Lesley Ann Forbes, like so many of her co-workers at NEWT is passionate about our business phone system’s benefits for Canadian organizations both large and small. Her role as lead training specialist, or as she better describes her position, integration specialist, puts her in front of the most important people to NEWT, those who are actually using our technology. Though elegantly designed with usability in mind, NEWT’s 80+ feature set means that to take full advantage of all the benefits the system provides, some NEWT Training is required. That is Lesley’s speciality.
Lesley Ann Forbes:
I joined the Fibernetics team a year ago, facilitating onsite training sessions for various verticals of business clients that have integrated the NEWT PBX voice solution into their business.
During my time I have had the pleasure of meeting and building lasting business relationships with many of our NEWT clients. Being that our services can benefit any business vertical , my experience has taken me to some of Toronto’s largest corporate businesses in the downtown sector to various small and medium and large entrepreneurial businesses that reside in the tri cities of Cambridge, Kitchener, Waterloo and surrounding areas. One thing that remains the same with each experience regardless of business type or size is how integral the training perceived by the client.
Most business owners that have made the decision to assimilate a new telecommunication system into their business voice the top three concerns:
- The ease of transition from one system to another
- User friendliness of the system and features for their employee base
- System reliability
These key components impact a clients’ peace of mind (buyer’s remorse), perception of the company BRAND and the overall customer experience. Along with the technology, effective training is the fundamental piece in the integration process that encompass’ the success of those factors. The fact remains that as simple as a telephone / telecommunication system may seem it is one of the most integral tools in the any business and the end users need to feel empowered and confident in using it.
My clients range in all different verticals of learning styles with various needs requirements and standards on how they communicate with their clients. Delivering training that is tailored to meet those needs partnered with the catalogue of NEWT features ensures a customer focused experience and sets the foundation for a lasting business relationship with NEWT.
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I have many stories I could share about my training journey, but one that stands out was about a year back. I had been asked to revisit the training with a client that had not received a satisfactory experience at the time of installation. When I arrived I was met with a very anxious receptionist. She was obviously very nervous, her body language and gestures demonstrated great apprehensiveness toward the training.
Before beginning, I engaged her with short conversation asking her about the company to get her into a comfortable state of mind and distract her from her own anxiety. She proceeded to tell me all about the company and eventually opened up that she had only held her position there for a few months. I encouraged her to continue to talk about her role; by this time I had established some rapport and she opened up that she was having a frustrating time using the system. She had been dropping calls during transfers she didn’t feel confident using it at all. Her greatest fear was losing her job because her boss was quite upset the day before when she accidently disconnected an important client.
This poor woman was blanketed with so much pressure to learn the system and she had little confidence that she would be able to grasp it as the technology scared her. Before beginning the training I assured her that I would not leave her until she felt fully confident with using the system. I also endorsed that, although the system has robust technology it is actually very user friendly. It just needs to be presented to her in a way that she will understand it and feel comfortable using it.
I started by showing her the NEWT resource tools available to provide her with support and clarification on how to use the features. She was not alone, NEWT offers many resource channels that can help her whenever she’s challenged or just has a question on how to use the system features.
That reassurance in itself created a huge difference in her attitude; I could see her slowly becoming more and more engaged and confident with her body language. I assessed that she was a hands on learner so to test for understand, as we toured through the system I would ask her to perform a ‘teach back’ for each task we went through. I could see her confidence building to the point where she was asking me questions about what more the system was capable of. After spending a few hours together this lady was transferring calls seamlessly and making modification to call flows on the administration panel for her team. She was a PRO!
I provided her with my card and thanked her for our time together. She proceeded to walk me to my car and gave me a huge hug! Her exact words to me were ‘Lesley you saved me today, I feel so much better about coming to work and doing my job effectively. You made that difference thank you!’
I’ll never forget that story because I know the training experience empowered someone in their job. That’s why training is my passion. Its development of people through effective learning. Being able to work for a company like NEWT that encourages living the mantra of being “IN” allows me to present that same attitude to our clients when I train. At NEWT you’re never alone or left to feel intimidated by our technology. We want to ensure each client is welcomed into our family of users left with the impression of experiencing the true nature of our culture mantra. I remain committed to ensuring the training is delivered in that same manner – Being ‘IN’ with our clients not only allows us to shine as a company of differentiation but liberates our clients to shine too!
