Implementing a CRM system and putting some business intelligence into the processes may help in boosting sales or in creating an end-to-end strategy for those who have been around during the implementation, but what happens when a new hire sits in front of the complex, customized application?
Getting new service reps used to a CRM system quickly is crucial not just to a contact center or customer service effort, but to the entire company. Sometimes, a service rep is the first contact for new customers, or for those who have issues with a product or service. Having them stumble through an unfamiliar system and end up inputting poor data is the last thing a call center manager wants to hear.
But fortunately, there are tactics for getting even newbie CRM users to master the system, and fast.

Welcome to the Real World
In some training sessions, service reps go through standard scenarios involving slightly disgruntled customers, or listening to canned responses. But Gartner analyst Michael Maoz thinks it's time for companies to get real.
"You see these very highly scripted scenarios, but what would help more is for a rep to see a day in the life of a customer," he says. For instance, a rep could go through a session where the customer looks for information on the Web site, doesn't find it, and then gets frustrated trying to navigate the automated voice response system.
"By the time they get to the rep, the customer is irritated, and now the rep knows why," says Maoz. "Understanding the customer will help reps understand the system and what information needs to be accessed."
More realistic scenarios have significantly cut the time that it takes for an agent to learn and to do the job, and it streamlines functionality, Maoz says.

Spend More Than Time
Another way to help service reps is to hire the right reps in the first place, Maoz adds, and to pay them well once they emerge from training.
Many companies are turning to reps who want to work from home or in small call centers close to their homes. Often though, companies pay remote reps lower wages than those in a centralized office.
Also, Maoz has found that the training investment for remote reps and telecommuters is usually less than for others in the industry.
"Companies give lip service to the issue and say they want to improve customer service, but budgets for training and salaries remain static," Maoz notes. "If you hire the least expensive people you can find, it's like hiring the cheapest brain surgeon. Do you really want to cut costs for something so important?"

Brick by Brick
One of the biggest difficulties in getting new reps trained quickly is that CRM applications have a number of different communication types that need to be learned, such as email, phone, and instant messaging.
Rather than trying to get a rep to learn all of them, it's better to focus on one type and then build from there. For example, teaching a new rep how to handle phone calls first can lead later to folding in email and other communication platforms.
"If you try to throw too many communication types at them, an agent ends up being average at all of them," says Mike Betzer, vice president of service CRM at Oracle. "Let these guys digest the stuff as they go."
Also, Betzer suggests doing away with any time restrictions on phone calls. Not only does unlimited time make an agent more relaxed and helpful, but a customer will leave the call feeling happy.
"Let the customer get off the phone and be thrilled," he says. "It's easier to retain a customer than a get a new one, so teach the rep to solve their problem, not just handle the call."

Starting Gate
For companies that have only recently implemented CRM and have to get all their service reps up to speed at the same time, the training challenges can seem especially daunting.
One of the keys to streamlining training is to garner user acceptance, says Tim Bolte, product manager for MySAP. That, he says, can be done more effectively by emphasizing easy-to-use features and tweaking the application as opposed to delivering hour after hour of classroom or online education.
A user interface that is specifically designed for call center agents is helpful, and Bolte notes that managers should observe how new hires as well as established employees are using the program. Those observations can be particularly helpful for identifying changes to help optimize the system. If the application can be modified to better meet user needs, rather than asking users to learn a new set of behaviors, it can facilitate them using the system faster and more efficiently.

Make It Easy
For example, Bolte points out that at many companies, service reps tend to write down notes on pads of paper, jotting customer names or information as they jump between screens. Those notes, which could contain valuable data, are often thrown out at the end of the day instead of being input to a CRM application. Rather than asking reps to log in the info, however, it would be more efficient to simply include a digital notepad in the software that automatically captures the information.
"The big thing is to have a unified agent desktop that is geared toward how the agents work," says Bolte. "For instance, you could have a little electronic business card in the corner of the screen that has a customer's name so a rep doesn't have to write it down when they change screens. Little things like that can go a long way toward helping a rep learn a system fast."
After the application has been tweaked, Bolte suggests that processes should be examined again for minor changes that could help service reps. "You should be able to explain why a process is designed the way that it is," he says. "When you combine the rollout of design with processes, it creates an integrative approach that's very valuable."


By Elizabeth Millard
November 22, 2006 10:18AM