Training Does Have an Impact on Call Center Employees

The success of a BPO and efficiency of call center employees mostly depend on the training they have been provided.

It is important to assess the needs of a call center before training is imparted to the employees. It is important to check the telecommunications systems and find out if there are enough working phone lines to handle the many incoming calls, else even proper training can do no good to the organization.

Training is considered to be successful if it supports the call center’s business objectives. Note that training benefits can be increased with follow-up or ongoing coaching. Many call centers think that after training is provided, the employees will show remarkable improvement in performance, but that’s not how it works. There is no magic. This is where following up and ongoing coaching come into play, since learning that is not reinforced with the first 2 months tend to drop by 80%.

Training is actually an investment in the business, and should be holistic, integrated and reflect long-term planning. Once training has been provided, the call center should measure the results; it’s necessary to find out if employees are improving on their work.

Pull Up Call Center Quality

No matter what the geographical location of your call center is, you cannot surge ahead in terms of revenue unless you are improving your quality. The benchmark of call center services is measured in terms of quality. This trend is fast catching up for call centers across the world, especially in the third world countries. The general perception is that the telemarketing services of these countries are inferior because of the cheap labor that they employ. That may work for the cost models, but modern business is not cost-only endeavors. There is the question of sustaining the brand reputation. Unless you pull up the services that you provide, there is little that you can do to survive in the market.

Quality in call center services can be fixed overnight. You have to work closely with the managers and supervisors of the BPO unit to make changes. Start off with the manpower. Conduct an evaluation that will separate the better performers from the others. Assign them to the top priority projects and deploy the best agents on the peak times of customer services. Ensure that your technology is updated and in sync with the best practices. You will need to spend more time in the training room with your employees so that they may learn more about the work that they do before stepping on the call center floor.