The Global Association for Contact Center Best Practices & Networking

Please provide some background information on your contact center.
Our industry: internet/web hosting. We are a local contact center in the U.S. seats approximately 130 agents: approximately 100 support/service, 20 dedicated to sales, the remainder working at a higher technical level supporting both. This is growing in early 2010 by about 20-25%.

We have partnered with other, third-party organizations that handle online and chat requests, including some problem escalations. These third parties are located in Canada, the Philippines, and India.

The total number of agents, including our partners, numbers approximately 350-400, with another 100+ managers, project and product managers, and other corporate support personnel.

As the ONLY instructional designer in the company, I am charted to support ALL of them. I also deliver some instructor-led training and expect to do more of this in the future, focusing on soft-skills and leadership/management development.


As a trainer, please describe a typical day in your contact center from the time you walk in.
Please note that I am relatively new to the contact center world, only on-board with this company since February 2009, though I've been an instructional designer and trainer since 1984 at a large high-tech company for 27 years, another year at a large financial company, and a short term as an independent contractor.

I am not directly involved in the day-to-day operations in the contact center. I do partner with our QA/Training department who deliver our new-hire program (just recently expanded from 10 to 13 days), and ongoing technical training, updates, and refreshes. New-hire training was recently expanded from 10 days to 13 days, and is being revised in 2010 to take approximately 3 weeks total.

The QA/Training staff participate in shift start-up meetings with all agents, and provide just-in-time training updates, usually focused on current needs or gaps identified in the most recent QA audits. These usually take 10-15 minutes with a different topic/skill each week.

I attend a variety of weekly meetings that tend to focus on new product introductions, technical updates, pricing changes, current promotions (starting, in-process, and ending), quality audit results, and how everyone in the center will engage with and respond to these changes.

My projects in the 9-10 months here have included:
1) a comprehensive needs assessment for the local call center (resulting in a "short list" of training needs and a much longer list of corporate, infrastructure improvements needed),
2) one new product training project for all contact center support and sales staff (2 phases: "the customer experience" using the new product; and "integration" of this 3rd party tool with our existing infrastructure.)
3) Research, test, and implementation of an LMS, and selection and adoption of a development software package/suite,
4) More development for both existing tools/resources in-use (though historically not supported with robust training), and about to grow with a new merger that is expected to increase demand for call center expertise. I am in the midst of researching the technical content now.


What's the most challenging part of being a trainer, and how do you overcome this challenge?
Too many just-in-time demands crop up each week, such as the QA audit results prompting a quick response with training. This is a knee-jerk reaction and very little performance analysis is done to confirm that the root cause of any given problem is either a knowledge, skill, or attitude gap. As the sole instructional designer here, I’m struggling to change that response. I am also educating my business partners on the benefits of following the ISD process, and the increased likelihood that when doing so, the results are long-lasting and preventive of future issues.

Can you describe your method of training? i.e. classroom, one on one etc? What method works best for your center? Please elaborate.
Classroom, instructor-led is the norm here, most delivered by the QA/Training staff and some (little) by supervisors and leads. I have developed and introduced several self-paced, web-delivered modules to good reviews. Level 2 post tests (cognitive, knowledge testing only so far) have shown training gaps to be corrected, resource/documentation gaps, and other resource issues to enable the agents both while learning and on the job. The strategy is to develop more self-paced modules with new products and technologies being introduced, followed by classroom and 1:1 reviews as needed. The infrastructure here includes a continuously updated Wiki with technical content provided by subject matter experts, and instead of duplicating that content in training, I seek to design training that directs the learners to use the existing documentation. This requires minimal training redesign to sustain the programs, with more focus on keeping practice and testing current than on actual content development.

There are some managers out there who find it hard to measure the effectiveness of training - how do you measure your effectiveness?
As I design new programs and redesign existing ones, level 1 and 2 assessments are included in everything that I generate. We plan to follow-through with level 3 assessments by looking at the nature of support calls and how they are handled (evidence of behavior change), but do not have any immediate plans to try level 4 evaluations. I do identify the business gaps and indicators affected when performing my needs analysis before designing any training, but currently to not have the resources to perform the level 4 evaluation. We may "cherry-pick" a few programs in 2010 to try this.

If you were recruiting a fellow trainer to join your team, what knowledge/skills would you look for and why?
Instructional systems design and technical writing skills.
We wish to leverage our technical subject matter experts here as best we can, but need to coach them on writing in a way that is "trainable," and easy to search, locate, and use when needed on the job. SMEs tend to want to throw EVERYthing into training, but with some ISD and coaching on writing formats (e.g. I’m a strong proponent of Information Mapping principles), we can reign them in a bit and focus on needed knowledge and skills to keep the training lean and much more effective.
If our training starts with a solid design, then I can coach an SME on good delivery, or co-teach with an SME until s/he can do it on his/her own.


Can you describe some challenging circumstances and situations you have faced as a trainer and how you handled them?
1- Learners distracting themselves in class with irrelevant content (e.g. web surfing during class, side conversations, etc.)
a) Preventive measure: ask for and set groundrules before class, and contract that they will be followed; then hold us all accountable during class.
b) Call a break and address the offender personally, out of ear-shot of others, and ask for correction of the offending behavior.
c) Dismiss the offender from the room, making sure s/he knows why, and report it to the supervisor. (this is worst-case and rarely needed). The offender will eventually need to attend again.
2- When training a large group (40+), 2 participants were talking between themselves and not paying attention. As I spoke, I casually walked through the room until I was standing behind the offenders. All eyes were on me as I did this, and when I got very close, they finally stopped talking. I called a break, the followed (a) above.
3- Late arrivals. My reaction varies, depending on how late. If within a few minutes, I just tell them to catch up during the first break, or after the session, and I make myself available to answer questions. If much later than just a few minutes, I turn them away and ask that they return to another session when they can arrive on-time for the full session.


Are there indications you look for when training agents that tell you immediately that they will not succeed? What are they and what do you do about it?
I’m not qualified yet to answer this question. In the classes I have taught so far, this hasn’t cropped up. Some self-select to not continue employment and training on the first day as they get acquainted with the technical expectations and content of the job.

How do you deal with a trainee who doesn't think they need training yet you know they do? What methods do you employ to engage them?
Point them towards the post-test and see if they can test-out. This let’s them prove it to themselves whether or not they are qualified. For any that pass, I let them go and tell their supervisor that they passed. If they fail, they learn first-hand how much they know or don’t know, making the "engagement" that much easier.

I also include a summary of the business need and clear learning objectives at the beginning of every class. This helps earn their commitment early, and weeds-out any who believe they don’t need it, leading to a post-test attempt if that is appropriate.


Where did your training career start and what advice/tips would you give others interested in becoming a better contact center trainer?
Point them towards the post-test and see if they can test-out. This let’s them prove it to themselves whether or not they are qualified. For any that pass, I let them go and tell their supervisor that they passed. If they fail, they learn first-hand how much they know or don’t know, making the "engagement" that much easier.

1984 at Intel Corp., supporting a new factory start-up. (computer chip manufacturing)
- Learn the basics of instructional systems design first: what goes into well-designed training and the process used to get there. Even if you won’t be developing the training yourself, this should help you when preparing to deliver the training and filling the gaps as best you can.
- Practice interactive delivery: "telling ain’t training." Ask questions, give demonstrations, lead exercises and practice, and learn to make it fun.
- Give accurate and timely feedback, both advice and encouragement. Encourage by acknowledging tasks done well, as soon as possible after you have learned about or observed the behavior, with specifics/details so the learner knows what to repeat. Give advice, specific and of limited quantity, right before it can be applied, not today for use tomorrow or later. And don’t mix the two. If you recognize good performance then follow it immediately with advice, the learner will only remember the advice and the encouragement will have little, if any, effect.
- Avoid jargon, unless everyone is well-versed in it. And be prepared to explain terms clearly if you can’t avoid it.
- Help the learners learn on their own. As a trainer, you set the environment and opportunity for learning, then get out of the way so the learners can pursue it.
- Be available as a coach, but don’t force it on anyone. Ask them if they are ready for coaching before giving it.
- Acknowledge your own limited expertise, but make sure you know where that expertise resides in others so you can redirect learners and their questions if and when you need to.



On the other hand, are there indications you look for when training agents that tell you they are going to be successful? What are they and how do you push these trainees to their full potential?
Watch for learners who master the learning objectives faster than others. And look for those to whom others go to for advice when you (trainer) or other known experts are not readily available. Those folks on the front end of the learning curve can then be leveraged for their expertise early, recognized for it, and groomed as leads, trainers, QA, or advanced technical positions. You can redirect the slower learners towards the faster, helping you as a trainer, get all of them trained in a more efficient and effective manner.