Over three-quarters of UK call centres do not track the impact of call centre training spend on their bottom-line, according to a new study.
Telebusiness Partners questioned 400 call centre managers about staff training.
It found that 76.7% of call centre operations do not have any quantitative measures in place to monitor return on their training investment.
As a consequence, call centre managers were said to find it almost impossible to justify increased training spend – despite 80.1% wanting additional budget, better training facilities and more highly trained staff.
The research found:
* The cross-industry average increase in call centre training budgets over the last twelve months was 3.24%.
* 34.6% of call centre staff training budget decisions are made by HR directors; 30.1% by managing directors or financial directors; and just 23.1% by call / contact centre managers.
* Only 3.3% of call centres measure the impact of sales technique training on sales conversion rates.
The research also revealed that call centres that prioritise training as a key tool for motivating staff have a 20.4% lower agent churn rate compared to those who do not.
The most common call staff training courses provided included:
* Telephone manner – provided by 100%of call / contact centre operations
* Handling awkward calls – provided by 96.7%
* Customer negotiation – provided by 96.7%
* Telephone systems training – provided by 93.3%
* Sales techniques – provided by 73.3%
* Cold calling techniques – provided by 23.3%
One third of call centre managers rate equipping staff with better customer care skills as their key training requirement. 23.5% said sales skills.
Mitz Charos, Head of Training at Telebusiness Partners said: “Senior decision-makers are holding tightly on to the purse strings until they can see a clear business case for investing in training.
“And developing quantitative measurements is the only way to build that case,” he added.
* The survey was conducted by Telebusiness Partners during February – May 2004, and questioned call/contact centre managers from leading companies in the travel, insurance, banking, airline, telecoms, government, retail, media and leisure sectors.
Telebusiness Partners questioned 400 call centre managers about staff training.
It found that 76.7% of call centre operations do not have any quantitative measures in place to monitor return on their training investment.
As a consequence, call centre managers were said to find it almost impossible to justify increased training spend - despite 80.1% wanting additional budget, better training facilities and more highly trained staff.
The research found:
* The cross-industry average increase in call centre training budgets over the last twelve months was 3.24%.
* 34.6% of call centre staff training budget decisions are made by HR directors; 30.1% by managing directors or financial directors; and just 23.1% by call / contact centre managers.
* Only 3.3% of call centres measure the impact of sales technique training on sales conversion rates.
The research also revealed that call centres that prioritise training as a key tool for motivating staff have a 20.4% lower agent churn rate compared to those who do not.
The most common call staff training courses provided included:
* Telephone manner - provided by 100%of call / contact centre operations
* Handling awkward calls – provided by 96.7%
* Customer negotiation - provided by 96.7%
* Telephone systems training - provided by 93.3%
* Sales techniques - provided by 73.3%
* Cold calling techniques - provided by 23.3%
One third of call centre managers rate equipping staff with better customer care skills as their key training requirement. 23.5% said sales skills.
Mitz Charos, Head of Training at Telebusiness Partners said: “Senior decision-makers are holding tightly on to the purse strings until they can see a clear business case for investing in training.
"And developing quantitative measurements is the only way to build that case," he added.
* The survey was conducted by Telebusiness Partners during February – May 2004, and questioned call/contact centre managers from leading companies in the travel, insurance, banking, airline, telecoms, government, retail, media and leisure sectors.
