution on this technique, however: Drill your CSRs on how to be gentle and not pushy. Keep a careful eye on your returns, as being too aggressive to win the contest can be brought out by human nature.

Stress the quality of the relationship with customers, as well as the quantity of orders. By using this simple technique at one company where I worked, we increased conversion rates by as much as 20 percent. Also, by fostering an atmosphere of teamwork and healthy competition, we increased the enthusiasm and level of positive spirit in our call center.

from www.callcentrehelper.com

1. Effective customer intelligence

One of the issues we come back to time and time again with our blue-chip clients is not working out how best to interact with customers – but how to figure out who those customers actually are in the first place!  Developments like loyalty cards and the internet have certainly made it easier to track customers and their buying habits – but it is still a huge challenge for companies.  Effective customer intelligence is based on three essential questions: Who are our chosen customers? What do they need and expect from us as a service provider?  How are we doing in meeting their needs?

2. Have faith in your front-line customer service staff

It is people that deliver great service, not companies.  Some of the best customer service is delivered by companies which empower their customer service agents to think for themselves, act independently and be flexible. Nothing annoys customers more than a centre agent who is completely unable to deviate from an obviously pre-prepared script.

3. Understand how customers think

Few firms have begun to consider how they can test for the emotional elements of the customer experience.  This is where Enterprise Feedback Management comes in – proactively surveying customers when they are likely to have experienced a service issue (i.e. a water company surveying a group of customers where a leak has occurred in their area would be a classic example) enables companies to plug into their customers’ experiences and resolve issues before the relationship breaks down.

4. Work for and with people who believe in service excellence

If the people at the top of an organisation don’t believe in service excellence, it won’t happen.  Customer service has to be an issue that the board takes seriously.  If it’s not, all the money in the world won’t give you a decent customer service operation.

5. Master the art of organisation design

Service excellence is a function of how the organisation is designed.  Its key elements are what the leaders do and how effective the management processes are in facilitating the desired outcome.  This is particularly obvious in the area of customer complaints.  How are complaints handled?  Are they treated as a priority and sorted according to urgency?  Or are they chucked in a pile, to be dealt with as and when possible?

6. Make the link to the bottom line

Masters of service excellence understand that customers who have a great experience are more likely to continue to buy from their companies and more likely to recommend them to others.  They also understand that even customers that complain can become brand advocates – if their complaint is resolved quickly and satisfactorily.

7. Make everything a little better every day

Leaders in service excellence train their people to drive continuous improvement.  Companies which settle for a set level of service – even if it’s good – will inevitably fall behind the competition over time.

8. Understand that the future will be different

Technology is changing the way service is delivered all the time.  Failing to grasp the opportunities and threats presented will mean failure.  In customer service, webchat, email, SMS, and Enterprise Feedback Management are just a few of the technologies changing the landscape significantly.

9. Learn from your mistakes

Everybody makes mistakes, but winners learn from them, giving their front-line people as much freedom as possible to fix problems.  When individuals or teams make mistakes, use them as opportunities to learn.  A customer service charter is a great idea – but a willingness to change and develop your customer service strategy based on feedback from your customers and changing market conditions is even better.

10. Make things easier for customers

Too many firms still make buying and dealing with the customer service department unnecessarily difficult - for both retail and business customers - with unclear pricing, long delivery times, insufficient information and poor support and service.  Customer patience is limited – and is only likely to become more constrained in our cash-rich, time-poor society.  But for those companies that get it right, the prizes are immense.

from www.impactlearning.com

In a training room, as in the workplace as a whole, people have different views, backgrounds, preferences and learning styles. When you facilitate a training event, respecting the diversity of your group is essential to the overall success of the initiative. You have only a brief amount of time to ensure that everyone feels comfortable and to set a tone of mutual respect among the group.

Below are some helpful tips:

• Always treat participants fairly and equally.
• Encourage all participants to share their thoughts and ideas. 
• Call on participants to respond to one another—not just to you.
• Each time you put participants into pairs or triads, create new work groups (rather than have them always work with the same people).
• Truly listen to what each of your learners has to say. Don’t discount any ideas or comments. 
• Be aware that some participants naturally learn a new skill faster than others do but that this doesn’t necessarily mean they learn it “better.” 
• Encourage everyone to see the worth of ideas that are not their own.
• Do your best to create a learning environment in which everyone feels welcome and important.

When you have a diverse training group, it’s important to make sure from the outset that everyone is on the same page regarding what’s expected of them and what they expect to gain from the training. Starting out with a brief activity in which they verbalize their expectations (things like “no cell phone calls,” “come back from break on time,” etc.) can help to create a consensus regarding general guidelines for a good training experience.

A training environment is an ideal place for participants to learn from each other’s similarities and differences. The fact that everyone is diverse and unique makes your learning environment that much more collaborative. It would be pretty boring if we were all the same!