TRAINING EMPLOYEES

Do you have any benchmark data on the ratio of trainers to call center agents? - Rebecca Fay

The need for trainers will obviously vary with the complexity of the calls being handled and the amount of agent turnover. Across industries, the ratio of trainers to call center agents is one trainer to every fifty agents.

Do you have any statistics around nesting v no nesting coming out of training? Any stats that nesting improves retention? Thank you, Wendy Roth

Wendy, every study we have done on agent retention indicates that a well-designed nesting program coming out of training has a very substantial impact on lowering turnover...in several case reducing it by over 50%.
--Dr. Jon

Dr, Jon I would like to know if there is an industry standard or mathematical formula that should be used to set a realistic IVR baseline objective ? I work in the customer service supporting external education and training customers for a large fortune 500 company. My quality team would like to establish an IVR baseline objective for 2005 using the results of a piloted external surveys conducted August through December 2004. In 2004, 137 completed surveys of 4000k opportunities resulted in ratings of 73.72% Very Sat, 86.13% Overall Sat and 90.36% Avg Sat where ; Very Sat - measures against the number of 5's or Very Sats we received Overall Sat - measures against the number of 4's and 5's or Sat and Very Sats we received Average Sat - measures by taking the number you received for that rating multiplied by the rating (1 through 5) to equal a value then that value is divided by the number of actual surveys multiplied by 5 (highest possible rating).

To answer your first question:
There is no "silver bullet" formula for setting realistic IVR baseline objectives. The best way is to benchmark your companies performance against a peer group of companies....this is what BenchmarkPortal does in detail.

Concerning the second part of your question:
Very interesting data. I am sure we can improve substantially on the granularity of these results. I suggest you establish phone contact with Susan Hampton who can arrange for a telephone conference call with my team.
-Dr. Jon Anton
Answered 02/14/05

Hello Dr. Jon, I am a member of Benchmark Portal and have found a ton of great information on the website. It is a very valuable resource for our call center! One statistic I have not been able to locate is the average number of hours spent training a call center agent per month. This would be the average # of hours of all training provided. Do you know what this might be for the financial services industry? Thank you, Stacy A. Dempsey CRM Training Manager

Stacy,

Great question.

The answer does vary quite a bit depending on the industry you're in.

For the financial services industry, which includes banking, the average on-going training for existing agents is 4 hours. In this number is included the time that monitored calls are reviewed by the front-line supervisor which is often considered both coaching and continuing education for the agent. Formal classroom training on a monthly basis is not tracked by our system.

Hope this helps.

Jon

Hi Jon, Student Loan Consolidation Center, LLC is a Federal student loan consolidation center in San Diego, CA with about $4B loans to date. Presently, we are looking for: - Recommended vendors and products for an ASP based Time & Attendance tool (to clock in/out from each employee's computer) - Training effectiveness tools and vendors (for Sales, Customer Service, and Lead Generation). Please reply to rswartzbaugh@slccloans.com or call (858) 395-6682 Cellular Thank You, Richard Swartzbaugh Director, Human Resources

Richard,

For the time and attendance tool, I am not able to give you a specific company. However, all the major journals, like Call Center Magazine, Customer Interaction Magazine, and others have annual vendor issues listing all companies and their products in our space.

Regarding the training effectiveness tools, I would recommend you contact Knowlagent. They are a leader in this space.

Hope this helps.
Dr. Jon

How can call center training managers determine which CBT and WBT products offer excellent learning design and strong training content?

To make your decision, I suggest that you ask the vendors the following questions: Was this learning system designed by experts in the field? Was the content developed specifically for call centers? Has it been proven to produce measurable results? Does the learning process offer realistic, relevant and challenging caller simulations? Can the learning be tailored to a participant's varied learning needs and preferences? Can you adapt and expand content to meet new training priorities? Does it identify each agent's needs and does it confirm that all participants achieved the targeted learning? Most importantly, has the learning design and content been scientifically shown to improve agent call performance and to be a cost-effective alternative to classroom training?

I am interested in learning how much time a call center supervisor spends on average monitoring, providing feedback and coaching agents. Do you offer any statistics or information regarding how much time should be dedicated to monitoring in general? -Natalie Cook

From our database, supervisors spend 58% of their time on average monitoring and coaching. This varies considerably by industry and in particular by the function of the call center.

I am very interested in learning, on average, how much time a call center supervisor spends monitoring and coaching agents.

Our data indicates that supervisors spend, on average, 58% of their time monitoring and coaching agents. This does vary somewhat by industry and the function of the call center.
--Dr. Jon

I hear a lot about agents exposed to learning telephone techniques using simulation, combined with self-directed learning. Does this work, and which vendors provide this type of product?

We have tested computer-based training and simulation as a learning technique for agents, and have found it to be both efficient and effective.

Ulysses Training and Simtrex are two of the best in the business. Check www.callcenter magazine.com/product-info for more details and other suppliers.

What are some of the financial services industry standards regarding percentage of total training hours spent on all the various types of training needed?

In general, call centers report that they allocate initial agent training into the following categories including the respective percentage of total training time spent on each category: product knowledge (30%), administrative procedures (20%), telephone techniques (20%), and screen navigation (10%).

What are the keys to evaluating CBT and WBT products?

There's a tendency to focus on the technology of computer-based training (CBT) and Web-based training (WBT). Will the software run on our computers? Is it buggy? Will my people find it easy to use? These are obviously important questions, but you can't stop there. You must also evaluate the design and content of the courseware offered by the vendor. I suggest you talk to other users; look for tangible results, such as better performance from agents and less time in classroom training.

What have you found to be true for most companies that have classroom training for their agents? Are the trainers management people, nonexempt administrative specialist/trainers‬ or outside trainers, including consultants? -Michael Wadsworth

Our data shows that 10% or less of classroom training is typically conducted by internal management people, 50% to 80% by in-house specialist/trainers, and 10% to 20% by outside training professionals.

Where have you seen CBT being used in call center training?

In our 1999 call center benchmark study, 41% of the participants indicated that they used CBT. The majority of the CBT applications were for product training or technical support training. Some companies reported successfully using CBT to train agents in customer service and telephone handling.