Tip of the Week

June 14 - Do you ever wonder why some of your employees come out of a training program and just simply don’t seem to get it?  Do some of the trainees seem to assimilate all the information just fine, but others seem like they were never even in the class? The problem may not be in the intelligence levels or the classroom efforts of the trainees, but in the way the training is designed and presented.  It’s important that your training programs are designed to engage and stimulate all types of students and learning styles. An important consideration in developing call center training programs is to understand how adults learn.  The concept of adult learning theory suggests that we learn differently as adults than we did as children in school.  Some characteristics of adult learners are: Adults need to be able to integrate new ideas with what they already know. Adults [...]

May 24 - We are always “managing by the numbers” in a contact center, and there are dozens of metrics associated with front-line performance.  Agents may get feedback on their average handle time (AHT), after-call work (ACW) percentages, average speed of answer (ASA), quality scores, and adherence numbers, just to name a few.  But do they know what these numbers (and acronyms) really mean? It is a good practice to have definitions of all the terms used in performance management explained to agents in the new hire training but also available to them in your knowledge management tool or company intranet.  Make sure the agents know the terms, what the numbers mean, how they are measured, and the relevance of each number to the bigger team picture and the performance of the center as whole.  Note that QATC has a glossary of contact center terms in our members-only Library that can [...]

November 23 - How effectively do you measure the ROI of your training efforts?  Sure, most of us ask the students if they liked it and thought it was useful, but do we check to see if they actually apply that learning on the job?  This is being asked of more and more training departments when they go to senior management for more money. One process that we have seen that helps to demonstrate the value is to have the students do projects at the end of training that apply what they have learned in the day-to-day operation.  They can be individual or group projects but they need to be relevant and useful and the student’s manager needs to sign off on it to be sure she will be given the time needed to complete it.  And the trainer needs to make time available to assist the students as they run [...]

November 9 - Call center Quality Assurance is a job that many can do, but few can do consistently well. Not only does it involve a wide range of skills and disciplines, it also demands a certain attitude.  With that in mind, a great call quality analyst may not necessarily be your top agent.  Rather, your ideal call center QA analyst will have these 10 attributes at their beck and call: An Analytical Approach - The most obvious trait is baked right into the job title: they must be analytical.  The analyst will be expected to mine information for trends or discrepancies and make recommendations based on their conclusions. Keen Perception - Related to a strong analytical approach, the call center QA analyst must be perceptive. Superior attention to detail is essential. Discernment - Discernment is an important subset of your call quality analyst’s strength in perception. It is important that [...]

 January 15 -  This series of tips are related to Data and Numbers.  Last week, we talked about the Opportunity to present Data and Numbers.  This week, we will discuss Creation. The Creation of a report or presentation sharing data and numbers requires that you reflect about what you are going to share, where the attention of result should be, and understand what will be done once the reviewers see the presented information. When faced with creating your presentation, I would share that there are three considerations: Your presentation is like a clean sheet of paper and you get to create the design. This is great if you are a creative person and love the ability to control the message.   Create a focal point versus getting lost in a detailed spreadsheet. Instead of having a crazy detailed Excel spreadsheet (that has so much data – but no one can read [...]

March 13 -  Last week’s tip started our conversation on calibration with a discussion on why calibration is important and the benefits of calibration.  This week we will look at some how to conduct a calibration session. The following basic steps are prerequisites to consistent calibration: Every employee responsible for monitoring and scoring contacts should have an excellent working knowledge of the contact center’s services. Those doing the monitoring must understand how the standards are administered. Those doing the monitoring should be given formal training in the program, as well as relevant documentation on criteria and definitions. The following describes some tips for a successful calibration session: Schedule at least one hour of uninterruptible time. Choose a facilitator. The role of the facilitator is to direct discussions, take notes and keep the team focused. Observe a contact and have all participants use your monitoring form to make notes and score the [...]