There is a question in all corporate training, all industries, every professional position, “What is the value of training?” Generally followed by “How do I know there is value in training? and the incredibly astute question, “Where is the value in training?”
Leadership is looking sideways and helping those who follow climb up, thus empowering the leader to climb to the next level. Yet, the lingering doubt remains, “How do I measure success in training?” Long have I advocated that the leader is a teacher and a learner, which are fundamental to success. Whether that teaching comes from delegating authority, empowering people to act, or directly teaching someone struggling, the leader is always learning through teaching so they may learn more perfectly.
As part of my research into call center training, it has been discovered that those who receive official training, and those who learn their duties on the fly, have precisely the same chance of being successful; this is an indication of not the power of training, but the motivation of the learning adult. There is a difference between adults, and the difference is the individual propensity to learn, discover, dig deeper, ask questions, and apply the results pursuing why. Thus, one would naturally ask, “What is the difference between a learning adult and an adult who actively chooses not to learn?” I think I know the answer, I have anecdotal evidence that supports my conclusions, but I would like to test these conclusions.
The Invitation
As part of my doctoral degree program, I must conduct research and report the findings. I am inviting your American-based, English-speaking call center to help me test the assumptions and conclusions for my research. The business will not be named, the individuals participating will not be named, and the study will occur online and outside regular business hours. I want to interview 10-15 of your call-taking/front-line contact center employees using online interviewing software. I want to interview 10-15 call center trainers, also employing online interviewing software. Finally, I would like to take the information gleaned from the first two groups, sit down in a focus group, discuss what was found with 5-7 senior call center leaders, and glean their information, conclusions, and ideas.
I would ask that those participating in the research have a LinkedIn profile as a tool to verify years of experience. No single participant would be featured in more than one of the participating groups. All names of individuals will be hidden behind a participation code, and any identifiable business information will be deleted from the transcripts. All findings will be reported in aggregate to avoid any identifiable information from potentially leaking into the published research.
As a bonus, those who help through participation, if they are interested, can receive a copy of the finished dissertation via email or physical copy, depending upon their preference. My purpose in researching the call center is to dynamically review the adult learner in the pressure-cooking learning environment of call centers. I have worked as an agent and a leader of agents spanning formal education. The degree does not make the person, nor does a degree make a leader. What makes the leader is their commitment to learning and teaching.
Please, join my research. Entering the study is possible through emailing msalisbury1@my.gcu.edu. If you would like to verify my credentials, don’t hesitate to contact my chair Professor Dr. Susan Miedzianowski in the College of Doctoral Studies at Grand Canyon University, via email: Susan.Miedzianowski@my.gcu.edu.
© Copyright 2021 – M. Dave Salisbury
The author holds no claims for the art used herein, the pictures were obtained in the public domain, and the intellectual property belongs to those who created the images. Quoted materials remain the property of the original author.
My wife is mad at me; I was relating an email survey experience where a financial institution had sent me a customer service survey. I described the truth, I have no reason to remain a customer and feel less than enthused at remaining a customer. My wife fearing I had been insulting, derogatory, or denigrating, got mad at me. I explained my position and how I had answered the rote questions, and she is still not happy. But, her position and my position bring up an interesting point, centered around the following question, “Why should a customer remain a customer?”
I have several titles, want my business, know and use my titles. Pick one, and use it! How can a company claim they “know their customers” when that company cannot use the customer’s preferred name or title in addressing that customer? I have worked hard to earn a Ph.D.; I do not expect everyone to call me “Dr.,” but it sure as anything beats being called “mister” all the bloody time. Worse, I still hold several ranks and positions that come with titles. I could be addressed using them, but even with a preferred name on many company customer profiles, I get that lazy customer service representative that calls me Mr. Salisbury! Guess what company I am going to ditch at the first opportunity?
Business processes matter; honoring your word matters, displaying trust, integrity, and fulfilling a promise made all matters in the customer relationship long before the product or service is discussed. Yet, how often are these issues on shaky ground, before the ink is dry on the service contract or the receipt for goods? I have a cell phone provider I detest; I long for the day I can finally walk free of this provider and never look back. Because their customer attention is deplorable, I feel used and abused every time I interact with this company. I have the same problem with my current Internet provider. When your customer service is so deplorable, you have to climb to become terrible; there is a problem that colors, signage, marketing, and gimmicks cannot fix!
These are but three basics, fundamental points at the start of the customer relations journey. If you cannot get these three points right, the rest of the trip will be short, painful, and not fulfilling for you or your customers. Worse, the experiences will be remembered, and people have this nasty habit of not forgetting bad experiences. Why do the majority of people despise the DMV; because the majority of customers have experienced the most frustrating issues of their professional lives at the hands of the DMV agents. Governments abuse their customers, which is as bad as customer interactions get, and everyone feels betrayed when the government and bureaucrats use them.
I want to express my deepest gratitude to 
In researching the history of professional training, the model employed has not changed since a master taught journeyman who led novice instruction. Yet, with technology, global populations, cultures, language, and globe-spanning organizations, the role of the trainer seems to continue to take a back seat. Yet, if a corporate trainer profoundly influenced you professionally, would you not want that experience for another person?
Important to note, your name and business will never be mentioned in my dissertation! I am not collecting any personal data beyond education and years of experience. Any direct quotes employed will carry no connecting data, and no one will see your details.
I am a doctoral candidate under the direction of Professor Dr. Susan Miedzianowski in the College of Doctoral Studies at Grand Canyon University. My name is Michael D. “Dave” Salisbury. I am conducting a research study to explore the trainer’s specific influence on employees’ development in an English-speaking call center based on a clear understanding of the trainer’s role.
Gagné’s Instructional Design Model, is a conceptual model for moving organizational goals into organizational behavior, referred to by Gagné (2018) as a “motivational model of organizational goal pursuit,” (p. S98-S99). Gagné’s instructional design model collects the curriculum, the organizational goals, needs, desires, managerially acceptable behaviors, and supports the trainer in the training environment. Important to note, Gagné (2018) stated a known truth, the trainer, and training department, are dynamic influencers in the business organization, and any learning organization will gladly take the trainer and training department and make the importance of learning observable from the first moment a visitor enters to the last impression as the visitor leaves.
The importance of making the shift from training being a singular activity for the extent of the employee working in a role and making training a regular event where learning is ongoing as a competitive advantage, represents a major hurdle for call centers to overcome. However, it cannot be more emphatically declared, training is an event, and the training events can be replicated for lifelong and lifewide learners to enjoy. Let us take the individual events and break them down into specific actions a trainer uses to plan and execute training in call centers:
How does a trainer know they have achieved success using these events; “Enthusiasm is the greatest asset in the world, it beats money, power, and influence; it is nothing more than faith in action” – Henry Chester. Faith in action involves trust and reflects confidence in the trainer by the learner. Are the students excited to perform; if so, the trainer has achieved success. If there are reservations, address them on an individual student level. If there are hesitations; assure the student, the trainer is still there to aid and encourage. Experience will be the new instructor and the trainer will now be a mentor and advocate. Explain these roles and show how the trainer is still there through technical means and physical visits; ensure each student remembers that the trainer is still learning and is willing to learn with the student.
End the silliness of five different methods for evaluating training. Happy sheets are ambiguous and do not reflect reality. Measuring learning is uselessly inefficient for judging how much has been learned, mainly because the person taking the test is not applying in real-life the principles learned. Worse, only a small percentage of the population can adequately take tests and have that test-performance reflect real-life application in using the principles learned. Measuring just through application is a time-wasting event. It takes time to setup, time to take down, time to score, and still only a small percentage of the population can adequately show application when under testing requirements. Speaking of time, using business results or returns on investment as the stick to measure training effectiveness requires long-term time commitment and resource investment which do not reflect the ambiguity of market conditions.
On a final note, give training an actual budget. Too often training is an unbudgeted expense that absorbs costs unrelated to actual training. This method of paying for training produces unrealistic costs for trainers to explain or to precisely track. Changing how training is evaluated, and budgeting the costs of training, without all the garbage of untrackable expenses, will improve the call center immeasurably. Call center leadership can, and should, be actively learning in the call center. Learning represents a commitment to changing personally, then professionally. Change is the key to competing in the current global marketplace, and the company that can change and adapt is the company focused on learning.
In making observations, the consultant team tested the “open-door” policy and found that those sought were never in their offices even though the doors were open. The training was occurring, but the training offered had little to no value for the front-line customer-facing staff. It was generally considered a zero-sum game, providing time off the phones and causing stress and overtime costs. Worse, the front-line supervisors and employees’ perception was the existence of a chasm, separating them from higher organizational leaders.
Communication as a tool in expressing confidence in the follower/leader relationship gains strength to clear misunderstandings and reach the desired consensus to meet organizational goals and operational objectives. The operational concept of trust and communication requires the third leg of the trust relationship agency. The follower needs to possess agency to act, informed agency requires training to employ, and the power and support of leadership to feel confident in action as detailed by Boler (1968), Avolio and Yammarino (2002). Which is where concepts meet reality, where theory is tested, and the leader is needed.
COVID has provided many opportunities, and only through collaboration, communication, trust, and empowered agency, can help call centers to survive this difficult period. Regardless of how long the government shutdowns occur, your call center can survive, and call center leaders can prosper, provided they are willing to be leaders indeed, not managers in disguise.
Essentially, the NM Government call centers, at the city and state levels of government are as emasculated as a spring-born calf! Let that sink in for a moment. No tools, no authority, no support, and only their verbal wits to make the customer go away. If you think this problem is only apparent in government call centers; well, you are wrong.
Appreciative inquiry is a growth mechanism that states that what a business organization needs, they already have enough of, provided they listen to their employees. Appreciative inquiry and common sense tells leaders who want to know and change their organization, how, and where to go to begin. Appreciative inquiry-based leadership is 6-continuous steps that start small, and cycle to larger problems as momentum for excellence permeates through an organization. But the first step, just like in defeating a disabling addiction, is admitting there is a problem.
Appreciative inquiry is exactly like the plane, by having a destination, defined according to positive desires, through the process of discovery, dreaming of the possible future, while designing the future, the appreciative inquiry leader can make the small changes today that move the destination from ruination to success.
To understand a principle takes time; to apply that principle involves experience; but to indeed change a person, the principle must be absorbed into the very fiber or essence of an individual, reaching comprehension through mental, physical, and spiritual understanding, some might even say the soul of the individual. Freedom is one such principle; the tool for remaining free is the ability to choose, or agency. When applied to organizations, the same path to success must be tread, but with many individuals onboarding the principles is a challenge. Many people believing the same way is often described as a culture (Greenwald, 2008, p 192-195), or society, and when belief turns into dedicated and repetitive action, a paradigm is created (Kuhn, 1996), also called business processes and procedures.
The Johari Window is a tool for quickly assessing a situation before making a choice. Consider the job of a call center agent; they must be technically savvy, adept at handling multiple tasks while engaging in productive conversation, and must be able to keep a caller enthusiastically engaged in reaching a solution quickly so that the agent ay meet business set metrics and production goals. The Johari Window is suggested as a desktop guide in promoting self-knowledge in the call center agent to improve performance. Having personally employed the Johari Window as part of logical thinking, I explicitly recommend, that before handing an agent this tool, training must be accomplished to help allow for clearer thinking that often leads to more speedy action. The first Johari Window represented links to a .pdf that contains additional specific information for improving training in the Johari Window principles.
Organizational change begins with information output; then collect data, preferably through listening and observation while doing the work; interpreting the data includes obtaining data, evaluating meaning, deciphering intent, and understanding value. Please note, the assumptions should not be made in a vacuum and could be wrong; thus, always return to the data producers and ask questions to ensure mutual understanding. Once conclusions are mutually understood, they become beliefs; but, don’t stop until beliefs become actions.
DNC-Consulting 