Comet call on Beyond The Box to design call centre training programme
September 10th, 2007 by Katrina Gallagher
Call centres throughout the UK are one of the busiest working environments and yet they are also very high on the list when it comes to training needs. Because the people employed in the call centres are coming into contact with the general public it is essential that their training needs are identified and then met by good quality and well delivered training courses that actually provide the skill sets required. Beyond The Box Ltd was commissioned by Comet to identify the training needs of its call centre staff and then to design a training programme that would cover all three levels of sales staff expertise – entry level, mid level and expert level.
Before designing the course Christine Knott, managing director of Beyond The Box, spent time researching at Comet. She observed all the various departments of the call centre, identifying the content for the modules of the training programme and how it should be designed. The overall learning programme had to link to Comets’ promotional and development programme with all levels needing to be completed by members of staff before the training course could be completed.
Each of the levels designed by Beyond The Box used a modular format with up to six modules per level for both customer care and sales. Each module has been designed for a Comet trainer to deliver either a group training session or a one to one training session and it also provides an option where the trainer can monitor the employee in a self study programme.
To end each module the delegate has to deliver an action plan on how they intend to implement their new learning on a daily basis. This allows Comet trainers to identify whether all key aspects of the training have been understood and whether the delegate is taking the correct elements of the training into the daily tasks that they have to perform.
Commenting on the training course Beyond The Box designed, Christine Knott said, “It was important the course design was able to deliver training in short modules. The time constraints on call centre staff is particularly restrictive when it comes to training so the modules had to deliver the required elements in short, snappy bursts that would be retained by all the delegates, no matter what level they were at. The research we carried out initially was key to this. It enabled us to understand the restrictions of the training programme and how the learning would need to be implemented on a daily basis.”
Julie Simpson, Training and Development Manager at the Comet Customer Information Centre said, “We are delighted with the programme that Beyond The Box designed for us. We use our own in-house trainers to deliver the solution provided by Christine and her team and all of our staff have completed different elements of the training. It was important to us that the training programme reflected our promotional and development programme and this modulated approach allows us to do exactly that whilst also monitoring all our staff in terms of further training requirements.”
