Increasingly, the employee front line is a call center where agents interact with customers. These agents are the loyalty warriors of the future. Converged call centers that bring together multichannel access points (phone, email, chat, social media) are no longer the exception, but the rule. This means these agents need to be equipped as much to produce well-written correspondence through multiple mediums and comfortably navigate any interactive online environments as to be helpful and friendly on a phone call.
Action Step: Review your hiring policies for front line workers to ensure candidates are being screened for adequate communication skills, especially oft-missing writing skills. Consider making a writing test part of your screening tool.
Source: Griffin, Jill. Customer Loyalty: How To Earn It How To Keep It. 2002.