Hello,my name is Kimberly Andrews. I am a new employee with Appletree in Kansas City, Missouri but I've worked for Answerette before Appletree acquired it. A lot has changed with the company but this one small educational/work related issue.
When training after you've passed Telephone Doctor and done side by sides with seasoned agents, sometimes new agents find it hard to keep up with calls. Mainly because the side by sides assist with the audio portion of the calls, but the keyboarding education is lost. I think this is due to seasoned agents keystrokes are hard to be seen and done really fast, also the info of our customers accounts that the agents adhere to is well known. But when you are a new agent, sometimes its hard to get all those very important job factors in a row when assisting our customers. Not due to lack of Customer Service experience but due to lack of Keyboarding experience. Although when I worked here previously we used a keyboard unlike the common computer keyboard used today, that keyboard allowed you to take messages and dispatch without use of shift, alt or ctrl. Back then, I recall it being somewhat tedious to learn even with just the F keys, but now that we include shift, alt and ctrl with the F keys, its an additional learning process, memorized and visualized. And for a new employee with no prior experience, this keyboarding education would hasten the employees experience instead of slowing the employee or maybe even removing a seasoned agent from taking calls to assist. So maybe a keybording program paired or partnered with Telephone Doctor would give the agent a greater confidence level along with a hands-on educational awareness before the 1st initial call is taken, which we all know is a scary experience within itself. I believe with this valuable experience new agents would benefit their sites sooner and boost their individual confidence which is all Great for Appletree!