A call centre agent has a very important job. They’re the entry point to your business. Many of your clients will never speak to anybody other than a call centre agent. They need to understand that they are important brand ambassadors as this might be the only personal contact a client ever has with your business. By providing call centre agent training, you can ensure that they deliver the best service to your clients while also enjoying their job.

Call centre agent training

Different people learn in different ways, so try and incorporate as many different learning styles in the training as possible. Here are a few suggestions to use in your call centre agent training sessions:

Introduce the management team

If you’re training brand new additions to your team, start their session by introducing the management team. You can either do it live or use a video recording. This will help agents put a face to a name and make them feel more confident to ask for help if they know who to ask. It is important that they know where to turn if they run into questions they can’t answer, especially while they have a customer on the phone with a difficult query.

Pair up new agents with your star agents

A new environment can be overwhelming, especially one as intense as a call centre. Give new agents a training buddy to oversee them and help them when they get stuck. This way, they can learn from some of your best agents and they won’t bother their managers with minor issues. Allow them to shadow their training buddy for a while in order to learn how certain situations should be handled.

Use real calls as examples

Allow agents to listen to or access recordings for training purposes. You can select certain calls to demonstrate a specific point, like how to handle an angry client or how to respond when they don’t know the answer. Some people learn very well from following examples, so be sure to make a database with example calls agents can listen to if they want to learn how to handle a specific situation.

Have role-playing sessions to practise

While some learn by following examples, others learn by doing. Let your agents role-play common call centre scenarios. This will help them practise their communication skills and help them understand how customers may be feeling while they’re talking to the agents. The agents can take turns to play the role of the agent and the role of the customer.

Provide continuous training

Training shouldn’t exclusively be something offered to new agents. Help your agents grow into customer service experts by providing them with continuous training. Offer them short courses about telephone etiquette and allow them to learn skills like business writing, for example. When you care about your agents’ education, you will reap the benefits of them being happy, as well as being empowered to assist clients properly.

Bonus tip: use incentives

By rewarding your star agents, you will create a culture where the agents want to perform. You can do this by having a visible “leaderboard” that displays something like “total calls made”. Letting all the agents know when you receive a customer service compliment for a specific agent, will boost their confidence. You can also give the winner a prize like a voucher or a free meal. Receiving praise and incentives will motivate them to strive for excellence.