By the time you hire a new agent or sign on a new customer, a lot of work has already happened. In the case of the hiring process, you’ve spent time reviewing the agent’s application, interviewing them, and perhaps putting them through some tests to determine how they will perform in your call center. In the case of a new customer, you may have spent some time detailing and extolling the benefits of your product and why it is superior to your competitors’ or done some negotiating with the customer to guarantee they are getting exactly what they are looking for. But by this point in the process, your work is not done. In fact, the next step in the process of bringing on a new agent and/or a new customer is arguably even more crucial to the success and longevity of the relationship. That step is onboarding. Here, we’re discussing why a streamlined and proven onboarding process is so important for both new agent hires and new customer signings and how using cloud-based software can make all the difference.

Onboarding New Agents

First, let’s talk about onboarding new agents. We know that agent attrition is a problem in the call center industry, but we also know that the right onboarding process can significantly lower the chances that an agent is going to leave after a short period of time. That’s because making sure they are adequately prepared for every possible scenario they will face while manning the phones decreases the chances that they will feel overwhelmed and increases the chances that they will feel empowered and comfortable in their role. In addition to training them on the content of their jobs and the sorts of tasks they will be asked to perform, you need to make sure that agents are comfortable with the technology they will be using to perform those tasks. All the role-playing in the world via video chat is not going to help an agent who is then faced with an unfamiliar software platform they need to figure out how to navigate while speaking with a customer. If you are using a cloud-based software, all your training and onboarding will take place within the exact software that your agents will be using on a daily basis, even if those agents are not in the same physical location. This ensures that they will be comfortable with both the platform and the job by the time they are asked to go live on the phones for the first time.

Onboarding New Customers

 

The onboarding process for new customers is critical for some of the same reasons. Just as adequate onboarding is key to reducing agent attrition, it’s also important for ensuring that customers don’t bail and go to a competitor as soon as they have a chance. By this point in the process, they believe that your product is the best option for their business and you don’t want the onboarding process to tell them anything otherwise. That’s why it must be efficient, logical, clear, and streamlined in such a way that only a cloud-based platform can make possible. With cloud-based software, you can offer live training and onboarding for customers in which every single person involved, from the people on your team to the people on theirs (and regardless of how many people that actually means), is looking at the exact same thing on their screen at any given moment. This ensures that you are able to answer questions in real time and customers can identify any possible issues or bottlenecks before they start using your product on the job. This way, when it’s finally time to go live, both you and your new customer will feel the most confident and comfortable with the product they can possibly be.

The fact that cloud-based software streamlines onboarding for both new agents and new customers is one of the reasons that CallShaper’s call center software and telephone answering service have always been cloud-based. To learn more, request a demo today