Our HR Director has made a clear expectation to have 'Best in Class' Sales & Service Training within 6 months. My question focuses on the who, what and where can I complete the appropriate research so that following such a revision of content and delivery channels - how will I be able to make a credible claim to such a benchmark? Who is able to benchmark our existing standards and subsequently award us 'best in class'? The industry is call centre focused general insurance.
Many Thanks in advance of your help.
Kevin Green
4 Responses
at the risk of sounding crass
Kevin
Some time ago I was facilitating a planning meeting for a group of senior executives. The CEO was going to be visiting later.
The CEO had decreed a similar goal to the one espoused by your HRD.
When the group started to try to define how to get to be “best in class” it became clear that whilst some people had AN idea what this meant there was little commonality between them.
Others just felt it was a buzzword.
When the CEO arrived the question was put to him….he didn’t know either.
My advice is “Don’t ask this forum, ask your customer; your HRD”
Sorry if that isn’t what you wanted but hopefully it might save you slogging away for 6 months and then being told that you have achieved what YOU think is best in class but that isn’t what s/he meant
Rus
No such thing
This type of question is often asked on call centre websites. How do I find industry standard x, whats the industry standard for y.
In call centres the truth is there isnt one, it depends on your industry, your business and your customer expectations.
As for credible claims. Badges mean little to customers. Its no good to your customer if you’re best in class but aren’t satisfying them, poor systems etc. they are all inter-connected.
I hope I have addressed some of your concerns, for more detail you could try posting here http://www.callcentrevoice.com/latest.asp
Top class training
Kevin
I agree with the comments below. And I would check out with the HR Director what he/she would say success would look like.
There are many sources that might help inspire you to create your own best practice. For example, the training awards: http://www.nationaltrainingawards.com/
However, my guess is that the HR Director wants improvements made to the sales training to bring it up to a level of excellence – probably in perceived value and reputation, and in helping the sales and service staff to deliver better results (eg more sales, fewer complaints, quicker one-stop responses, etc.). Benchmarking may be one aid to reaching that end but other than that it may be a red herring.
To improve the training in 6 months you have two main options. Firstly, buy in top class provision – this means putting your focus on sourcing the best, which may mean budget changes. Alternatively, if training is in-house and needs to stay in-house, then get the trainers trained and/or buy in some advice and bespoke programme design expertise.
Graham
“Best in Class”, “World Class”, “Best of Breed” etc
Having in been in your situation before, I empathise and I agree with the previous comments, these terms are so subjective that it is hard to add objective criteria. Far better to go back to your HRD and ask what best in class looks like to them.
I went to a recent seminar where a speaker described a top Consultancy who have been on the road to being a world class sales organisation for the last 15 years and not yet arrived!
Less than six months may be a tad unrealistic, as there are many factors that effect this such as
Sales automation
Sales tools
Customer service
Company ethos/values
Pay and benefits
Sales leadership
Existing skills of sales staff
Commitment to learning and development
Working environment etc that are not “quick fixes” so More of a journey than a destination!!!
On a positive mote There is a whitepaper on businessballs which is a good place to start http://www.businessballs.com/trainiquesalesresearch.pdf