SAVE | EMAIL | PRINT | MOST POPULAR |  RSS | | REPRINT
|
Home Schooling the Home Agent
January 22, 2009
Using scenario-based simulation, home agents learn to work confidently with virtual customers before graduating to live ones.
By Brad Krinhop
In today's tough economy, companies face intense pressure to improve efficiencies and reduce costs while nurturing a loyal workforce and customer base. One option gaining momentum is the home agent model, which provides workforce flexibility and fuel savings, reduces employee turnover, and delivers a superior customer experience.
The home agent phenomenon reflects the rise of relationship management, a new approach to customer and employee management designed to deliver superlative value to customers, agents, and companies alike. According to analyst group IDC, home agents will more than double to 300,000 by 2010.
Using home agents helps companies address typical employment issues that impact businesses today by expanding their labor pool of qualified customer service representatives. Agents can work from home during the hours that best match their own schedule. One of the main benefits employers receive from this model is a highly engaged, motivated workforce focused on meeting client needs.
The telecommuting model also provides a larger, more qualified hiring pool from which to select employees while reducing absenteeism and turnover rates. Because these agents work from home, facility costs also are lower. The model is highly scalable, since additional home agents can be added quickly and without investment in larger brick-and-mortar facilities.
Though the home agent model has been proven effective, it has not been without challenges, especially in the area of training. Learning executives were challenged to create a new training curriculum for home agents, one using primarily virtual classroom and e-learning techniques since the agents would not sit in a traditional training classroom.
Now learning executives, too, have good cause to cheer the home agent boom—the ease, proficiency, and cost benefits of a new remote training system that goes far beyond current e-learning. Using scenario-based simulation, home agents learn to work confidently with virtual customers before graduating to live ones.
Training Remote Agents
Since home agents do not have the benefit of a trainer sitting next to them during their first calls, it is imperative that new employees are provided a method to practice both customer interactions and system processes before taking actual calls. To meet this challenge, the development of a performance-based, remote curriculum that includes virtual classroom, e-learning, and application simulations is essential. A training program of this type can reduce training time on average by 45 percent. In a recent example, Convergys reduced call center training hours from 144 to 65—a decrease of 121 percent—by transforming to a home agent program.
By viewing simulated screen shots of the actual system they will use in their workday, learners easily can walk through the most common call types and then practice interacting with both virtual customers and the various systems. Trainers also can leverage existing training, such as e-learning courses and/or standardized customer service modules, which can be customized for a client to round out the performance-based curriculum.
A new performance-based curriculum emphasizes teaching the home agents how to find information using the client's knowledge management system. The virtual classroom training can be focused primarily on reviewing the basic call types and allowing the home agents to practice searching for data in the system and responding to recorded customer calls through role-play exercises.
Home agents primarily are trained via the virtual classroom. A Web conferencing tool can be used to deliver the training to a group of remote agents. The home agents dial into the class from their home and view the training on their personal computers while listening to the instructor online. Some Web conferencing solutions have several tools that allow the facilitator to monitor the learner's involvement. Learners can raise their hand to ask a question and respond to questions via a polling tool so the training remains engaging and interactive.
A primary challenge for remote training is making sure home agents are taking the assigned courses. Since most of the training program is in a virtual classroom, the trainer can check on the phone for learner engagement, but tracking e-learning requires technology solutions. This can be accomplished by developing a training structure that provides enough flexibility but also gives accurate reporting for home agent training completion rates.
In addition to the virtual classroom, a variety of technologies now exists to supplement remote training. Home agents have secure access to all the client systems using software that prevents them from saving, copying, transferring, or printing secure customer data. A monitored chat tool allows home agents instant access to their team leader for help at any time. Finally, a call-monitoring system enables trainers and quality-control leaders to record calls, and view a home agent’s onscreen activities at any time.
The home agent model is proving to be a cost-effective, flexible, and scalable program that is allowing businesses to tap into previously inaccessible portions of the workforce. With the right technology and a strong training program in place, companies are finding that agents working remotely can be just as effective as agents in brick-and-mortar facilities.
Convergys' Test Flight
Convergys Corporation conducted an initial pilot with 45 home agents to test its performance-based, streamlined virtual classroom training strategy. Level 1 reaction evaluations showed a generally positive response. Feedback from home agents included the following:
• "Even though we were all at home, it was more extensive than any other training gone through—even in a classroom environment."
• "I had trained for customer service before in the classroom, and this was much better—the virtual classroom is a good fit for this type of work."
Three months after Convergys trained the first pilot group, quality and performance statistics were strong. The home agents handled calls in a timely manner with average handle time, hold time, and wrap time all at or above industry standards. Furthermore, team leaders can investigate any drop in home agent quality performance just as they would with traditional brick-and-mortar agents.
Brad Krinhop is vice president of home agent operations at business solutions company Convergys. For more information, visit www.convergys.com.
|
SAVE | EMAIL | PRINT | MOST POPULAR | RSS |
|
|
| Back to Training Index |
|
|
