Because of the amount of information available to consumers on web sites, call centers are facing more challenging questions when customers call. Yet many retailers’ and other call center operators’ efforts to keep call center agents one step ahead of customers are uncoordinated, Anne Nickerson, president of consultants Call Center Coach, tells Internet Retailer.
“I often see a disconnect between the hiring, training, performance standards and coaching,” she says. “All the changes (in the availability of consumer information) have taken place so fast that not everything has caught up.”
Nickerson says that hiring and coaching have changed the most in reaction to the growing complexity of customer interactions on the telephone, with call centers seeking more experienced and better educated agents in the first place, then providing coaching in reaction to problems that arise. “I see way more focus in the hiring process than I used to on testing for competencies like problem solving, follow through and business acumen,” Nickerson says. “And coaching is becoming more critical, too, with some companies appointing master coaches whose job it is keep track of what coaching is needed and report back to management what’s working.”
But the middle steps--training and setting of performance standards--are harder to change. One area where Nickerson reports progress in training is in e-learning programs that allow agents to react to simulated situations and practice their responses.
“Call center agents’ work is becoming more challenging because callers are more sophisticated and they are calling with more complex issues,” she says.
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