Devoted to the call center industry, the agents on the phones, and their managers

There are several situations that a call center decides to outsource their training to another vendor, whether it is within their vicinity or not.  Generally it’s because they lack the expertise or space to house the training.  So, what and when do they outsource then?

Company Hires Outsourced Call Center
This is part of the whole package when a company decides to outsource their services to a call center.  They certify the local trainer to train new agents on their products, services and processes.  This usually takes a minimum of a week to 6 weeks, even longer depending on the complexity of the account. The company gets to control on how they are trained and training effectiveness is measured.  On the onset this should be part of the KPIs set in the contract.

Cultural Training
It is important your agents are trained on the culture of the country you expect the customers to be in.  Geography is one, but learning the different words and what it means plus how it is used in conversations is critical.  Knowing different personalities and how to react to different cultures should be included in the modules.

Accent & Language Skills Training
Language skills training is the most popular in outsourced centers.  A lot of centers offer this and claim they have the best language trainers in the country. This happens when there is a shortage of trainers in-house that have the expertise and the patience to teach a group of people on basic speech and grammar lessons.  If headcount is needed, this can be a strategy if you are open to "near-hire training".

Skills Specific Training
Call Center Basics, customer service, handling escalated calls, quality monitoring, trainer development, supervisor skills training – these are some of the other skills that can be outsourced.

Just remember that before you hire them, request to see a generic outline of their modules, request to observe several classes, check their training methodology and look at historical reports to show assessment and attrition results. Don’t forget to get some data on trainee evaluations as well.