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Industry Research : Call Center Skills: A Research Report

The Call Center market is evolving and growing exponentially. It is expected that the number of Call Center Agents will grow from over 2 million today to over 7 million in four years. Companies are now switching from what was traditionally a service function to an area that is responsible for driving sales, closing new business, and building relationships. As this shift continues, Call Center Agents will require a new set of competencies to effectively maximize every client contact.

The Purpose Of This Research Study Was To Identify:

  • The critical skills Call Center Agents need to possess in their new roles

  • How management feels about the current level of sales skill competency

  • The gaps between perceived importance of the sales skills and the level of effectiveness for each.

The Key Areas Focused On In This Survey Included:

  • How many Call Centers are now responsible for both sales and service?

  • How important are selling skills to Call Centers?

  • What skills are most needed ?

  • How effective are Call Center Agent's selling skills?

  • Does the size of the Call Center have an effect on these issues?

  • Does the experience level of the Call Center have an effect on the skill perception?

The Survey Was Sent To Over 800 Members Of A Call Center Database

  • At the time of this analysis, 85 people replied to the survey resulting in a response rate of just over 10%. While this number does not represent true statistical validity, the numbers were consistent enough to conclude solid analysis

  • Profile of respondents/Call Center
    68% Executive/management - responsible for Call Center operations
    75% of the respondents managed a Center of less then 1000.
    Overall Call Center size breakdown in percentages

What Are Your Agents Responsible For?

  • 81% of respondent's Call Center Agents are responsible for both sales and service

  • 3% - Sales only

  • 12% - Service only

  • 3% - Shifting to sales and service

  • 88% - total combined with a sales focus

  • In the small Call Center respondents (0-500), 40% were focused on service only, while 60% was sales and service

On a scale of 1 to 4 (1 being EXTREMELY IMPORTANT and 4 being EXTREMELY UNIMPORTANT), how IMPORTANT is it for your agents to do the following?

On a scale of 1 to 4 (1 being EXTREMELY IMPORTANT and 4 being EXTREMELY UNIMPORTANT), how IMPORTANT is it for your agents to do the following?

By reviewing the cumulative results for both important and extremely important, it clear that in each question, skills are perceived to be critical for Call Center Agents

  • Almost 100% of the respondents said that handling objections was importan

  • 87% said that holding dialogues with customers was important

  • 85% indicated that closing skills were important

  • 84% responded that cross- and up-selling was important

  • Disengaging a call was of the lowest importance with only 53% of the respondents saying that it was important

Do the different sizes of the Call Center affect the importance rating?

  • Reviewing cumulative results for both important and extremely important and then comparing it to the size of the Call Center indicates that in all cases having these skills are important for the entire population regardless of Call Center size.

  • The next slide will review the plus/minus for each category.

Plus Minus from the aggregate data (Do the different sizes of the Call Center Affect the importance rating? )

  • The smaller Call Center (0-500) Agents, came in below the cumulative average for each of the 5 skills areas. We believe that this is the case because of the higher percentage (40%) of Call Centers focused on only service solutions. In most cases, a strict service Call Center will not be using these skills.

On a scale of 1 to 5 (1 being EXCELLENT and 5 being TERRIBLE), how would you rate the effectiveness of your agents in the following?

On a scale of 1 to 5 (1 being EXCELLENT and 5 being TERRIBLE), how would you rate the effectiveness of your agents in the following?

Taking a closer look at the responses for average and below, we see that for each question, respondents feel that the current skills are ineffective. The two lowest ratings coming from:

  • 78% of the respondents feel that they are average and below in closing more business

  • 81% felt that they were average or below in disengaging if no immediate sales opportunity exists

  • When reviewing the data by the size of the Call Center and years of experience, there was no significant differences by each question

Comparing questions 2 and 3, what was the relative importance of each question versus each satisfaction rating?

  • Overall when you compare the importance of each item versus the satisfaction, there are some pretty significant gaps between the importance of the skill and the current effectiveness of that skill.

  • The biggest gaps come from:
    Question 2 - "Handle objections." 97% importance rating vs. 59% effectiveness rating
    Question 2 – "Hold dialogues with customers." 87% importance rating vs. 66% effectiveness rating

Question 2 and 3 Comparison – Importance versus Satisfaction - There are additional gaps in question 3, 4, and 5

  • Q3 – 84% importance – 72% ineffective

  • Q4 – 81% importance – 65% ineffective

  • Q5 – 85% importance – 78 ineffective
    In question 6, we see that only 53% of the respondents think this skill is important, and only 19% (100%-81%) are doing an effective job. This indicates that while there is a poor effectiveness rating, the importance level is not that high and may not be an area to focus training on

The results of this survey produced substantive data that supported many of the assumptions made in regards to the changes in Call Centers. Today Call Centers are being looked to as an integral part of the selling mix and the pressure to drive sales, create relationships and satisfy customer needs will continue to grow. This survey clearly indicated that selling skills are very important for call Center Agents to possess, but in most cases management feels that the current skills are not effective in their staff. The Skills typically associated with the field sales force or outbound telesales representatives are now going to be required by everyone in a Call Center. As Call Centers continue to grow, the need to hire, train and retain agents will become even more critical to a company's success and growth.


About the Company
Richardson is a sales training and consulting firm. They deliver a blended learning solution both in person or online that incorporates a unique process of high impact coaching to individuals and teams. For over 25 years they have worked with global organizations to develop sales and sales service training solutions that improve bottom-line results.

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Published: Monday, September 29, 2003

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