Genesys has partnered with Australian developer Kevin Panozza to address a need for soft skills among contact centre staff.

Announced today at the G-FORCE APAC 2008 summit in Melbourne, the collaboration has birthed a new training program called ‘Quality Conversations’.

The distance learning program comprises 26 training modules that are expected to improve the quality of interactions between customers and contact centre agents.

With Genesys estimating that a majority of investment in contact centres goes towards ‘putting bums on the seats’, the program is expected to help businesses justify and leverage the cost of contact centre staff.

“The quality of a conversation can make or break a customer situation,” said Jason Stirling, Vice President of Genesys Australia, Indian and New Zealand.

“Quality Conversations will ensure customer-facing staff are armed with critical soft skills required to handle service and sales environments,” he said.

The program involves highly interactive, animated educational material that comes in versions for customer service and sales agents.

It has been one year in development by SalesForce e-Learning company AFrame, and uses an animated ‘mentor’ to guide contact centre agents through each 20-minute training module.

Panozza is the ex-CEO of SalesForce and current Managing Director of Engagement Matters.

According to Panozza, the program encompasses ‘everything a customer service representative needs to know about working in a contact centre’.

Modules address topics that include: vocal skills; active listening; regulating attitude; questioning; and gaining trust.