What is Call Center Training?

Call center training refers to the education and learning a person must go through to be a call center representative. Generally, there is little formal schooling required to become a call center representative. Most companies will require a high school diploma, and an associate's or bachelor's degree may make a candidate more competitive but is rarely required. Much of the training is thus done on the job, and the call center training is specific to the company.

There are many different types of call centers, and the specific call center training will depend on the nature of the call center. Some are designed to take orders for products for sale. In such cases, the training that call center staff undergoes may involve learning how to up-sell the customer, or get the customer to add more items to their particular order.

Other call centers may deal with taking reservations, such as reservations for a hotel or car rental agency. Still others will be customer complaint centers where individuals call to comment or complain about a product they have. Other call centers are designed simply to provide information, either information about products to new customers or information about accounts and products to existing customers. Almost every company, from a credit card company to a hotel to an insurance company, has some type of call center in which customers' needs are met and concerns are addressed, and the call center training will be specific to what the customer is likely to need.

Although this means there is a wide variety of types of call center training, there are some commonalities that most call center agents are likely to be educated in. Most call centers use multi-line telephone systems and using these systems to hold or transfer calls can be more complex than using a basic telephone system. Thus, training generally involves learning how to use the call center's telephone system.

In the age of modern technology, most call centers also have computer systems. These systems may contain client account information an agent needs to answer customer questions. The computer system may also be a system through which call center agents input caller information, such as orders or applications. Training generally involves learning how to use these systems so that agents can address customer calls and make appropriate records of them within the correct computer program.