Within an 18-month period, a leading cable company in the U.S. acquired several call centers from telecommunication firms across the country. At a rapid pace, the company grew from a local cable service provider to a national, full-service telecommunications company. The challenges?

• Consolidate eight different new-hire customer service/sales representative (CSSR) training programs into one "corporate-wide" standardized curriculum that would achieve the highest level of sales and customer service support
• Complete the curriculum while the company products, key accounts, billing systems, job functions, processes and procedures were continually changing as a result of multiple mergers

By identifying the essential competencies and skills needed for all types of customer calls, Gillespie designed and developed a training curriculum that allowed local adjustments for the short term and overall standardization for the long term. The most critical design elements included:

• One variable constant—the nature and types of calls that CSSRs were likely to receive
• Competencies, skills and knowledge requirements for different levels of jobs
• Process flow of all types of incoming customer calls
• Both soft skills (challenging customers) and critical technical skills (product knowledge)
• Reconciling various selling strategies into one
• Utilizing external resources (computer user guides, local process information, QA guidelines)
• Training and reinforcement of the company's quality assurance program
• Continuous support of the CSSR through non-curriculum based programs and strategies
• Certification path for beginning, mastery, and expert qualifications
• Training all in-house instructors on the new curriculum

• Training needs assessment
• Curriculum design plan
• Instructional design
• Curriculum development
• "The story of the call" model
• Job aids
• Train-the trainer course

Effective, skills-based curriculum was completed. Instructors took ownership of the new curriculum and adopted a more consistent approach in delivery. CSSRs who once were expected to only service calls were now able to sell services and enhancements with minor supervision, in some cases before the training was even completed. Trainees were satisfied with training because it was relevant and meaningful to perform their jobs successfully. There was no attrition during training! This led to a very satisfied client.