Genesys and high-profile contact centre innovator Kevin Panozza unveil key e-learning initiative to improve customer service agent performance
New approach to contact centre training offers skills to engage customers in Quality Conversations
Melbourne, August 13, 2008 - Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories, Inc., an Alcatel-Lucent company (Euronext: Paris and NYSE: ALU), has collaborated in developing Quality Conversations, a completely new and revolutionary distance learning system devised to enrich the quality of interactions between customers and contact centre agents. Program co-developer, Kevin Panozza, is recognised internationally for his innovation in agent conversational techniques and behaviours. Mr. Panozza was, until recently, CEO of SalesForce, Australia’s largest provider of outsourced contact centre solutions and three times Hewitt Best Employer award winner, he is now Managing Director of Engagement Matters.
Quality Conversations takes the e-learning experience and learning outcomes to entirely new levels with more than 8.5 hours of highly interactive, animated educational material for front-line contact centre employees. The training package is segmented into 26 modules for optimised learning, and comes in versions for customer service and sales agents. The program has been one year in development, by AFrame, a SalesForce company specialising in e-Learning solutions, along with content from Frank Romano, who is a leading specialist educator who has developed language and techniques specifically for the contact centre industry.
SalesForce delivers high productivity and interaction excellence through its unique culture which embraces radical training philosophies, stimulating training materials and delivery methods.
Genesys and Kevin Panozza have harnessed their unique and specialist knowledge to develop this online training package.
"The quality of a conversation can make or break a customer situation. A positive customer outcome is often not about the product or service itself, it is about how a situation is handled," said Jason Stirling, VP Genesys Australia, India & New Zealand. "Genesys Quality Conversations will ensure customer-facing staff are armed with critical soft skills required to handle service and sales environments. What’s more, the training is delivered in an engaging and fun format that ensures optimum retention with proven results."
Kevin Panozza added, “Agents who complete this program will be able to deliver more satisfying customer experiences in both customer service and sales environments”.
Modules include:
- 2 Introductory modules establishing the importance of improving conversations and provide the foundation for developing key skills.
- 13 Core modules providing fundamental behavioural skills, including developing rapport, vocal skills, active listening, regulating attitude, questioning and gaining trust.
- 5 Customer service modules enhancing agent skills for customer service environments.
- 5 Sales modules enhancing agent skills for sales environments.
- 1 Toolkit resource module providing a range of self-analysis tools, printable reference guides and other support material to enhance the implementation of quality conversations in the workplace.
About Kevin Panozza
Kevin founded SalesForce in partnership with advertising agency DDB; between 1994 and 2005, the business grew from a company with 10 employees to a corporation of more than 5,500.
Kevin’s lifetime of experience, and his strong personal convictions about stimulating work environments and empowering cultures, resulted in very strong revenue growth in a small, very competitive market; consistent profit growth; organisational stability; and a global reputation for deploying emerging technologies, and new conversational techniques.
Kevin Panozza is author of the ‘8 Enemies of Engagement’ – a highly practical regime that champions ways to overcome these enemies. Kevin is internationally acknowledged as being a leader in developing high engagement, high productivity work environments.
About Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories, Inc.
Genesys, an Alcatel-Lucent company, is the only company that focuses 100 percent on software to manage customer interactions over the phone, Web and in e-mail. The Genesys software suite dynamically connects customers with the right resources - self-service or assisted service - to fulfill customer requests, optimize customer care goals and efficiently use resources. Genesys software directs more than 100 million customer interactions every day for 4,000 companies and government agencies in 80 countries. These companies and agencies can leverage their entire organization, from the contact center to the back office, to improve the overall customer experience. As a result, Genesys helps stop customer frustration, drive efficiency and accelerate business innovation. For more information, go to http://www.genesyslab.com or visit the industry blog at http://www.betterinteractions.com
About Alcatel-Lucent
Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU) provides solutions that enable service providers, enterprise and governments worldwide, to deliver voice, data and video communication services to end-users. As a leader in fixed, mobile and converged broadband networking, IP technologies, applications and services, Alcatel-Lucent offers the end-to-end solutions that enable compelling communications services for people at home, at work and on the move. With operations in more than 130 countries, Alcatel-Lucent is a local partner with global reach. The company has the most experienced global services team in the industry, and one of the largest research, technology and innovation organizations in the telecommunications industry. Alcatel-Lucent achieved revenues of Euro 17.8 billion in 2007 and is incorporated in France, with executive offices located in Paris. For more information, visit Alcatel-Lucent on the Internet: http://www.alcatel-lucent.com.
Media Contact:
David Radoff, Genesys, 650-466-1078, dradoff@genesyslab.com
Guy Downes, Howorth, +61 2 8281 3836, guy@howorth.com.au
