Control of call centres with online learning platform

Worldwide, Philips has 24 call centres and is keen to see them offering the best service to its customers.

That is why the company trains its one thousand call centre agents on a continuous basis. Every three months, they have to successfully complete a certified training course. The call centres organise this themselves, but the Philips head office is responsible for supervising this process. UP learning developed the learning concept and implemented a completely new learning platform.

“The call centre agents are crucial for keeping customer satisfaction at the right level. Obtaining a certificate to show that you meet the requirements is not enough, as far as we are concerned,” says Paul Voss, Call Centers Operations Manager at Philips. “That is why we take a lot of care regarding training and coaching. You cannot simply e-mail a batch of PowerPoint presentations with new products to your employees every three months and expect them to find out what they are supposed to know. With the new online learning environment, the employees can monitor their own progress. They can see exactly what has been completed successfully, and what remains to be done.”

Philips is speeding up and improving its help for its customersulp aan klanten

Philips’ call centres operates independently and are responsible for their own actions. However, the Philips head office remains responsible for operations. Paul Voss: “The call centres are all learning on the same Moodle online learning platform, but they do not know what the other call centres are doing. From the head office, we are in total control of the learning process and the progress being made. The progress reports are automated, so that we do not have to go through any tedious manual processes. Thanks to the real-time information, we have a clearer picture of the learning process much sooner. The cycle is repeated every three months. And because the registration process is completely automated, we have made more progress in terms of efficiency. The call centre agents are better able to help our customers, and to do so more quickly. And that is why we are doing it!”

Educational concept

With a smart approach, online learning solutions are leading to improved learning, as well as to greater efficiency. Does the same apply to Philips? Leonie Vos, learning consultant, explains how it works:

“From when we are very young, we know that you learn by repeating things. Repeating things strengthens the connections in the brain. It ensures that we are able to distinguish effective and less effective patterns from each other. If you have learned something, it helps if that repeating process is spread out, so that what you have learned can stick for the longer term. The Philips call centre agents always stay up to date because the theory concerning dealing with customers is repeated every three months.”

“In the online learning environment, we offer information through a combination of images, sounds, and texts. By activating different senses, you activate different parts of the brain. As a result, the brain creates connections more readily. We also build, unconsciously, on existing knowledge and experiences. We therefore create prior knowledge for the call centre agents in the online learning environment. The call centre agents have already been through the theory in traditional meetings, as a result of which their prior knowledge is activated and new connections are made in their brains.”