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.

This past Sunday I had an amazing experience at the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles, CA.  The Museum of Tolerance (MOT) is a human rights laboratory and educational center dedicated to challenging visitors to understand the Holocaust in both historic and contemporary contexts and confront all forms of prejudice and discrimination in our world today. 

This museum was an Instructional Designers dream!  It was the most experiential and learner-centered museum I have ever been in!  One of my favorites exhibits was the Point Of View Diner.  A recreation of a 1950’s diner, red booths and all, that “serves” a menu of controversial topics on video jukeboxes. It uses the latest cutting edge technology to relay the overall message of personal responsibility. Following scenarios focusing on drunk driving and hate speech, this interactive exhibit allows visitors to input their opinions on what they have seen and question relevant characters. The results are then instantly tabulated. 

The MOT creates a safe environment for probing dialogue around difficult issues rarely discussed in the workplace and homes of participants. The Point of View Diner challenges participants to question their own assumptions, raise self-awareness, and present fresh perspectives to redefine personal responsibility and taking action. 

It is important for an Instructional Designer to create a safe environment for the learners.  This is so they can feel safe while sharing their views, expressing their opinions and ultimately not feel ashamed … after all this is a LEARNING environment.  I am also a big fan of self discovery which this museum, and in particular this exhibit does. 

I was SO INSPIRED by this visit that I am going to research how the ideas are generated for each of these exhibits.  I am interested to know who puts it together, what sort of piloting they do and what they do with the data they collect from each visitor.

The MOT is a MUST SEE if you are in Southern California.

To schedule a visit, call, 310-553-8403
for group tours, 310-772-7639.

Coaching is a critical component of a sound sales training campaign in an organization.  Coaches design an action plan for each sales agent based on their identified strengths, weaknesses and opportunities for growth.  The design of this action plan will show the creativity of the coach including their ability to relate to and influence the sales agent by changing their behavior.  That is the ultimate goal of this action plan, to change behavior.  The behavior change is what should move the sales needle in the positive direction for the organization. 

Here is a creative way to communicate required behavior changes and a fun and easy way to document the coaching session.  This is called the Coaching Prescription.  It is a play-off of a prescription pad that comes from the Dr. 

*Note:  This by no means is an all encompassing action plan.  This is an on-the-spot solution used to document the coaching session. 

Coaching Prescription Card

Many of you have read my call for Instructional Designers to be a part of the Social Responsibility Movement.  I am asking designers to design for a civilization that will positively impact customers, suppliers, employees, shareholders, communities and other stakeholders, as well as the environment.

I would like to highlight the Instructional Designer-Centric approach to offsetting carbon emissions by Will Thalheimer, PhD and President of Work-Learning Research Inc.   The Carbon Offset idea works like this. We all pollute, but when we do so we can help limit the damaging effects by either (1) offsetting our damage by doing good in other ways (for example if we have to drive a large car we can replace all our light bulbs with energy-saving flourescents), or (2) we can donate money to projects that help support renewable energy, energy efficiency, and reforestation.

What EXACTLY is a Carbon Offset idea?  Watch this 2 minute 40 second YouTube video.

Below are Will’s ideas for Training & Development departments so they can do as their part of the Social Responsibility Movement and REDUCE their Carbon Footprint:

1. Encourage the use of e-learning, which limits the carbon footprint of travel. And, make sure you build e-learning that is effective and engaging, so more folks will want to use e-learning.
2. When calculating the “cost” of training, calculate carbon footprint costs as well. See for example, The Carbon Fund’s calculators or The Clean Air Conservancy’s calculators. Make these costs evident.
3. Encourage your company to buy carbon offsets when utilizing training. It’s not just a good thing to do, but it may help your company attract business and recruit highly-educated employees.
4. In your e-learning courses, provide an option for learners to calculate how many tons of carbon dioxide they would have utilized had they had to travel from their location to headquarters.

 What are YOU doing to help the environment?

“The meta question for all of us is: Which civilization are you a designer for? The one that’s dying, or the one that we are trying to create?” – Paul Hawken, Author.

This is my call for Instructional Designers to be a part of the corporate social responsibility movement.  Designers must use creativity, design cycle(s) and ultimately their passion for education and development to positively impact customers, suppliers, employees, shareholders, communities and other stakeholders, as well as the environment.

Instructional Designer contributions can be small yet very impactful.  Suggest e-learning instead of printing 100-page manuals everytime you have a new hire orientation, record your webinar sessions so they can be “used again” and ask your learners to contribute back to the society by using their newly found skills in a volunteer opportunity.  This is also a way for you to ”market” your training and development departments within your organization!  

What are YOU doing to help? 

I look forward to your replies.

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).

As a designer, there are many training strategies and delivery choices.  The one you select will depend on a few things; Your budget, available learning environment, and the learners themselves. 

The Traditional Training Strategies include:

Job Aids - Tools which provide guidance on the performance of a specific job task or skill.  Used in situations where it is not feasible or worthwhile to commit the procedure to memory before on-the-job performance.

Self-Paced Learning – Provides independent learning that can be done at the learner’s own pace and subject to his/her availability.  The learner does not interact with an instructor or other learners.

On-the-Job Training – Provides training at the job site, usually on a one-on-one basis, while the learner(s) either performs or simulates the job or task(s) to be learned. Can be provided by a manager/supervisor, a senior employee or subject-matter expert, or a member of the training department.

Instructor-Led Training – Provides group learning in a classroom environment (in one geographic location) shared by both an instructor and the learners. It allows learners to interact with the instructor and with other participants, to ask questions, to do application exercises, and to receive immediate feedback.

ALL of these training strategies can be successful as long as they have variety.  Variety is the key to all successful courses.  I do not necessarily mean variety in training strategies but in the presentation and application activities within your mode of delivery. 

Use my Successful Course Criteria Checklist to help ensure your course will be successful.

A Successful Course