BenchmarkPortal Announces a New Online Course: Call Center Agent Training Soft Skills

Los Angeles, CA (PRWEB) August 05, 2014

BenchmarkPortal and The College of Call Center Excellence introduces the Online On Demand Call Center Agent Training Workshop, “Agent Soft Skills.” The Agent soft skills course has been designed to provide the tools required for call center agents to gain the valuable skills required to be excellent customer service representatives. Representatives are the “voice of the company” and play a critical role in the success of any organization. Managers want them to have the best training possible. This course is perfect for both new-hires and for refresher training for an entire center.

The course is made up of learning-friendly videos that help aid the agents learn in a fun and memorable manner. The first part of this course will answer what a contact center is. The course will share expectations of the agent and lay out the agents role, responsibilities, and characteristics they should develop. This course will also focus on communication techniques and how to interact with customers. Agents will learn all the subtle communication techniques, visual words, and phrases that can be used to replace body language to create a successful experience with the customer on the other end. They also have to learn what phrases they must avoid saying, as every word spoken has the potential to be just as detrimental as it can be helpful. Finally, the course focuses on how to handle difficult callers, steps to diffuse the callers, and abusive callers.

Course Agenda:

• What is a Contact Center?
• Customer Expectations

     - Expectations of Agent
     - It Can Be Overwhelming!

• How To Interact With Customers

     - It's An Attitude
     - Agent Voice Is Everything
     - It's How The Agent Says It
     - Voice Quality
     - Ask The Experts
     - No Body Language
     - Active Listening
     - Open Ended Vs Close Ended Questions
     - Listening Skills and Checklist
     - Barriers To Listening
     - Empathy
     - Putting It All Together

• Handling Difficult Callers

     - Ask The Experts
     - Steps To Diffuse Anger
     - Abusive Callers

• Agent Soft Skills Final Exam

Call centers – whether they have been in business for years or are just opening – can make a long-term investment with the agent soft skills course as it has the potential to create an impact that could increase profit and productivity in the future.

"They were fascinated by the information received on the open ended/closed ended (customer survey) questions and how...to deal with talkative members," stated Tanya Nguyen, Member Services Director of Santa Clara Family Health Plan. "The videos kept them engaged in the training."

On demand courses allow agents to learn at a time that works best for the center and the staff. Participants also leave with “take aways” that are meant to enable them to make a real difference in their centers. BenchmarkPortal’s on demand courses are all designed to be fully responsive and viewed on any device. Learning should not just be sitting at a desk. Take the course to the couch on a tablet or catch up while on the go on a smart phone.

About BenchmarkPortal:

BenchmarkPortal’s founders pioneered the first contact center benchmarking study in 1995. Now custodian of the largest database of contact center metrics in the world, BenchmarkPortal is a leader in certification, training, consulting, and research for the customer contact industry. Its team of professionals has gained international recognition for expertise and innovation in best practices. BenchmarkPortal’s mission is to help management optimize the performance of their center in terms of both cost and quality, encourage customer loyalty, and build enterprise value. For more information on BenchmarkPortal, call 1-800-214-8929 or visit http://www.BenchmarkPortal.com.