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Driving Customer Satisfaction Through Performance Management

It's a problem that companies around the globe are facing every day. The pace of business is accelerating and the need for immediate knowledge, answers and feedback is increasingly important. More and more companies are realizing that the call center is one of the most powerful drivers of customer brand perception and a primary source of information to guide business strategies; however, today's call center agents are being tasked with more than ever before. As consumers get savvier, they ask more complex questions, forcing agents to deal with more sophisticated problems that require a broader skill set than in the past. In addition to this, budget constraints are forcing call center managers to work with fewer employees that, in addition to fielding traditional customer service inquiries, must be able to up-sell and cross-sell effectively. So how do we deal with this burgeoning issue? Progressive companies, recognizing the branding and revenue-driving opportunities within the call center, are gaining a competitive advantage by creating a culture of dynamic learning within that environment that incorporates actionable e-learning applications.

What is a Dynamic Learning Environment?

A dynamic learning environment addresses the fast-paced business climate by aligning people, processes and technology to increase performance and profitability. By incorporating e-learning tools within the call center, companies are able to address skill deficiencies faster based on actual agent performance. Now, companies can create a culture of learning where both agents and managers can cultivate the performance improvements that today's customers demand. With the right tools, companies are better positioned than ever before to identify training opportunities and skill gaps based on agents' performance evaluation scores derived from captured customer interactions. They can then use these results to measure how well performance stacks up against "training thresholds" that have been established by their company's quality assurance, customer satisfaction and/or training groups.

It is important to note that a dynamic learning environment is not simply e-learning. Rather, this technology should supplement existing one-on-one coaching and group-training sessions to provide agents with a way to drive their own training and learn at their own pace. Research shows that using e-learning to support traditional professional development activities allows employees to retain knowledge at a rate of more than three times that of classroom training alone, due to the active participation that is required.

Training That is More Accessible and Cost-Effective

The quickening pace of business is accompanied by new technology implementations along different customer touchpoints such as telephone, Web and email that require a more knowledgeable staff. To facilitate the rapid and flexible delivery of learning to agents, industry analysts expect a rapid increase in the use of e-learning for remote classrooms, demonstrations of new applications to agents and customers, product demonstrations and the delivery of packaged training modules.

As e-learning becomes more readily available, it is also getting easier for companies to fit this new technology into already tight budgets. E-learning actually reduces the productivity costs of traditional learning - such as instructor-led classroom sessions that take agents away from their workstations for extended periods of time - by creating an anytime, anywhere learning environment that guarantees all agents receive the same quality of education. Hard costs, such as those associated with agent travel and expenses to and from off-site training events, are also reduced. This means your company can employ more cost-efficient remote agents that are offered the same learning options as their in-house counterparts.

A growing number of organizations are choosing to create segments of training from the actual customer interactions captured in their call centers. This "disposable learning" works especially well in the call center environment as issues are often unpredictable and vary from day to day. Perhaps most importantly, this type of learning requires little time or skill to create and may be "retired" after minimal use due to the low overall cost to produce and deliver. By leveraging actual recorded customer interactions, and adding interactive learning components that engage the agent, companies can adapt training to the ever-changing call center environment, where new campaigns and service offerings are launched each week. Because the lessons are so cost-effective, call center management can create new lessons as necessary, ensuring that agents are ready to provide the best service without worrying about incurring high costs.

Keys to Success

The success of a dynamic learning environment depends heavily on laying the proper groundwork before implementation. Specifically, companies should review corporate objectives and how they are linked to the desired behaviors and measurements used to evaluate agents. If these goals are not tied directly to the customer service strategy, customers will perceive the disconnect. It is also important to establish training objectives and desired outcomes before creating the lessons and rolling these out to agents and supervisors. Without these, it will be difficult to create a measurable program that can track individual agent improvements.

After you've set the stage for the dynamic learning environment, use the steps below as a guideline for creating an interactive training program for your employees.

  1. Identify best practice examples from recorded interactions. To do this, leverage performance evaluations based on customer interaction recordings to identify where skill gaps and learning opportunities lie. By analyzing these interactions, insight can be gained into the effectiveness of the contact center's technology resources, and a determination can be made as to whether the business processes established are working and how well agents are servicing customers. From this, a roadmap can be developed to identify training topics needed to optimize customer relationships and business results.
  2. Export chosen interactions from your customer interaction recording software. As learning opportunities are identified via the previous step, segments of training can be delivered directly to agents through e-learning software. For example, if an agent needs more experience with up-selling and cross-selling, a learning segment specific to this area can be personalized and delivered to the individual. The result is an environment for continuous performance improvement that can help companies ensure that customers receive consistent service across all touchpoints.
  3. Extend online learning beyond agent skill gaps. The benefits of a dynamic learning environment can extend beyond agent training and skill enhancement. It can also serve as a way to communicate new company policies - such as human resources announcements about a new medical plan or open enrollment for participation in the employee stock purchase plan. This type of regular communication via e-learning helps to ensure that agents are current with the latest news and procedures.

Continued Focus on Learning and Growth Creates Successful Employees

Establishing a dynamic learning environment creates another advantage for contact centers in the area of agent retention. Maintaining a focus on performance and helping agents set goals and milestones that are reinforced by e-learning allows agents to feel that they have a true career path and that they are active participants in the course of their own development and advancement. With the knowledge and understanding that the company is investing in an agent's development, he or she will be more motivated to stay and grow within the organization. Employee retention remains a significant challenge for centers as they strive to offer competitive packages. Studies support the effectiveness of employee buy-in to such programs by proving that after agents go through training, they become more highly motivated and effective.

Tracking service standards, customer satisfaction levels, agent development and retention rates can point to how well customer-focused goals, revenue targets and overall corporate objectives are being met. Companies can continually enhance their service delivery and agent development programs, while measuring the impact that training programs have. The visibility and benefits that e-learning solutions deliver will only continue to become more evident as organizations invest in this area and see their satisfaction rates improve.

Investing the time and resources in this fresh approach to enhancing agents' self-awareness and skill levels will help companies realize maximum returns from the call center - both in terms of customer satisfaction and revenue. In essence, focusing on agent development creates a new agent lifecycle, one centering on attracting top talent, building core sales and service skills, continuously improving performance and retaining the best agents over time. The dynamic learning environment brings the spotlight back to the very reason you created your call center in the first place: to provide top-quality customer support and service.


Bill Byron Concevitch serves as chief talent and learning officer for Witness Systems. In his role, he leads all of the people, talent and learning initiatives for employees, partners and customers around the globe. Prior to Witness Systems, he served as chief learning officer of ExecuTrain Corporation and senior vice president of Element K (formerly Ziff-Davis Education). He has also served as president of Mentergy, executive vice president of KnowledgePool (the Fujitsu e-learning company) and executive vice president of Learning Tree International.

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