Contact Center
What to Train Agents on to Deliver Great Customer Service

Call Types - Training focuses on providing the Agent with a base level of knowledge for each common call type (e.g., claims, orders, billing, and technical). The call types that create the lowest FCR results are then examined more closely. Finally, the trainer will detail the knowledge required to handle these calls, illustrating satisfied and dissatisfied customer calls for each call type. In addition, it would be helpful to have the best performing Agents for FCR based on Voice of the Customer (VoC) survey results to provide insights on what they do to achieve FCR success in the training sessions.   

Product and Service - Training focuses on providing the Agent with a base level of knowledge on each product and service offered. The products or services that cause the lowest FCR results are then examined more closely. The trainer will detail the necessary knowledge to handle these calls, illustrating satisfied and dissatisfied customers for each product or service type. Of course, the reality is that call complexity often combines product and call type. For example, the lowest-performing FCR metrics might come from a particular call type (e.g., claim) for a related product type (e.g., health insurance). The call library would allow the trainer to find calls that fit this exact description, combine call type and product type, and share what made Agents successfully deliver FCR and great customer service.

Other Departments Support - In this part of training, the Agent will become familiar with the functions of other departments and how the call center should interact with those departments to resolve the customer's call. They will learn about the levels of authority that the Agent has and how to exercise that authority. They will also learn about the call center's support structure for the Agent to resolve calls. Again, everything in this training is taught from the viewpoint of call resolution. In world-class contact centers, training is given on how to follow up on issues that have been forwarded to other resource areas for resolution, specifically, how cases should be tagged and how the follow-up process works. Again, FCR scenario-based training calls can be selected from the library to illustrate process and operations training issues using different tags (e.g., customer satisfaction, dissatisfaction, call types, and services).

Customer Handling Skills - Nearly one in every three customers is a repeat caller, and when they phone a contact center. Repeat call customers need to be handled great by the Agent acting as their advocate to resolve their call. The Agent's ability to resolve customer calls great is a set of skills that goes way beyond soft skills. Therefore, it is essential to differentiate between soft skills and customer handling skills. Many call center managers view call handling as a soft skill. However, SQM defines soft skills as a greeting, caring, courtesy, politeness, building rapport, and empathy. On the other hand, SQM describes customer handling skills as for the Agent to have skills such as understanding the reason for the call, product and service knowledge, ability to process the call, being an advocate for the customer, and, most importantly, the ability to resolve the call.