paper -
5 Absolutely Fabulous Phone Support
Lalena
Parkhurst, Indiana University
Two and half years ago, when I first took my job at
our university's help desk, one of my fellow employees complained that he was
getting more and more stupid everyday. The limited time and resources for
training and information sharing coupled with the constantly changing computer
industry were driving down the percentage of callers he could successfully
assist.
At that time our team had the worst job in our
organization. Hiring was difficult because none of our current or former
employees would ever recommend the job to a friend. We couldn't keep
consultants for more than 4 months. Beyond being challenging, the work was
hectic and burdensome.
Slowly all that changed. Now we have a highly
qualified team, with many members holding Microsoft Windows and A+
certifications. We're providing consistently excellent and timely solutions to
our customers in a professional and courteous manner. What's more, we're having
fun doing it, which is why our consultants now stay an average of 11 months.
In my paper I will share the strategies we used to improve hiring, training, and retaining employees. I will describe strategies for getting more candidates to apply and how we learned to sell the job better during the interview. I will also discuss the self-guided training concept that we developed to teach technical knowledge, internal systems and procedures, as well as customer service skills for new employees. We also use an ongoing development plan to assist consultants in getting experience and certifications that will help get more out of the job and help them get their next job. I will also share some of my future plans for improvement, since building an absolutely fabulous phone team is a never-ending adventure.