Digital Marketing - Study Notes:
Three core areas
When training agents, there are three core areas to focus on:
- Social media. It is important that agents are aware of social networks, how they are used for customer service, and how to conduct social listening. Ideally, you’re hiring people who have some experience in this area, but that’s not always the case. Although they are probably using social media, they might not necessarily know how a business engages with it, so take that angle.
- Operational processes. Agents should be able to understand the processes and workflows that you’ve put in place.
- Technology. Agents should understand the workings of SMMS and social customer care platforms. Provide training on the specific SMMS that you’ve decided to implement.
Onboarding periods
Make sure that you consider the ebb and flow of work throughout your calendar year when it comes to on-boarding agents. You have to think strategically about when you can do the on-boarding. It’s going to take resources internally; it’s going to take your attention away from your business. So look at your natural cycle of work and make sure that you’re doing onboarding at a time when you can invest in your workforce rather than in your day-to-day work.
- Leverage moderation and approval workflows during agent training and onboarding periods.
- Utilize KPIs and volume data to model workforce allocation and project future resource requirements.
Training reserves
It’s vital to train reserve agents in case there’s a crisis, and to mitigate against:
- Volume volatility
- Unforeseen absences
- Staff shortages
Christian Polman
Christian Polman is a General Manager at Eone, Europe. He has driven digital marketing strategy through analytics and research to solve strategic and operating challenges and develop business plans for Fortune 100 brands.
