What to consider before you offer global support training

As companies expand their support operations to provide customer service from multiple regions, they are faced with the challenge of maintaining consistent support from each of those regions. This can be difficult when one factors in geographic distance, multiple timezones, and different languages and cultures. Global support training, when done correctly, can ensure you continue to provide great support as you expand to new regions.

Important decisions

When expanding support operations into multiple regions, it is important to answer many of these questions:

Focus

Who requires training: an individual, a team, a call center, or the business process outsourcing (BPO) firm?

Development

Who should direct and review the development of training materials to ensure alignment with training objectives?

Provider: make or buy?

Should the training be developed within the support organisation and/or training department or purchased from outside sources?

Location

Should the training be performed on the job, within the call center, off-site, or virtually?

Content

Should the content be customised or can it be generic and purchased “off the shelf”?

Facilitator

Should the facilitator be a trained customer service subject matter expert, an internal trainer, or an external trainer?

Delivery

Should the delivery be adapted to personal learning styles or can everyone learn the same way (e.g., all classroom or web-based)?

Evaluation

How will success be measured and determined?

Regional training strategies

Once the above questions have been resolved, there are many factors to consider:

• Culture: Be aware of how variances of culture, even if the different regions are in the same country, might impact the way agents and vendors need to be onboarded. Local customs might need to be incorporated

• Regional offerings: Do different regions offer different products and services? If so, you’ll need to train agents in those regions to support those products and services.

• Training: Determine who will develop training and how that training will be rolled out. You might want to select someone to train trainers, too. In any case, create a certificate program to ensure regional trainers comply with guidelines.

Training isn’t the only answer

Training is often identified as the solution to many customer support problems. However, training should be deemed necessary only when it has been determined that training is required to ensure employees will meet performance expectations, when the benefits of training are greater than the consequences of not training, and when training is the most cost-effective solution to the problem or opportunity.