As technology moves on, new jobs and tools appear to streamline functions and improve contact center efficiency. That is why Upskilling is becoming more and more important. Maintaining an updated and dynamic agent workforce that responds to industry updates is essential to ensure the success of your Contact Center.
Upskilling: What is it and what benefits does it bring?
This business trend is based on facilitating the continuous learning of teams, through training programs and development opportunities to expand skills and minimize possible inequalities between workers.
This is a well-known strategy in the business world, and, applied in the customer service sector, it is essential to generate added value, increase agent satisfaction and achieve a better performance in your contact center.
Benefits of implementing Upskilling in your Contact Center
1. Improves the employee experience:
Upskilling helps your current agents learn new job skills, as well as promoting a much more attractive company image to job seekers. Below we list the numerous benefits that this strategy provides for the comfort, development and satisfaction of your work team:
Improves agent engagement with the company
We are all looking for a workplace where we can develop skills while acquiring new ones. Therefore, providing a space that encourages professional development and offers opportunities for growth is essential to generate greater commitment among the members of your team.
Increases the productivity of your agents
Agents’ satisfaction with their jobs has a direct impact on their productivity and the effort they are willing to put in to improve customer service. Therefore, it is essential to invest in strategies that improve their conditions. In addition, having a well-trained team that is up to date with the latest technological advances is essential to be able to provide prompt and efficient customer service, which, in return, improves customer satisfaction.
Promotes team loyalty
As mentioned above, investing in continuous training encourages greater commitment to the company, which also helps reduce turnover and burn-out, one of the most frequent problems in the Contact Center.
Higher customer satisfaction
A person who is happy with their job is an asset of fundamental value for the correct development of any company. If the person’s attitude is positive, it will directly and organically affect their proactivity and willingness to resolve customer queries or complaints.
As a result, a much more rewarding experience for the customer will also be generated, thus improving the image and loyalty towards the brand. In addition, employees can use their new knowledge to offer updated solutions that are more effective.
Keep your company up to date with trends
Learning new skills is often necessary to remain competitive in the marketplace. The improvement of skills is an effective way to ensure competitiveness in the sector.
2. Reduces costs and generate a better ROI
Improving staff skills is an investment that requires time, money and effort. But even so, it is a much more profitable option in the long term for any company and industry. Hiring new employees is not only a much more laborious and costly task for the company, but it also generates instability among the teams and, therefore, greater discomfort.
Also, with technology advancing daily, keeping a constant hiring mindset is a meaningless strategy.
It is also important to keep in mind that finding qualified personnel is not an easy task, so it is always better to maintain a solid workforce that works, and nurture their skills and knowledge according to the needs of the market.
Therefore, building a strong and loyal team, capable of meeting the needs of customers and the company, produces considerable co-benefits and generates a higher return on investment (ROI). From increased motivation and engagement to team bonding and company culture integration.
3. Increases productivity and agility in processes
Providing each person with the skills to perform their duties efficiently has a direct impact on improved performance, without increasing their stress or exhaustion.
With the right upskilling processes, contact centers can improve productivity to offset any initial investment in their staff. Also, following a well-designed and guided strategy makes it easy for future updates.
4. Makes easier the recruitment process
Companies that invest in their people become much more attractive for top talent. It shows stakeholders that the organization is committed to professional development.
Thus, a person will be more likely to apply when they see that the organization keeps a strong culture and values focused on helping them achieve their goals as a customer service professional.
Also, considering that working in a contact center is not always an easy task, it is important to foster staff loyalty, to generate good comments from agents and word of mouth recommendations that attract new talent to the company. In this way, an effective customer service team will be achieved that will increase the positive image of the company towards the customer.
Plan an upskilling plan for your Contact Center team
Knowing the benefits of applying a skills improvement mindset in an organization is the first step. The challenge, however, is determining who needs to upgrade their skills and when they need to upgrade for the strategy to work.
1. Assess your team’s skills to identify potential knowledge gaps
The first step in any strategy is to evaluate the current situation to know the starting point and determine the objectives to be achieved. In this sense, it is essential to know the existing workforce and understand the capabilities of each employee. With this information, you will be able to identify possible knowledge gaps among your staff, as well as discover new capabilities that you had not been aware of.
In addition to getting to know the members of your team, it is also essential to keep an eye on the operations of the main competitors in the sector in order to assess if your company is on the same level.
2. Determine the objectives
Once we have identified the skills and weaknesses of our team, and what is being developed in the contact center market, it is time to establish the objectives that we want to reach with upskilling. Remember! Keep a balance between the most immediate needs and long-term projects.
3. Focus on the candidates
Upskilling in a Contact Center can be general and focus on specific skills, or it can be directed and adapted to certain individuals in particular. Or a mixture of both cases, including as many employees as possible.
4. Prepare the upskilling strategy in your Contact Center
To prepare the action plan, it is essential to have the previously detected skills and weaknesses as a guide. We must not forget that each person learns in a different way, so it is recommended to use different tools adapted to the learning methodologies of each person. Here are some examples that can help you:
Learning and development programs
This is undoubtedly the most obvious and traditional option. It is about investing in training programs, that is, courses, conferences, seminars or workshops, both online and offline, to expand the knowledge of the staff.
Training within the work environment
If you want to opt for a more practical learning, this is another great option. It consists of placing workers in the work environment together with professionals trained in the specific function. In this way, the staff you want to train can carry out new tasks under close supervision, and acquire the necessary skills to apply them independently in the future.
Mentoring
Tutorials are also an excellent option, especially to transfer implicit institutional knowledge. This is the case of junior workers, who receive knowledge thanks to a person with a senior role. In this way, through direct contact and guidance, employees can develop new skills and expand their capabilities.
Job rotation
Staff rotation also allows employees to take on new roles within the organization, making it a good strategy for finding positions that best suit each employee’s existing skills.
5. Measure the results of upskilling in your contact center and repeat
Like any methodology, upskilling is not a single, rigid process. For the result to be satisfactory, it is necessary to be proactive and develop flexible procedures adapted to each situation. It is also essential to record each step of the way, measure the results obtained and define which strategies best suit the company and team.
Make your agents’ day-to-day easier with our software EVOLUTION
One way to promote the loyalty of your staff is to offer them the right tools so that they can carry out their tasks without setbacks. You will find that in our omnichannel software for Contact Center. Write us and we can coordinate a call to tell you how we can help you!
