Call Centres : Towards the 7 Ps

The success of any call centre business depends almost solely on

the quality of agents that it employs. It is no surprise that in the West, where this

business is quite well developed, most call centre managers attach utmost importance to

the training of agents.

The 7 Ps of teleservices as they are

called, outline the essential characteristics of a good call centre agent. These are

essentially–Prompt, Prepared, Professional, Polite, Precise, Practical, and Positive.

Despite the fact that each call centre has a

personality of its own, these 7 Ps remain the basic MUST skills for any call centre agent.

The degree of each skill varies according to calls and situations. The task of the trainer

is to provide skills to the agents on a varying scale. This scale has to be adjusted not

only as per the needs of the call centre, but also that of the individual.

The degree would vary a lot for the domestic or

offshore call centres. The scales would further tilt according to the diverse cultural

background of each country of the origin of the call.

The assumption seems to be that handling the

telephone effectively is something that people instinctively know. Hence, while a lot of

emphasis is on the product information and on the selling skills, the telephone handling

skills take a back seat.

A planned training program to apply some basics

telemarketing techniques can enhance any company’s image, increase employee

efficiency, and improve bottomline profits.

The trainer or the coach should teach them how to

respond to "situations" instead of reacting to them.

The biggest problem for any agent is the fear that

he or she may not be able to handle whatever situation is presented to them. This fear

could be fuelled by the lack of the product knowledge, lack of sales training or lack of

experience in dealing with different situations.

Training Requirements

Training requirements can

be broadly identified as the following:

Induction training

To be provided either in the

company or where the employee is changing its existing role.

Continuous training

Designed to reinforce the initial

training and to provide the opportunity to improve and develop skills.

Group training

When the manager or the trainer

identifies a number of people with the same training requirements. These are also used for

building team spirit as well as to improve specific skills.

Developmental training

Designed to stretch the employee

who is doing a good job and who may be in danger of becoming bored.

Remedial training

Used to effect a change in

performance levels where under-performance has been identified. This is a sensitive

training as it can be easily misinterpreted as the criticism rather than help.

There are certain expectations from any training

program and a planned programme fulfils and meets all the criteria and expectations of the

company as well as the delegates.

• Training should leave the trainees
  
  uplifted and motivated, keen to go back to work and put into practice the good ideas and
  
  techniques that they have learnt.

• Classroom lessons are fine but there is
  
  no opportunity to test understanding. Task-oriented training enables the delegates to put
  
  into practice what they have learnt and to feedback the results of their projects or
  
  assignments to their managers or colleagues or coach.

• Effective training builds confidence.
  
  Highly trained staff will be well motivated and successful as trained people are more
  
  confident.

• Effective training must be consistent.
  
  All training has to be followed up with refresher sessions otherwise the effects of all
  
  the training will diminish and you will return to the situation that you were in before.

Consistent on the job coaching will

be needed to complement your training messages. Training should correct faults and provide

additional knowledge and skills so that people can grow and develop in their work.

_{Also the training needs are not the same for every}

Also the training needs are not the same for every

individual within the same team at the same time. The training plan should take account of

individual and team needs both now and in future. The practical approach could be Needs

Focused Coaching. Of course, this is a long-term plan for the company rather than a few

days programme.

In the Needs Focused Coaching the coach develops a

personal growth plan after identifying the specific skill and knowledge need of the agent.

Personal growth plans map a course of action to ensure each representative has the

opportunity to master the skills required to contribute to the customer, the team, and the

company. These coaching plans include lesson assignments and meetings with the coach to

ensure skill development. The coach and representative discuss the plan and both give

input on what they feel is important.

One representative may be struggling with knowing

how to identify buying signals while another representative is struggling with how to

handle an irate customer. When managers focus on need, they do not make the person

struggling with sales skills go through training on diffusing anger. These needs-focused

training topics are included in the personal growth plan.

Must Know/Should Know

The training plan must have

priorities and be categorized into "must know" (vital information that the

trainees need in order to do the job effectively) or "should know" (the

knowledge which is useful but not essential to the job).

The "must know" category

can be sub divided and the time scales built in. For instance, you could have "must

know after two months/must know three months". As the agents will not be 100 percent

effective from day one, there will be a learning path, which means further skills will be

added and assimilated with time. This will provide training blocks at the pace, which has

been identified as reasonable and within their capability. The subject covered should

follow a logical sequence based on sequence of contact with a customer in your

organization. The training programme should be concerned with a long-term developmental

need in the team while also taking into account the needs of an individual’s personal

development.

You may have loyal and consistent performers in a

team. If neglected, they are bound to feel they are going no where in the organization. In

a call centre, there may not be promotional prospects readily on offer. In such a case, a

personal developmental plan can re-motivate and improve the levels of commitments from

team members and avoid them "switching off" when they realize immediate

advancement is unlikely.

If the team is not involved in the call centre strategy or helped in

the development of their personal communication skills, they will never reach the customer

service standards that are required to deliver customer service excellence.