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Newsbit

Encore Media Group LLC is deploying computer-based kiosks affiliates can utilize to provide additional training for their CSRs without taking them away from the phones.

"Encore is on the cutting edge when it comes to providing training for CSRs,"says K.C. McWilliams, GM of Insight Communications Inc.'s 65,000-customer Rockford, Ill., system. "The kiosks are a great idea. People get through the information in about 15 minutes. Not only has it helped them remember what's on the Encore services, it's fun, too."

The program uses interactive technology to encourage participation among CSRs, says Michel Champagne, Encore's VP-affiliate marketing. "Traditional, hands-on departmental training - while most effective - requires significant portions of the sales force's time during the busy work week. Our self-training program is a way to maintain a long-term educational presence in the call center and for CSRs to measure their individual progress in the instructional effort."

The information on the kiosks is designed "to help CSRs learn more about our products and how to position them and sell them to customers," Champagne says. "Computer-based CSR training is a logical extension of our ongoing grassroots education efforts in the affiliate call centers."

Insight placed its kiosk in a coffee room where CSRs gather during breaks. The kiosk had been in place about a week and "I'd wager that all 40 of our CSRs have sat in front of it at various times. Even people who don't answer phones have had fun with the program," McWilliams says. "It's self-paced so you can go to something specific or you can go through the whole thing at once. I'd say you could do the whole program in about 15 minutes." Champagne says the kiosks, which are free to affiliates, will be updated and revamped every quarter. McWilliams thinks that's timely enough. "People can go through it more than once and learn something every time, so I think changing it every quarter should be sufficient."

Champagne would like to have about 50 kiosks deployed over the next couple of years. Encore is giving CSRs who complete the program a prize of some sort - a shirt or hat, Champagne says. The prizes will vary as the program develops, he says.

Eventually, the program may be retrofitted so operators can install it on their Intranet systems, Champagne says. But most operators like the separate kiosk idea because it allows CSRs to work on the training without taking them away from their phone duties, he says.

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