Thoughts on Training Customer Service Reps
We would take a completely different approach to training than you have taken. My approach would cost more, but would be more effective.
There are three high-bandwidth paths into the brain. Visual, Auditory, and Tactile. The more pathways you use to convey a point the better the chances it will stick. In your example of learning to greet the customer, I would pair a catchy series of phases with vocalization of them. And not the boring corporate-VP vocalization. I'd reinforce it with auditory information. You are using a communication medium that allows all three pathways to be used, so I'd take advantage of it.
Step 1
Explain the correct way to greet a customer then:
- Play an audio on the correct way to greet.
- Play an audio with another correct way to greet.
- Play a common wrong way. Have a buzzer (bzzt) go off so that it clearly marks that it is wrong.
- Play the correct way so that the last thing they hear is correct.
Step 2
Explain how to meet the customers needs.
Same as above. Correct ways to query for part number.
The Three P's for Probing
- Part-number
- Preference—Brand
- Performance—Probe for specs
Step 3
Complete the sale
Explain the steps for completion.
Data entry, validation steps, etc.
Step 4
And then tie it together with a goofy phrase to make it memorable.
(I personally hate this part, but it works.)
Be Leet -Upsell/cross-sell
Reinforce the Message
Repeat the four steps on one graphic. Now do something moderately silly to reinforce the message. Have a TV-reporter voice interview three characters about what they do when a customer calls. Billy-Bob says in his best drawl, "Well Missy, I just Greet, Meet, Complete, and Be Leet. Then I offer them a beer." Mr. Type A Personality very quickly says, "Greet, Meet, Complete, and Be Leet. Gotta run to a meeting.". Maybe use a couple of others. They'll be recurring characters in the training.
Reinforce the Message
Now that you've trained them, reinforce the message and make sure they can distinguish good from bad.
- Play several greetings that are clearly correct and incorrect and have them indicate which is which. Immediately let them know if they are correct or incorrect and why. Don't let them guess—it reinforces the wrong answers.
- Show the graphic again quickly vocalize the steps.
- Play two greetings/closings that are both correct but one is obviously better than the other. Ask them to choose the better one. The point is to learn subtle differences in technique.
- Do this for each of the steps in the sales process. At the end they should be able to discern good technique from great technique.
- Then play several entire sales calls. Leave out or do steps incorrectly. Have them identify what is missing.
Role Playing
Finally, role-play. This is actually the most important part. You've taught them what to do. You've tested their ability to discriminate good from bad. Now they take what they have learned and put it into practice. Have them reply to a customer response at various stages of the sales process. For example, play an objection and have them record their response. Have them listen to their response and critique it. Play a correct response. Have them listen to theirs again and critique it again. Repeat until THEY are happy with their responses. By this point they should know what a good response. We don't score this part or keep track of how long they spend here. The idea here analogous to building muscle memory in sports. You think about the steps at first then after a while you don't think about the steps but focus on strategy. Teach them to critique their own performance. Contrary to what you might expect, they are able to do this if there is no outside pressure on them.
Teaching about Parts
I'd do the same kind of thing with the technical subjects. Teach the stuff you want them to know then use Flash exercises like the ones on Touring Machine. Examples might be: Give them a list of four items and have them click on each out of a field of 10 things. Speak parts of a hard drive and have them click on the part—the objective would be 10 parts in 10 seconds.
Checking for long-term retention.
You know which modules the reps have already completed, so randomly throw in quick quizzes like the ones above when they are doing other modules. Post the names of the high scorers like they did at the arcade. If they don't get a score above some threshold, they need to repeat the module.
Summary
I'd use the same steps with all of the CSR training. I'd adjust the words a bit for Account Reps because they have bigger egos and you have to tailor the message to them. The steps would be the same.
- Use multiple input channels.
- Make it memorable.
- Test discrimination.
- Practice for long-term retention.
Our Skill Set
I'm OK at this kind of writing but I have someone on staff who is quite good at it. Our artist is good at punching up boring graphics to make them visually appealing. I know a lot about components but my programmer knows lots more and has the foundation to build on. Even though I don't particularly enjoy it, I'm actually quite good at getting information from people and soliciting feedback.
All of this work involves using people with considerable knowledge and technical skills. They don't come cheap. There would be some low-cost labor (e.g. cutting up sounds, cropping photos) but there dosen't appear to be a lot of that in this project. I'd have to be personally involved in a lot of it as well. The average cost would be high. On the other hand, it would be more effective in training your sales force, so your net would be positive.