Having been neglected for a long period of time by training organisations and academic courses, customer relations training is now undergoing major changes. The range of courses on offer is diversifying, as are the gateways that offer access to a field that is still relatively unknown but which nevertheless offers promising career opportunities.
Professional training is a leading topic for the customer relations field, required to meet market changes, but also - and perhaps above all - to integrate new employees at the beginning of their professional life or in retraining. For a long period of time, customer relations training has been so non-existent or insufficient that outsourcers have created internal resources enabling them to develop this learning culture. Various initiatives led by the players and within the profession, including the SP2C, the representative union and negotiator of the service providers in the tertiary sector (P2ST), have changed the course. A Certificate of Competence in Customer Relations Services (CCS-RC) was thus introduced in 2018. In less than four years, more than 200 people from contact centres have been certified, mainly at the initiative of outsourcers Armatis, Sitel, Teleperformance and BlueLink. Despite the difficulties encountered in 2020 with the health crisis and the changes in training schemes...
The CCS-RC has several features. It assesses skills in the field and not in the classroom, and it is also backed by several professional sectors that wish to promote customer relations. This unique feature makes it a real bridge between sectors," says Caroline Adam, secretary general of the SP2C. Someone who has obtained this certification through a contact centre can use it in another sector: banking, insurance, catering, etc. A study carried out in the Hauts-de-France region revealed that after five years of experience, customer advisors had access to more than 280 jobs. To adapt to the regulation, the CCS-RC will have to be registered in one of the two directories of vocational training certification. The SP2C intends to seize the opportunity to promote it to new sectors that could integrate it into their own diploma.
At Sitel, 162 employees have been certified between 2018 and the end of 2021. The group has integrated the CCS-RC into its Vision Pro work-study course and offers trainees the opportunity to obtain the certificate at the end of the six-month training period. The process often raises questions from candidates: "They are concerned about whether they will be able to include the CCS-RC in their CVs, whether other companies will recognise it... The training is quite demanding and helps to answer questions about equivalence. We present the certificate as a first step that will enable trainees to then take the validation of acquired experience (VAE) to obtain the professional title of remote customer relations advisor", explains Emeline Charve, HR development manager at Sitel, who herself comes from a work-study programme that she started with the outsourcer and then completed with other studies.
The training provided within the company with a well-established plan helps to convince the employees. During the training and certification process, the trainees are accompanied by a consultant from Learning Tribes, the group's training entity: "The consultants carry out interim evaluations, provide an outside view by having the person's KPIs and feedback from team managers. This was very much appreciated in terms of the increase in skills," she adds.
Sharp rise in work-study hiring
The customer relations sector, which traditionally used short professional training contracts, has fully committed itself to the "1 young person, 1 solution" scheme launched in the summer of 2020 by the public authorities as part of the France Recovery Plan. Work-linked training has thus been strongly developed. Thus, more than 6,000 people have been recruited on professionalization contracts or apprenticeship contracts in the sector in 2020 and up to 7,450 in 2021. The "Pro-A" retraining scheme, which can be used at any age, is another way of attracting newcomers. The sector uses it in particular for the two national professional titles of remote customer relations advisor and remote customer relations team manager.
Partnerships between the training and customer relations fields help to enhance the image of contact centres among young people. In the Poitiers academy, the BTS in Customer Relations Negotiation and Digitalisation (see box) can, for example, rely on the Association for the Promotion of Customer Relations Skills (APCRC), which organises half-days in contact centres, and teaches about the professions, including management positions... The customer relations centres present on the Futuroscope site offer immersion days, which are another tool for promoting the sector.
Internal systems still in high demand
To meet the constant need to update skills, each group takes advantage of its specific characteristics. Conduent encourages self-training and relies on two training platforms deployed by its American parent company. "The training courses meet French needs but we have access to resources that we would not have been able to use without the support of the group. These two levels complement each other," says Aurélie Duplan, HR manager. The educational engineering tools enable us to offer "more than 90% of personalised training". "The courses specific to our business are developed as we go along. External speakers work with the trainers. The feedback is used to feed the content, which is constantly being adapted and allows us to capitalise on our knowledge", notes Aurélie Dutron, Head of Training, Jobs and Careers at the outsourcer. It is increasingly deploying training in soft skills to support its employees in their posture or on the emotional side.
With the health crisis, Learning Tribes stepped up the pace of blended learning. These half face-to-face, half distance learning courses have made it possible to maintain the link between trainers and employees and to offer sessions that meet new needs. "The work on distance learning has enabled the trainers to run the virtual class with the right posture, to come and get the learners, to call on them... These classes take place over a shorter period of time, in a way that can be compared to inverted pedagogy. At the end of the theoretical part, we can repeat the sessions in the group or give the activities to be carried out independently," explains Adrien Fusade, Sales Director at Learning Tribes.
Even business schools are increasingly integrating customer relations into their curricula. Not inevitably through dedicated courses, but as a common thread in the training courses that will enable students to guide the customer relations strategies of their future employers. The customer is present in sociological, marketing and data training courses. This is not always the case for contact centre management: "Managers of call centres or site directors also need higher education courses that reassure them about their skills, provide them with an outside view and give them a certification that they can use elsewhere", says Caroline Adam. In the absence of dedicated training in these skills, it is also difficult to hire or to go hunting for the right skills.
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