Call Center Training, Is a Must
July 1, 2008
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By Hani Masgidi
The remarkable growth of Call Center Industry has ushered to the opening of Call Center Training schools. Training schools may be accessed on line where all claim to be best in the field. There are two constants in the area of training; one is that training costs and it is actually consuming large portion of call center's resources; two is the accounting of the result of the training, there must be an improvement in the performance that would justify the resources spent.
Training is made so as to improve and further develop the performance of an agent. The training satisfies two areas such the personal and individual professional growth of the agent and his delivery of good productivity to the company. With good training, the call center should expect the following results:
- Agents could handle themselves more professionally and with confidence.
- New hires could no longer be distinguished from the experienced agent.
- Better customer satisfaction.
- Better productivity.
Training is not a one time deal, it is continuous. It is an indispensable tool that would help to keep the performance of agents on target. Best agents are those that have both the training and the experience. A call center agent is developed as he faces and handles the widest set of situations in the day to day performance of his job. But an experienced and consistently trained agent performs best. Good training provides additional knowledge and confidence to the agent. An effective training is one that derives its training objectives from the business objectives. There are two truths with training; it could only claim to be effective when the results are seen and it is a continuing program.
Training is a part of growth and development resulting to a better performing individual. Here are some good reasons why a call center executive should be an advocate of continuous training:
1. It boosts morale. An agent would feel motivated will the newly acquired knowledge and added skills.
2. It costs less than recruiting and hiring. Call centers have the reputation of having the greatest turn over and this could be reduced if not eliminated through training.
3. Training stimulates the desire of an individual to improve.
4. Training keeps the pace with the rapidly changing technology.
5. It develops teamwork and thus results to better productivity.
6. Training is an investment that returns many times over. Because it raises morale it directly boosts efficiency and therefore productivity.
7. Training raises the rookie to a professional. Investing in training your staff or agents gives the feeling of being valued that could help build their loyalty to the company.
8. It eliminates stress. A good training provides agents with the skills and tools needed to handle stressful situations, especially in dealing with angry customers.
Considering all of these, management and supervisors can rest assured that the call center operation will run smoothly and customers will be satisfied with the service they receive from a motivated call center agent. All Center training is not mere compliance to a system; it is an essential part of development and an absolute requirement, just like computers and head sets to a call center.
Copyright (c) 2008 Hani Masgidi
Telemarketing - Generate Big Revenue from Simple Creative Ideas & Small Budgets
June 13, 2008
By Yoshiko Choy
Develops and Sells the
Hello, This is XX calling from XX (company), may I have a moment of your time please….?
Statistics shows that Telemarketing responses fetches 4 times more than mail-generated leads. And you would think that the cost could be exorbitant, since large corporations have spent millions of dollars prepping up their telemarketing centers. Well, it's Yes and No. If you are running a large corporation and looking to expand sales exponentially at a faster pace, yes.
But if you run a small business, you too can have a piece of the telemarketing pie. There are approaches which from my past experience have proven workable and more importantly profitable to say the least.
The one of the critical issues is to examine suitability of your business for the telemarketing channel of distribution. There are industries which telemarketing has become the norm in generating escalating revenues & profits but there are those which do not leverage upon telemarketing, not due to budget constraints but that there are more appropriate distribution channels. Take for instance, the very familiar credit card call industry. You will see rows and rows of telemarketers calling round the clock to solicit card applications. Conversely, if you are in the fruits wholesale distribution business, it is highly unlikely that you would resort to telemarketing as a distribution channel.
You will also need to analyze the function of telemarketing as marketing tool in your business. You can activate telemarketing activities for expanding revenue, as a sales support tool as well as build rapport. Call supporting activities for the credit card businesses, the cell phone businesses for instance, would center around after-sales services. Calling clients on service evaluation after sales would be building rapport and generate feedback for product and service enhancements. These are very diverging objectives which separately achieve different purposes altogether. The pitch and script would be highly diverging as well.
The "recency" of your call list is critical as well. Lists from events and campaigns must be called within the month to ensure higher recall rate. The sooner you call your prospects, the higher the recall rate and the better the chances of closing the sale. The catch is of course the National Do Not Call List. So ensure that the potential clients you call are on this list.
Finally, your success largely depends on The Reward, essentially the effectiveness of your incentive scheme.
I shall share below an example of my past execution of telemarketing as a sales generating tool. In this instance, our discussion is centered on the small business, with tight operations and marketing budgets.
For effective telemarketing, you could consider training one or two existing staff to spend 30% to 50% of their time conducting telemarketing out of a potential client listing generated from your many events and campaigns as well as existing client lists. And Viola!! Leveraging on existing manpower resources, you have created a new channel of distribution!
Handpick staff who have tact and are able to take rejection, and practice, they will start converting the leads to sales, and start earning! Remember, Telemarketing is a prolong activity channel which yields results over time. Persistence and positivism is essence.
In terms of rewards, on top of their usual salary, you should incentivize your telemarketers with a generous percentage of telesales revenue generated by them. This is especially viable for business costs which run on incremental variable revenue model. For instance, if your business is leveraged upon total fixed cost, and any revenue above your fixed cost is variable revenue or profits. Hence, any amount generated by your telemarketers is essentially variable revenue on top and above your normal fixed costs and fixed revenue.
Yoshiko Choy is an entrepreneur and a management consultant in business & marketing with 17 years of experience in Locals & MNCs as well as an avid online marketer. She holds an Executive MBA with
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How To Improve Call Center Effectiveness
June 13, 2008
One thing that customer service call centers dread is customer backlash and this is something that is becoming all too common for call centers all over the world. Disgruntled customers choose to do business with a rival instead of you because you could not offer them the after-sales service that you promised. When customers consider their trust to be breached their reactions include a poor perception of your company, reduced likelihood of doing business with your company, and almost no chance of recommending your company to a friend.
Customer call centers invite trouble when they deviate from the maxim that an existing customer who has paid good money deserves respect; ironically most businesses are aware that it's easier to retain a customer than go for a new one.
Poor customer perception of business call centers is not industry-specific. Its spread across industries covering businesses of all sizes. Too often, businesses lose sight of customer requirements and in an effort to improve operational efficiencies they cut corners and try to reduce costs. This affects call center performance.
If you are running a call center, you should know where the trouble lies; here are some of the issues that are pet customer peeves
Having to make more than one call and then talking to more than one customer representative
Having to stay on hold, deal with IVRs and a menu that is anything but easy to use.
The absence of dedicated executives, so that each call is a new beginning where the problem has to be explained afresh.
Poorly trained executives who more often than not escalate the issue to their seniors while you are put on hold.
If you wish to improve your customer's experience when interacting with your call center, here are a few things that you need to understand -
Time and effort devoted to offering customer service should not be viewed as an avoidable cost, also your call center is not a cost center it is a profit center which if run properly will get you a very quick ROI on what you put into it. It also means that you have to select your call center
A successfully closed issue helps a great deal in retaining a customer.
Only trained staff can deliver consistent results so focus on training the staff, quality control. Attrition can prove to be a drain on your resources so work on retaining the experienced and talented staff.
Remember there are a lot of intangibles and trifles that lead to improved customer call center performance which in turn enables you to achieve sales conversions. Empathize with your customer and you will be handsomely rewarded for it. Do not forget that it also means that you have to carefully select your call center
Piyush Bakshi is a full-time content provider working with Gate58 which owns http://www.vendordemo.com
Call Center Updates and Center News
April 15, 2008
Stop working so hard trying to improve your call center performance, use call center games to achieve extraordinary results!
BPO, Information Technology, Call Center » Outsource-Philipines
Outsource-Philippines information management provides and manages billing and customer support solutions for communications companies worldwide. Convergys Customer Management
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Verizon Wireless Unveils Data Solutions Lab at Huntsville Call … - Earthtimes
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Verizon Wireless Unveils Data Solutions Lab at Huntsville Call …
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Stop working so hard trying to improve your call center performance, use call center games to achieve extraordinary results!
