4 Responses

1. PocketBook Ideas
   Hi Fiona!

   To respond to your initial question, how about the Thinker’s Pocketbook from the popular and easy/quick to read Pocketbook series?

   bit.ly/9pqd3

   You might also like to look at their

   Telephone Skills – bit.ly/FfFVu

   and

   Call Centre Customer Care – bit.ly/13ZhCj

   books too, in case they provide some related content to tackle your main issue.

   You can now buy e-book versions of these too, which you can upload onto your intranet.

   Tim

2. Books for telephone skills
   I agree that the pocketbooks series are great – probably a very good starting point.

   I looked through my books and have lots on telephone sales, and some on telephone skills, but this particular problem sounds like you could do with some role play practice to identify the key areas for development. Get them to work as a team to solve the problems and come up with answers themselves perhaps.

   Good luck
   Carolyn

3. Recruitment?
   Could this be a recruitment issue rather than a training issue?

4. Empowerment
   Sounds like you may need more information as there are all sorts of potential problems such as empowerment – do they KNOW they can and should question callers? and that they have the authority to do so? Is there a fear culture operating i.e. mistakes are penalised, are they on quotas for calls answered and don’t want to spend time on non-script issues?
   I remember a client a few years ago who paid people on number of calls answered – regardless of outcome or quality – the staff just hung up! Counted as an answered call and they got their targets.
   Whatever the cause it sounds as though an iassessment and ntervention is needed.
   Good Luck
   Jim