AI in Agent Training: Enhancing Skills and Efficiency
Integrating AI simulation into the training process brings a multitude of benefits for both new and seasoned agents.
Your agents are the single most important asset in your call center. In many ways, they serve as your brand ambassadors, often acting as the first, primary, or only point of human contact customers have with your company.
Improving customer experience is key to attracting and retaining customers. But when you focus more on customer experience than agent experience, the needs of your single most important asset get overlooked. And that’s a costly mistake.
Because instead of better CX, what you end up with are frustrated agents who are more likely to quit and unsatisfied customers with a reason to turn to your competitors.
Further Reading: The Key to Contact Center Success? Focus on Your Agents
Happy agents = happier customers. The math is simple.
But how do you ensure agents have what they need to be happy and successful AND provide outstanding customer service? It starts with an agent-focused CX strategy.
An agent’s job is to provide outstanding customer service and support. And an agent-focused CX strategy prioritizes your agents’ well-being, ensuring they have the training, tools, and support they need to do their job—and do it well.
Here’s what your agents need to provide the best customer experience possible.
Training
Agents who can’t confidently perform their work are more likely to leave. And if they stay, the type of customer service they provide will be minimal at best.
Developing a training program that takes agents’ needs into consideration overcomes the confidence barrier while shortening training time and reducing cost.
“Build learning into the work. Personalize training, create those small bites, and build it into the workflow. We can improve the effectiveness and reduce the cost of training by building it into the work.”—Sheri Kendall, Regional Training Manager at Wayfair
Tools
Agent-focused technology simplifies and enhances the agent experience. Instead of making agents scramble through ALL the information on their screen to find an answer, it gives them only the information they need for the present interaction.
“If your agents are sitting there watching the clock, waiting for the end of their shift, swearing because they have to do things like cut and paste customer numbers from one application to another, then you’re not going to deliver great CX. So using tech to improve the life of the agent is fundamental because then you can focus on the CX side as well.”—Mark Hillary, CX Industry Analyst
Further Reading: How Workflow Management Software Simplifies and Improves the Agent Experience
Company Connection
Building an authentic agent-to-company connection starts in training, but it doesn’t stop there. Interactions with leadership, managers, and other co-workers should reinforce why agents are part of your company and help align them with the shared goal everyone is working towards.
Creating a connected environment means agents understand they belong and are safe, seen, and heard. Here Sheri Kendall talks about what she calls the ladder of psychological safety in contact centers:
Unforgettable CX starts with your agents.
With an agent-focused CX strategy, everyone wins. Agents get exactly what they need to be more effective, efficient, and engaged. Customers get the top-notch, personalized experience they expect. And you get a revenue-generating advantage over your competitors.
Integrating AI simulation into the training process brings a multitude of benefits for both new and seasoned agents.
In addition to traditional classroom training, effective learning is essential for agents to grasp the concepts they learn while preparing to handle interactions with live customers.
When it comes to developing essential agent skills, the conventional classroom-based training model may not be sufficient to prepare agents for the diverse and demanding challenges they face daily.
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