Case Study

Congratulations on your promotion! You are now the VP of Learning at AbleConnect, a fast-growing call center operation that provides both inbound (customers calling with questions) and outbound (call center agents placing calls to individuals and business) services.

AbleConnect was founded five years ago from the head office in Toronto, Canada, which is where your office is located. The company is poised to do some work on their internal strengths and infrastructure so that they can support future growth, including allowing for some offshore operations.

Technology consulting firm CCMetrics has just released a definitive list of ten best training practices for outbound and inbound contact center businesses:

1. Talent management plan in place to cover growth and training needs for the next 12 months.
2. Individually-based knowledge, skills, and attitude development plans created and reviewed annually.
3. Team-based knowledge, skills, and attitude development plans created and reviewed annually.
4. Classroom training on systems, processes, and procedures should be an integral part of training.
5. Listening and observation of live calls should be part of the first week of training.
6. First week of being on the phones includes guided live calls with a team leader or trainer (also called on-the-job training).
7. Communication skills training is completed in the first week of employment. This should include active listening, asking questions, and dealing with difficult calls.
8. Contact center agents understand that call monitoring (recording actual calls) is done for training purposes (e.g. to identify training gaps), to ensure call quality, and to facilitate exceptional customer service.
9. Contact center agents who receive a performance score of 80 percent and higher on skills exams receive an incremental pay increase.
10. Contact center agents who consistently score above the standard for call quality (80 or 90 percent, depending on the complexity of calls they take) receive bonuses including pay increases, time off, or rewards of their choosing.