Workshops and the Support Center
by Citrix Online

Keep your support-center staff up to date and improve your company’s bottom line by creating on-site training workshops. Just as professional athletes need to keep their bodies and minds conditioned, your staff members also need regular training to stay at the top of their support game.

To get started on creating a targeted and effective workshop series, identify the specific technologies, processes, or skills that you’d like your staff to learn or fine-tune. Based on this information, create content and define a workshop schedule for your series. Depending on the size of your group and existing skill sets, it might be a good idea to implement a rotating quarterly workshop series. Keep things simple by building the workshops into your support-center schedule. Either close the support center for the duration of the workshop or offer the same workshop several times so all of your employees can participate.

Here are a few things to keep in mind when creating workshops:

• Meet with management to make sure you understand the company’s objectives. Using this information, align your support center’s objectives with the company’s objectives.
  
  
• Think outside the box when identifying workshop topics. Consider subjects like reducing workplace stress, diffusing heated exchanges with volatile customers, professional writing, and phone etiquette.
  
  
• Create content for the workshops based on industry best practices. If your workshops highlight technology, consider hiring a field expert to lead the discussion.
  
  
• Set up a workshop schedule. If you build a quarterly schedule, be sure to reevaluate topics and material before you run the workshop series the next quarter. If a workshop series is too daunting a project, start with a one-day workshop.

By offering topical workshops, you’ll keep your staff conditioned to succeed in your support center. Information is empowering – not only will your workshops serve to hone the skills and knowledge of your team members, but the workshops will also inevitably increase the confidence levels and job satisfaction of your staff.

About Citrix Online
Citrix Online, a division of Citrix Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq: CTXS), offers the leading Web-based access, support and collaboration software and services. The division offers Citrix GoToMyPC®, the easiest-to-use solution for remote, secure and managed desktop PC access over the Web; and Citrix GoToAssist™, the most secure, reliable and powerful solution for Web-based technical support and customer collaboration. Citrix Online products are used by more than 4,000 companies worldwide, including Cisco Systems, Siemens, Intuit, Cablevision and Microsoft Business Solutions. The division is based in Santa Barbara, California, and is on the Web at www.gotomypc.com, www.gotoassist.com and www.citrix.com.