5 ways to reduce classroom training time without compromising customer service

Telnet delivers seamless contact centre services for a range of national and multi-national businesses. In our world the pressure is always on to deliver a superior customer experience to our client’s customers at the lowest cost. We all know that this is virtually impossible to deliver without well trained staff. However, traditional classroom training takes time which adds cost. We also know that people can only absorb so much information.

So here are the ways Telnet delivers exceptional customer experiences with very little classroom training:

• We focus on ease of use when designing all of our systems so training is minimized
  
• We build online knowledge bases around customer questions. The answer is provided in the first person so CSR’s don’t need to translate the answer before responding to the customer.
  
• We make extensive use of pictures and diagrams in our online support material to assist the CSR.
  
• We make extensive use of online training to keep CSRs informed of new developments and as a refresher-training medium
  
• Classroom training is limited to discussion about what constitutes good customer service, brand values and so on.

By using precious classroom time to focus on the soft skills and making all the detail available online, classroom time is substantially reduced without any comprise to customer service. In fact we are a seeing a steady increase in customer satisfaction as our CSRs become more confident that they can quickly and accurately answer any question asked of them.

John Chetwynd

Top 5 concepts for deploying a successful pilot telemarketing programme

At Telnet we're really big on optimizing the delivery of an outbound telemarketing campaign through the deployment of a strategic pilot program.

I was recently discussing the concepts behind a pilot program with the regional Managing Director of one of our multi-national clients and thought I really should write a blog post about this

So the next time you're gearing up for a new outbound campaign I recommend you run a pilot and focus on these key points:

• The pilot calls must be made by a small group of experienced telemarketers to ensure that the results of the pilot reflect the offer and the audience, as distinct from the quality of the delivery
• The calls must all be recorded so that they can be fully analyzed
• An accurate analysis of talk-time, dials to answer, and of course sales conversion must be available.
• Take particular note of the way prospects respond to key product benefit statements and the questions they ask.
• Micro-manage throughout the pilot, actively making changes to benefit statements and rebuttals in order to obtain an optimal result.
  
  

At Telnet we find that most pilots can be completed within a week enabling us then to scale the programme with highly predictable results

John Chetwynd