Empowering Contact Centre Agents by Delivering Targeted, Engaging, and Effective elearning
Salmat Learning - Jun 16, 2010
eLearning offers a range of educational outcome and cost reduction benefits for contact centre training delivery. These include reductions in training delivery time, increased agent skill sets, continuity in training delivery and greater content engagement. Through the use of eLearning technologies provided by Salmat, agent skill sets can be greatly enhanced by allowing the trainee to learn at their own pace, and in their own style. Salmat, as the eLearning business of Salmat SalesForce (the number 1 provider of out-sourced contact centre solutions in Australia and New Zealand), is perfectly positioned as the premier provider of eLearning solutions to the contact centre industry. Salmat, as an independent eLearning business, was approached by Salmat SalesForce two years ago to assist them in training agents who were geographically dispersed and working from their own homes. From this engagement Salmat SalesForce identified the value that eLearning could bring to their traditional contact centres, and acquired the Salmat business.
Today's contact centre agents are expected to know more and more products and services than ever before, all in the name of first call resolution. It is a difficult task to expect contact centre agents to understand all of the features and benefits of your entire product range or the services you can provide. The majority of contact centre agents will have access to an extensive knowledge database which will house all of the information they need to provide to their customers. For today's Gen Y contact centre agent who has grown up in the age of Google and Wikipedia, and is accustomed to having information at their finger tips, these knowledge databases can be a very empowering tool.
A truism that Salmat has implemented in much of its elearning is "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime". Much of the contact centre eLearning that Salmat develops focuses on these agent knowledge database tools, providing agents with the tools to find the information they need to help service your customers while avoiding the sort of information overload that often overwhelms new recruits.
The focus of this style of training is to familiarise new agents with the tools they will be using once they are on the phones. However, another key component of this training is to give an understanding of the products and services of your company. It is important that the agent is not in the realm of 'they don't know what they don't know' (unconscious incompetence) and that they are in the sphere of 'they know they don't know' (conscience incompetence). Meaning that the agent will know that they don't know all of the details of an offering and will know to use the knowledgebase before attempting to assist your customer. Or 'they know they know' (conscience competence) where the agent will be able to respond to your customer enquiry and effectively use the knowledgebase to further their understanding of the topic.
The benefit of this approach is that the agent is conditioned through their training to use the knowledgebase tool as a first point of contact. Rather than placing the customer on hold and seeking assistance from a team leader or other resource, increasing their average handling time, and lessening the customer experience. A further outcome from this is that the team leader is freed from constant questioning and call escalations and better able to provide mentoring and coaching to support agent development. An added benefit of this approach is that your training remains current regardless of product or pricing changes that may occur with your product or service offering.
In a recent implementation of eLearning to replace the entire induction training for a contact centre, Salmat was able to cut the time taken to deliver the training in half, delivering massive cost savings to this contact centre. In comparison to the previous Instructor Led Training (ILT) these agents were emerging from the training showing a significant improvement in their assessment results (71% ILT vs. 91% eLearn). Not only did the agents undertaking the eLearning complete the training in half the time, with greater assessment outcomes, their on-phone performance and speed to competency was greatly enhanced. In this sales based contact centre, agents completing the eLearning experienced a whopping 9% reduction in their AHT on their first week on the phone. These agents also saw an astronomical 11.1% improvement in the sales conversion during the same period. With reductions in training time, greater knowledge retention, and more efficient and effective conversations this contact centre saw a remarkable return on their eLearning investment.
Salmat SalesForce, winner of the Hewitt Best Employer Award for three consecutive years, recognises the importance of performance managing, training and optimising the skills of their staff. Salmat SalesForce founder Kevin Panozza is convinced that staff training is crucial, stating that "well trained – and empowered - people can identify and resolve issues and so eliminate time-consuming call escalation that frustrates and irritates customers. The bottom line is you can't train customers – so you have to train staff." Through joining the Salmat group, Salmat is constantly exposed to learners, trainers, managers, HR managers, directors and senior stakeholders who have a strong desire to get the very best out of their business and their eLearning. This association enables Salmat to constantly strive to improve and gain efficiencies for the organisation and its staff by advancing discoveries in eLearning and incorporating new functions to the learning management system.
With over 16 years experience as a leader in the contact centre industry Salmat SalesForce has developed an extensive collection of unique training philosophies, skills, knowledge and training delivery methods that are tried and tested during every conversation held on behalf of their clients. Salmat has undertaken the task of taking this content online for deployment through the Skills Optimiser framework. In a joint venture with Genesys University, SalesForce and Salmat have harvested this knowledge to develop the ultimate online training package for contact centre agents - Quality Conversations. Quality Conversations is a leading edge eLearning program which will drive improved business performance by providing agents with the skills to hold more effective conversations that deliver more persuasive sales presentations and more satisfying customer service experiences.
Salmat has also built on the expertise that Salmat SalesForce has as a nationally Recognised Training Organisation (RTO), developing the Certificate III and Certificate IV in Customer Contact in an online training environment. This package contains topics such as effective communication, providing sales solutions to customers, resolving customer complaints and quality customer service. This training is presented online through interactive exercises and immersive environmental learning that has not previously been seen in accredited contact centre training. This program delivers the most current tools and techniques and as it is a nationally recognised certificate program it acts as the benchmark of skills and knowledge required by any customer service agent in the industry within Australia. Upon successful completion each student receives a nationally recognised certificate in BSB30207: Certificate III in Customer Contact.
The experience that Salmat has in delivering eLearning to the contact centre through it's industry partnerships and through it's parentage provide valuable insights into this unique industry. This pedigree will only continue to develop and enhance training delivery and the face of learning in the contact centre environment delivering superior outcomes for Salmat's clients. These are exciting times for the contact centre and elearning as both industries continue to grow and evolve in the technological age.