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Old telephone
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- Reverse the usual order of training. In a two to six-week period, trainers typically teach in this order: company profile (history and mission), systems training, products or services, and using the phones. Managers can increase training effectiveness by teaching communications skills first. This reinforces so-called soft skills and lays the groundwork for later role-playing.
- Intersperse training with phone experience. Instead of continuous instruction, train for one week, send new agents to the floor to take easily addressed calls, then bring them back to the classroom. Knowing they will go live soon keeps trainees focused on the material covered. And after a week on the phones, the remaining instruction will be absorbed with greater effect.
- Revamp role-playing. Instead of letting new hires interrupt a role-playing exercise to ask questions, let the call be completed and then answer them. In addition, once training is underway, avoid asking theoretical or simple questions, since customers seldom make these kinds of inquiries. Instead, pose practical questions that apply to most calls.
Finally, use actual recorded calls and customer emails as training material. Stop conversations and let agents respond. This is more effective than presenting hypothetical questions.
