In my first blog of this “CX Training” series, I asserted that organisations still relying upon on-prem contact centre and training technologies will be ill-equipped to capture, nurture and retain the loyalty of today’s pandemic-weary consumers.

Cloud-based contact centre and training apps, on the other hand, significantly enhance and expand what’s possible when it comes to agent training and coaching. It’s this kind of scale that helps organisations more holistically prepare new agents to serve and appease even the unhappiest of customers, to reach readiness faster, and to better secure the long-term loyalty of your customers.

Here’s why.

It’s easy and inexpensive for trainers to build real-world, new-hire training—and change it whenever needed.

Cloud-based training applications let trainers build, update and deliver better onsite and remote training. That’s because they can more quickly, easily and affordably create real-world environments that more effectively teach agents about all of the important tools and integrations they will use on-the-job—environments that are easy to change whenever needed. Trainers can spend their time sharing more expertise and delving deeper into important topics instead of building and maintaining the virtual machines used in on-prem trainings.

The TCO of cloud-based training apps is significantly less than on-prem as well. Many organisations using an on-prem approach—especially those that conduct many remote trainings—run up against financial or hardware expenses that restrict the number or scope of trainings they can offer. These companies incur significant training expenses related to things like hardware investments, trainer T&E, equipment shipments, space rentals and event organisation that would simply vanish if they switched to cloud-based training. Essentially, cloud-based training apps remove time and expense from the training ROI equation.

Trainers can include more hands-on training and simulations in the new-hire coursework.

Cloud-based training applications also foster a richer, more effective learning environment—one that can feature many more simulations and much more hands-on work in addition to the standard classroom work that will never go away.

On-prem solutions make it difficult to provide that kind of all-encompassing education because they tether new agents to a desk. Trainers using cloud-based apps, on the other hand, can easily and securely give any agent—no matter their physical location—practical, hands-on experience with the specific tools and processes they will use to deliver a superior customer experience. Most importantly, it all can happen before the new agents ever take a live customer call.

New agents gain confidence and learn more by training on full, flexible, non-production environments that are customised to the curriculum.

When new agents receive training created with and delivered by cloud-based applications, the knowledge they acquire is deeper and wider, and they more easily retain it.

That’s because—in addition to the increased number of simulations and amount of hands-on experience I mentioned earlier—cloud-based apps [let? can let?] agents practise their skills in safe, non-production training environments that can be quickly spun up by trainers whenever needed. Trainers can create as many of these real-world environments as they need and customise them to correspond to the exact curriculum they’ve created, so agents receive training that’s as relevant and precise as possible.

Trainers can reach and teach agents no matter where they are.

Legacy training approaches consisted of a complex, lengthy process where trainers built virtual machines; shipped equipment from one location to the next; travelled to each city to conduct the training; arranged for out-of-town agents to travel to their nearest training events; and pulled equipment out of rotation whenever updates had to be made to the coursework. The process was expensive and time-consuming, and prevented trainers from featuring a substantial amount of practical coursework—e.g., simulations and hands-on training—in their curriculum. In many cases, this approach also limited the number of new agents that could be trained at the same time.

Trainers who leverage cloud-based training apps can build, change and deliver precise, up-to-date training to anyone, from anywhere and to anywhere. They can concurrently teach an unlimited number of agents. And, when the training is offered on-demand, agents can complete the coursework whenever it’s most convenient to their work and personal schedules.

Watch for upcoming blogs in this “CX Training” series, where we’ll explore in more detail the agent training and coaching benefits that only cloud-based applications deliver.

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