Here are my 10 tips to writing Call Center scripts:

1. Never have more than 2 – 3 sentences in a paragraph to avoid mechanical sounding.
2. Prioritize your relevant information.
3. Have agents present themselves as consultative with the words you choose them.
4. Find a way to ask customers what is most important to them, all customers appreciate the concern.
5. Use questions to proactively build relationships with customers.
6. Depending on your goals, include a follow-up plan or review account status before end of call.
7. Establish your thresholds for QA; Dead-Air Time, how far an agent can steer-away from script, etc.
8. Make greetings and closings short; Identify the brand, introduce yourself and understand issue at hand.
9. Use Ownership Statements to confirm assistance; For example, I can help you with that.
10. Know your IVR.  If at all possible, avoid repeating asking for information that has already been inputted.  It is a big annoyance for customers.

Last, but certainly not least, consider creating a theme for your Call Center.  For example, “Be the Best” is a motto that can be integrated in everything that you do.  Trainings, team meetings, 1-on-1 reviews, etc. can all incorporate “Be the Best.”  It is a expectation that is known and supported by your entire Call Center.

All of us need a mentor.  Did you used to have one, but don’t anymore?  Who was your 1st mentor?  How did your mentor change your life?  Do you currently have a mentor?  Who is he/she?

A mentor can help assess strengths and weaknesses, as well as help you develop new skills for success and help keep your creativity loose. If you and your mentor share the same employer, your mentor can foster your sense of belonging within the organization, help you navigate the company culture and politics, as well as let you know who the organization’s key players are.  If you own your own business, do not think it is not important, an outside mentor can provide you with warm leads, ask you tough questions about your own business (prepare you for the ‘real world’) and give you confidence that you are moving your organization in the right direction.  All mentors provide a fresh perspective — a new way of looking at a problem or issue. Ideally, your mentor will motivate you to do your best work.

• What does an Instructional Design / Training & Development / Knowledge Management  mentorship look like? 
• How is one created? 
• What would both parties benefit from the relationship?

I look forward to your best practices and discussion points on this topic.

On Friday January 16th2009, I had the absolute pleasure of visiting the University of Toyota in Torrance, CA with ASTD (American Society of Training and Development). Karin Accomando, Program Facilitator at the Center for the Toyota Way ran a simulation for us on Lean Manufacturing.

Lean Manufacturing Simulation

Lean Manufacturing is a production practice that considers the expenditure of resources for any goal other than the creation of value for the end customer to be wasteful, and thus a target for elimination.  Lean Manufacturing has been a competitive advantage for Toyota. 

Lean manufacturing was demonstrated to us through an application exercise of simulations.  The training environment (classroom) was set up to allow us learners to practice traditional manufacturing and lean manufacturing under very job-like conditions. 

The equipment included

This equipment made this simulation feel very ”real.”  

Training Environment

The first simulation demonstrated the productivity of “traditional” manufacturing known as “push production.” 

Round 1 Introduction; Push Manufacturing

The participants described this simulation as chaotic, unorganized, and unsuccessful.  Push production does not take into consideration all of the ‘movements’ required to manufacture.  There was a lot of productivity loss between the separated workstations, the managers needing to be at each station and no consideration for the customer demand. 

Round 1 Simulation Environment; Traditional Manufacturing

The productivity was calculated.  It cost us $32.91 to manufacture each car.  We also had 10 defective cars, 6 late deliveries to the dealership and 4 lost sales due to them not being on time. 

Round 1 Simulation; Traditional Manufacturing; RESULTS

Round 2 simulated Toyota’s Lean Manufacturing; AKA Pull Manufacturing.  The difference between these two approaches is not the goal but the prime approach to achieving it.

The environment was reorganized to improve the “flow” or smoothness of the work. The technique used to improve flow include “pull” production (by means of kanban.)  You can see the “kanban’s” in the pictures.  They were depicted on the table mats with boxes.  Kanbans are a concept related to lean and JIT (Just-In-Time) production.  Kanban is a signaling system to trigger action.  Kanbans became an effective tool to support the running of the production system as a whole. In addition, it proved to be an excellent way for promoting improvements.  In fact, Toyota can implement a manufacturing improvement in their entire organization (worldwide) in 6 months.  They are “OBSESSED WITH QUALITY.”

Simulation 2; Environment organized for Lean Manufacturing

Watch this video to see the simulation of Lean Manufacturing in progress

The outcome was AMAZING.  We reduced our cost to $10.15 per car, we had 0 defects, only 4 late cars and 2 lost sales!  Lean Manufacturing WORKS! 

Simulation 2 Results; Lean Manufacturing WORKS!

I would like to thank University of Toyota for having us.  This application activity was not only fascinating as a consumer but also as an Instructional Designer.  Simulations are an excellent application activity.  They are the 1st cousin to demonstrations but really allow us to learn in “real life” environments (well, as close as you can get).