Situation

Samsung have launched a new customer contact centre at Arlington Business Centre in Leeds as a central location for product sales, service, repair, and customer solutions, and have outsourced the call centre operations to CAPITA. Employees from the existing Samsung call centre at Hepworth House in Leeds city centre have now moved across to this new location, with a large number of new positions created for call agents. A ‘Follow the Learner’ coaching and training programme was designed to develop these new employees, and to support them through their first 6 weeks of induction. This induction included four weeks of classroom-based training, followed by two weeks of 1:1 and side by side coaching on the shop floor (known as the Training Academy), with various training interventions also introduced as the agents began their new role.

Challenge

Seventy seven call centre agents (37 with Simeon and 38 with Daniel), covering a variety of call centre functions went through the ‘Follow the Learner’ induction training and coaching over their two week Training Academy period. Due to the number, and operational requirements, the delivery of training and subsequent coaching needed to be carefully planned and phased over several shift patterns ranging from 8.00am to 10.00pm. Each individual and their developmental progress was recorded and logged. This had to be done by only using electronic means within Samsung operations which required learning their on-site devices (no paperwork allowed!). Additional and bespoke training was required and implemented periodically due to operations processes being updated in agreement with operational floor managers.

Action

Seventy seven contact centre Mobile agents were observed (a side-by-side, listen in to calls), on two separate occasions for each agent, approx. a week apart, with 1:1 coaching after each session to monitor and facilitate process and behavioural development. Each coaching session output was recorded, and further agent development was noted to aid continuing development with Team managers. Personal development actions were also agreed and monitored on the back of these coaching sessions. Training interventions covering ‘conflict management’, ‘listening skills’, ‘questioning skills’, and ‘process review’, together with ‘operational updates’, were delivered to Mobile Agents and the Customer Solutions Team during each two-week training academy period, in training breakout rooms, to various cohorts over this 9 week induction period, and was contextualised for each skill area. Additional training interventions were also introduced to the Training Associates as requiring urgent delivery on a number of occasions and included a new operational call back initiative called ‘Optilead’ for all mobile agents, and the ‘Samsung Flagship’ products call back service for Team Managers and selected ‘Star’ agents. The Training Associates were also asked to provide cover for various classroom induction training over the course of the 9 weeks contract.

Results

There were marked improvements in the agents and customer solutions behavioural and process skills between the first and second observation and coaching sessions. The mobile agents and customer solutions quality scores increased rapidly throughout the training and coaching, reaching the desired 85% + company threshold score before our completion. There were few agent departures during the training period (which is a common issue with contact centres), with the developmental support they received being cited as one of the reasons for this. The Training Associates received excellent verbal feedback from Mobile Agents, Customer Solutions, Alternative Resolutions, Product Recall, Team Managers, Knowledgepool Trainers and L&D Managers, and also from the Capita Operational Managers on site, who we worked with very closely in order to complete the task to their satisfaction.

   

Outcome

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The 77 new contact centre Mobile Agents and the 28 Customer Solutions Agents are now working as successful ambassadors for Samsung in their various roles and are key players within the core of Samsung contact centre operations, providing a valuable and quality service to the customer. At the end of the academy period there was a high level of motivation among the agents and a keenness to want to progress their own development in the coming weeks, and we should add, that the majority of the agents, managers, and trainers were disappointed to learn that our contract was to end and we would not be there to help them develop even further, with fantastic feedback from all concerned.