Is it taking longer than you’d like for your new call center reps to be proficient at handling calls, and you’re not really sure why?
You might think it's because your new reps are lazy and aren't working hard enough? Or maybe you think it's because you don't have gamification or a fancy training system that includes quizzes, videos, and interactive simulations?
Nope. It's none of those. The reason it takes your new call center reps longer than you'd like to be proficient comes down to one of these three reasons (Note: once you know them, they're simple to fix).
Reason #1 – You Don't Have Established Processes
If I were to ask you what the procedures are for handling the top 20 calls that come in every day, can you or your supervisors clearly explain what needs to happen for each type of call and each variation of that call?
Or is it more of an art than a science?
Often, we see call centers do not have established processes, and the challenge here is that your reps must get to a point where they can make judgment calls for every situation they encounter. And getting to that level of expertise takes longer. If that's the case for you, check out this free workbook to begin the process of establishing your process for handling specific calls.
Reason #2 – Your Processes Aren't Written Down
The second reason might be that your processes are well established but they are trapped in your supervisors’ heads. The only way your reps can be proficient is if they’ve shadowed others long enough or asked questions long enough to memorize what to do. Eventually they get it, but it can take a while for reps to piece everything together.
If that's the case for you, check out this free workbook to begin the process of writing down your processes.
Reason #3 – Your Reps Aren't Using Your Processes
Even though you’ve got your processes written down, your reps don’t know how to use those guides during a call.
So they don’t.
When this happens, the result is the same as the previous examples – your reps are left figuring things out by shadowing and asking questions until they piece everything together. Since you already have guides, your next step is to teach your reps how to use them, an approach we call Zero Memorization Training. If you want t learn more about how to do Zero Memorization Training, check out this video.
Underlying Problem – Your Reps Need to Memorize
When you look at these three reasons, you’ll notice that they have the same underlying theme – your call center is requiring your reps to do all the work of figuring things out and memorizing what to do. So it’s completely normal for that to take a while.