The training systems and programs put in place at contact centers have everything to do with the overall success, productivity, and effectiveness of the agents it employs. As technology rapidly improves and the industry continues to evolve, it’s important for contact center managers and the like to consider the types of trends, techniques, and tools that companies can easily implement.
A recent ICMI article goes into depth on some industry changes, trends, and expectations that will be key to a contact center’s performance this year. Right off the bat, we’re seeing a lot of similarities between what contact center agents find most important and helpful in a training session compared to what customers are coming to expect in daily consumer experiences. The biggest areas of focus? Streamlined and customized experiences, digestible information, and easy communication.
1. Streamlined Training
“Teams need to adapt to create and provide training that reflects these changes quickly and efficiently. The ability to adapt and provide productive learning about new info, products, procedures, and services defines call center success. These changes are never-ending, and contact center agents need to know how to sell and support them.”
2. Customized Experiences
“Every employee is on a unique journey and brings individual goals, strengths, and opportunities for their call center team. Customized training paths that focus on both onboarding and ongoing training will drive higher employee engagement and better business outcomes than ever before.”
3. Bite-Sized Information
““Microlearning” is a new buzzword in the training dictionary. It provides training that is broken down into bite-sized pieces in order to educate agents without requiring a vast time investment. These training sessions are focused on a single subject and typically range from five to 15-minute increments.”
4. Social Learning Know-How
“Social learning aids training by making it a shared activity among contact center agents. Adaptive technologies such as chat boxes, forums, and Slack can reinforce critical learning concepts for agents while on the job. This is also key because employees tend to be more successful when they work and learn in group settings.”
5. Augmented and Virtual Reality
“These cutting-edge technologies provide useful applications in educational training sessions, especially for contact center agents. Instead of watching videos, or listening to a recorded interaction, leaders can place agents in roleplay situations where they gain hands-on-experience and practice their skills.”
Contact centers that are able to provide these levels of improved experience, social knowledge, ease-of-use, and personalized information within training systems, as well as everyday customer communication practices, will be in great shape for 2018 and beyond. Zingtree interactive decision trees are the only tool out there that can address every one of these critical trends for contact center training and customer experience.
Employee training programs, when executed well, can turn around the most effective, productive, and happy staff a business has ever seen. By setting up an interactive training program using online decision trees, you’ll provide a powerful platform for staff to learn from anywhere, and much more easily. Have any questions or want to see a custom demo on getting set up with Zingtree decision trees for training purposes? Get in touch with us at any time.