In early 2020, the majority of call centers were forced to transition to a fully remote workforce. For cloud-based call centers, this transition was relatively painless; agents that had experience working together in an office only needed a headset and a strong internet connection in order to continue to do their jobs effectively. But what about agents that were hired onto a fully remote team? Remote training can be difficult, and the only way to ensure that agents will be comfortable and confident performing their jobs is to adapt your training methods to the remote work environment. Here are three strategies that will help you do so.

Make Training Interactive

 

For in-person training sessions, presentations delivering large chunks of information at a time are often the norm. But for remote employees, it is much harder to make sure that they are paying attention and retaining all the information throughout a presentation like this—you don’t know what kinds of distractions may be present in their work environment just offscreen. That’s why making training interactive can be helpful in increasing focus and retention. If you’re having employees follow along with a presentation, incorporate polls, multiple choice questions and discussion topics to keep them engaged. Not only will this help trainers tell if everyone is paying attention, but it will also help trainees process and retain the information.

 

Utilize Recorded Calls

 

Listening to recorded calls was likely part of your in-person training protocols as well, but it become even more important for remote training. The reason: It’s not as easy for trainees to ask questions about specific scenarios during a remote training session, plus they will be less likely to ask them in the first place. Utilizing numerous recorded calls as examples of different scenarios agents might face will ensure that they are prepared to handle any situation they may run into with a caller.

 

Try Role Playing

 

Role playing is another training tool that becomes more critical in a remote training situation. Role playing offers trainees the opportunity to practice the skills they have learned live, plus it is a chance for them to interact with one another. Even when everyone is working from different remote locations, you want to remind them that they are all members of the same team. This will reduce feelings of isolation, plus help prevent complacency and increase productivity.

To learn more about how CallShaper can help you train new employees, contact us today.