A TRU-ly Memorable Training Session

February saw the highlight of the QC & Development Team's training year, with the In-house Inn opening its doors once again for our TRU (Telephone Research Unit) Annual Training Refresher Session!  

At In-house Research, we try to keep our training as teambuilding and fun as possible, whilst remaining serious about the topics that are at the heart of what our TRU does best - conducting surveys, speaking to customers, and capturing their voice accurately for our Clients. Therefore, the aim was for our 'pub quiz style' training to cover a wide range of subjects over various rounds.  

The QC Team get a little excited about this annual event, with little touches to help set the In-house Inn atmosphere, complete with personalised team coasters, In-house Inn signs, and of course 'pub snacks' to keep us all going. After all, who doesn't like crisps?! 

The TRU arrived with a buzz, quickly found their allocated teams, and Round One was swiftly off to a start! With topics such as QC (to make sure we are all on point with our punctuation and grammar), neutrality, code framing, and our quick-fire general knowledge round, the rounds were designed to cover as much information as possible.

We'll let the TRU take it from here:

Our Training Day Adventure Map!

1. Quality Control Camp

Here, our intrepid explorers pitched their tents beside a fictional survey and hunted down rogue spellings and feral commas. We wrestled wayward capital letters, foraged for typos and emerged with a shiny sense of the hard work which the QC crew does on a daily basis.

2. Neutrality Nook

Step inside this zen hideaway, where every phrase balanced on the knife-edge between “meh” and “wow”. We played a game of “would QC approve?” – rating various phrases for neutrality and learning that telling a customer “Crikey, that’s catastrophic!” isn’t exactly the monk-like calm that we’re after. By the end, we were all using phrases like “I understand” and “let me write that down for you” with the restraint of a Michelin chef seasoning soup. Inner peace and outer professionalism equals satisfied customers.

3. Call Listening Castle

Drawbridge down and headphones on! Inside these mighty stone walls, we eavesdropped on a fictional survey recording, judging tone and script-following. Highlights included spotting the dragon of ‘Dead Air’ and rescuing the damsel ‘Clarity’. The verdict was a castle-sized reminder that even heroic phone manners can need polishing.

Just to chime in, this round was QC's favourite! Rose and Tracey, from the QC Team, took on the roles of researcher and customer to pre-record a call for the team to critique. The team had to listen out to check if all of the 'best practice' elements were included in the call, while also assessing if the researcher got all of the comments down; did they capture the voice of the customer?, did they probe further when needed for clarity?, were details recorded onto the survey correctly?, amongst other points. It was good for the team to have an opportunity to listen to a call (albeit fictional) to assess the pitfalls, look at call control, see what worked well, and to see how these elements could be applied to their own calls.

And back to the TRU:

4. Code-Framing Cliffs

Cling to the crags of categorisation! In rope teams we scaled a mighty long paragraph, putting each customer statement into its proper code crevice. “Cupboards falling off” was matched to “Home – condition” and “The lack of updates” was matched to “Service – communication”. By the summit, we’d mapped every gripe to its respective code.

5. General Knowledge Gazebo

Finally, we strolled to the gazebo for the grand quiz finale. Armed with paddles to raise as “buzzers”, Olympics-level competitiveness ensued. Bragging rights were claimed, laughter echoed, and we were left with brains full of trivia and maybe, just maybe, stronger survey skills. 

A big thank you to our TRU members for their creative contribution!

With so much content to get through, we ran a tight ship and even finished a little ahead of time, which meant that we could have an extra bonus round of TRU General Knowledge. Of course, the only way to decide which team goes first was with a good old-fashioned game of Rock, Paper, Scissors! The teams' competitive sides here really came to the forefront - first answers only to be accepted! The questions demonstrated just how much knowledge the members have gained of our processes, particular surveys, and of In-house itself.  

The scores were added together, and we had our winning team! Top prize? Bragging rights and chocolate (we do like our snacks here!). 

The QC Team had this to say:

"Our TRU members impressed us from the start with their willingness to throw themselves into our pub quiz style theme. Each round prompted much discussion which was lovely to see. Telephone work can, at times, be a little isolating when plugged into a headset all shift, and discussions like this help to ensure that we are all working to the same guidelines. It is also an invaluable way to gain feedback from the team in a group environment and learn tips from each other on what works in different situations."

Watch this space to see what In-house Research does next!