3 Times When Training Won’t Solve Issues In Contact Centers

Agent training is one of the most important pieces of creating a successful contact center. However, a recent article by Elaine Carr raises an interesting point: sometimes more training doesn’t help solve problems. In order to understand if training is even necessary, you must first discuss and discover what the real problems are and identify if there is an immediate solution that training wouldn’t deliver. Carr states that training can help a variety of problems, but it can never help issues with employee motivation and company environment. The article gives the following three times when training won’t solve issues in contact centers.

1) When a Job Aid or a Video Would Work

If a video is available that directly addresses the issue at hand, it’s a better option that can save the time of employees, managers, and trainers. Job aids can be used easier than full training classes and can be incorporated into daily meetings and team engagements when employees are confused about certain aspects or steps in processes. A training class is necessary when discussing complex issues that need in-person lessons to ensure the participants fully comprehend the subject matter, but minor problems don’t require a full class or series of classes to hammer home the point. Sometimes simple things like videos, diagrams, and instruction checklists can be enough to handle issues.

2) When the System Needs to be Fixed, Not the Users

Companies often fix issues within technology and systems by using workarounds. It may seem more cost-effective than simply fixing the system error, but Carr says that actually reaching out to technicians and experts to fix the error would be more beneficial and should be considered more often than they generally are. Sometimes glitches are easier to fix than they may seem and asking for help can save a lot of time, money, and headaches for using workarounds and training.

3) When Employees Are Receiving No Feedback or Recognition

Do you acknowledge your employees and encourage them when they do their jobs well? No matter how well an employee is trained, there are always ways that they could use shortcuts once they enter the real world of being a call center agent. In these scenarios, it’s important for managers to praise employees for doing their job according to the standards they were trained to work with. If they have no incentive to do the job the right way, more training isn’t going to give them that motivation.

Training is important and often necessary, but some problems require a solution outside of training. Before automatically assuming that training is needed, a person needs to be able to answer what the specific problem is and what goal training is supposed to accomplish to solve the issue. Sometimes this examination reveals that training won’t help a thing, but that’s necessary in order to save time and resources for times when training is the perfect solution.

This blog post is based on an article from ICMI. To read the original article, please click the link below:

Is Training the Answer? – Elaine Carr