When I raised this subject with some of my contact centre management colleagues and clients I was surprised at the depth of feeling there was. Both positive and negative.
It seems that when e-learning was but a twinkle in the eye of many, a number of “e-learning companies” tried to get ahead of the game and essentially just developed an online PowerPoint display, loaded it and called it e-learning. People got sucked into paying too much for what they got and that has left a sour taste in their mouth.
When e-learning is developed properly, utilising an interactive style and using adult learning methodologies it can be extremely useful. I don’t want to go into all the potential applications for e-learning use, but what has surprised me is the lack of use e-learning is getting within contact centres.
While I agree that there needs to be a mixture of learning methods including one on one, classroom and independent, it seems to me that e-learning has a place in contact centre training. It is perfect for self-paced learning and gives an agent the ability to log on during quieter times to brush up on their soft skills.
CallCentre people has researched what contact centres want from e-learning and partnered with The Learning Wave, a specialist training company and Litmos, an online learning management system, to develop a series of modules designed for contact centres with material sourced specifically for contact centre staff. The examples used are all relevant to contact centres so this training is ideal for an existing contact centre agent to brush up on their soft skills or for someone wanting to gain employment in a contact centre role and gain the necessary skills to ensure they stand out in a crowd.
Why not check out the first two modules at http://www.callcentrepeople.co.nz/ or go directly to the course description:
Module 1 - Dealing with difficult customers
http://callcentrepeople.litmos.com/register.aspx?c=xb4tjaJdHEo_
Module 2 - Tone of Voice is key to your success
http://callcentrepeople.litmos.com/register.aspx?c=EGHUFuUZdMA_
Friday, November 27, 2009
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
How to deal with difficult customers
Dealing with difficult customers is a part of every contact centre agents day. Difficult customers can be defined by their tone, their language or the problem.
What has surprised us through our research is the lack of training agents and team leaders receive on how to deal with difficult customers to ensure there is a satisfactory resolution for all parties involved.
The cost to a business in unresolved customer disputes can be huge. We have all heard the "multiply it by 11" scenario. Those of us in business just can't afford to get a bad reputation, especially when the solution is tangible. Just what are your agents telling your customers and how do they placate a customer or prospect without giving away hard earned company revenue.
Some might say the answer is just plain common sense and in some cases they would be right. But aren't most things common sense? If that was true then a lot of training companies would go out of business. Sales Managers wouldn't have a job, there would be no need for coaching, mentoring and who would need the reports based on productivity - surely then it isn't just common sense.
E-learning is the perfect platform to deliver soft-skill training within contact centres and one of many modules to be developed by CallCentre People is "Dealing with difficult customers". This was selected by numerous callcentres in a recent poll taken by CallCentre People Ltd as an essential skill needed by agents and team leaders that could potentially save the company thousands of dollars.
I'm sure you are providing training to your agents on how to work the CRM Systems and product information but are you equipping them with all the skills and information to truly represent your company professionally. Do you provide this type of training in an agents first week or two of working with you and then never again. This e-learning module can be used as a total training solution for this subject or as a refresher for existing agents.
Check it out at www.callcentrepeople.co.nz and select the e-learning page for more information. If you like what you see why not register for the training, or if you would like to set up training for more than 5 agents in your organisation please contact CallCentre People who can set up group pricing and invoicing for you.
What has surprised us through our research is the lack of training agents and team leaders receive on how to deal with difficult customers to ensure there is a satisfactory resolution for all parties involved.
The cost to a business in unresolved customer disputes can be huge. We have all heard the "multiply it by 11" scenario. Those of us in business just can't afford to get a bad reputation, especially when the solution is tangible. Just what are your agents telling your customers and how do they placate a customer or prospect without giving away hard earned company revenue.
Some might say the answer is just plain common sense and in some cases they would be right. But aren't most things common sense? If that was true then a lot of training companies would go out of business. Sales Managers wouldn't have a job, there would be no need for coaching, mentoring and who would need the reports based on productivity - surely then it isn't just common sense.
E-learning is the perfect platform to deliver soft-skill training within contact centres and one of many modules to be developed by CallCentre People is "Dealing with difficult customers". This was selected by numerous callcentres in a recent poll taken by CallCentre People Ltd as an essential skill needed by agents and team leaders that could potentially save the company thousands of dollars.
I'm sure you are providing training to your agents on how to work the CRM Systems and product information but are you equipping them with all the skills and information to truly represent your company professionally. Do you provide this type of training in an agents first week or two of working with you and then never again. This e-learning module can be used as a total training solution for this subject or as a refresher for existing agents.
Check it out at www.callcentrepeople.co.nz and select the e-learning page for more information. If you like what you see why not register for the training, or if you would like to set up training for more than 5 agents in your organisation please contact CallCentre People who can set up group pricing and invoicing for you.
Friday, November 6, 2009
Are you projecting the image you want in the market?
Wow, what a change in the past 12 months it has been. The number of job orders has definitely decreased - that's no secret, with the number of candidates continuing to rise.
Receiving large numbers of applications isn't something new. For some of us that have been around the block a few times we remember having candidates coming out our ears with few places to refer them to only a matter of a few years ago.
Everything is cyclical, the housing market takes a crash about every 7 years, the share market about every 10 years and so on and so on, if you think our current times are unusual you only have to go back in the history books to realise they are not.
The large number of candidates coming in the door has led me to wonder how other recruitment companies are handling them. Are they treating their candidates with the care they did when candidates were hard to come by, or have they forgotten the past 5ish years and are treating them as just a number. It's not easy if you don't have the systems and processes in place, but our industry is all about people, so if you don't have the systems in place, you better get them because you are losing business.
Put yourself in your candidates position, if you sent away your resume for a job you thought you were suitable for and never heard back, wouldn't that leave a sour taste in your mouth. How many times do you give a candidate a time frame i.e we will be in contact within a week, and two weeks go by without contact?
Today's candidate could be tomorrows clients and we should all be treating people with the respect they deserve. Why not go the extra mile by offering them some advise, tell them the truth and recommend improvements to help them in their job search. People do business with people and they are more likely to spread positive comments to their friends, colleagues or even when they do secure a role they may mention to their manager the good experience they had dealing with you.
Your reputation is only as good as the last person you dealt with.
for more information about callcentre people, please visit www.callcentrepeople.co.nz
Receiving large numbers of applications isn't something new. For some of us that have been around the block a few times we remember having candidates coming out our ears with few places to refer them to only a matter of a few years ago.
Everything is cyclical, the housing market takes a crash about every 7 years, the share market about every 10 years and so on and so on, if you think our current times are unusual you only have to go back in the history books to realise they are not.
The large number of candidates coming in the door has led me to wonder how other recruitment companies are handling them. Are they treating their candidates with the care they did when candidates were hard to come by, or have they forgotten the past 5ish years and are treating them as just a number. It's not easy if you don't have the systems and processes in place, but our industry is all about people, so if you don't have the systems in place, you better get them because you are losing business.
Put yourself in your candidates position, if you sent away your resume for a job you thought you were suitable for and never heard back, wouldn't that leave a sour taste in your mouth. How many times do you give a candidate a time frame i.e we will be in contact within a week, and two weeks go by without contact?
Today's candidate could be tomorrows clients and we should all be treating people with the respect they deserve. Why not go the extra mile by offering them some advise, tell them the truth and recommend improvements to help them in their job search. People do business with people and they are more likely to spread positive comments to their friends, colleagues or even when they do secure a role they may mention to their manager the good experience they had dealing with you.
Your reputation is only as good as the last person you dealt with.
for more information about callcentre people, please visit www.callcentrepeople.co.nz
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