Since 2001, I have seen three major economic downturns affect my contact center clients: the tech-sector recession that year, the 2008 financial crisis, and the 2020 COVID-19 recession.
Unfortunately, training is often one of the first items cut when companies tighten their budgets. But it is not one to cut.
Why? Because training gives your team a critical edge in customer retention, employee engagement, and revenue generation. This is especially true in a challenging, turbulent, teetering-on-recession economy like ours today.
If you are a contact center operations leader or training manager, here is how you can justify your training budget to your company’s C-suite:
Speak in C-Suite Language, Not Contact Center Jargon
Just like a good agent adapts their word choices to help a customer, contact center leaders must adjust how they communicate with the C-suite.
Inside the contact center, we talk about metrics such as CSAT (customer satisfaction surveys), AHT (average handle time), and churn rate (ratio of customers leaving). However, the CEO and CFO do not think in those terms. They want to know the business impacts.
So, how do those contact center metrics translate to dollars and cents?
Think about it. Which makes a stronger case:
“We reduced churn by 1.2% this quarter.”
Or “We prevented $20 million in customer revenue from walking out the door.”?
To defend your training budget, speak the language of CEOs and CFOs. Mention dollar value, brand reputation, and risk reduction. Focus less on cost per contact and more on lifetime customer value and the resulting revenue impact.
Position Your Contact Center as a Revenue Defender
During a recession, cutting costs may seem logical. But your contact center is not overhead, it is insurance!
When something goes wrong, your contact center answers the call. It supports every department that connects with your customers. It drives customer loyalty, renewals, referrals, and upsells. It also prevents escalations that could cost client churn or damage your brand reputation.
Unfortunately, training is often one of the first items cut when companies tighten their budgets. But it is not one to cut. Why? Because training gives your team a critical edge...
Your contact center can also be a revenue generator. I have written before for Contact Center Pipeline about upselling in contact centers and how it can be done ethically and effectively, with tips to make it successful.
I have also experienced as a consumer missed upselling opportunities. For example, I recently bought an exercise ball. However, the company failed to mention that it did not include an air pump. I had no way to inflate it, which led to a disappointing experience. I wish someone had upsold me on a simple handheld pump. That would have improved my satisfaction and increased their revenue.
Upselling, when done ethically and with the right training, improves customer experience (CX), and positions your contact center as a revenue generator. It also highlights the importance of your contact center’s interactions with customers.
Think of an airplane. A 747 jetliner weighs approximately 400 tons. Yet it stays in the air due to a thin layer of air flowing over the wings. That “boundary layer” is where the wing meets the sky.
Your contact center is like that. It is the interface between your company (product development, marketing, operations) and your customers. A strong contact center helps your company soar. An underfunded one risks losing customers and crash landing.
Here are real-life examples from my work with clients in the following industries:
- Alternative mortgage lenders. Independent brokers are your salesforce. If your underwriters and mortgage officers do not respond quickly and professionally, brokers will take their deals elsewhere.
- Training your team in broker support skills helps increase deal flow and builds loyalty, especially when brokers are under pressure from their own clients. If you track broker sentiment and repeat business percentages, you can translate those numbers into projected revenue. That gives your CFO or CEO a clear, financial case for investing in training.
- Insurance companies. Imagine how a customer feels when their car is stolen, or their house burns down. One negative interaction with a claims agent, especially during a recession when customers are even more anxious about finances, can lead to an account closure or policy switch.
- Frontline reps trained in empathy, conflict resolution, and de-escalation are your best defense. Otherwise, you risk losing customer lifetime value over one unresolved issue.
- Manufacturers. Your sales, order desk, and customer service teams are essential for guaranteeing repeat business. During a recession, procurement teams often look for reasons to cut vendors. One bad service interaction, or the sense that your team is hard to deal with, can jeopardize a million-dollar purchase.
- Retention training helps keep your existing purchasers from defecting to hungrier competitors. At the same time, purchasers may consolidate vendors. They do this to save on billing, shipping, or to take advantage of bulk purchase pricing.
- That gives your sales team a chance to win more market share if they are trained to think strategically and dig deeper. Training your team while competitors cut back gives you a real edge. Recessions are a time to sell smarter and be a revenue generator, not pull back!
- IT service desks. During a downturn, companies often delay capital investments like new laptops, printers, or system upgrades. That means employees are stuck with aging tech, leading to more frequent and complex tickets. At the same time, hiring may be frozen, so fewer employees are doing more work. The result? Greater pressure on your service desk.
- Cutting training only makes things worse. Upskilling reps on both technical and soft skills helps resolve tickets faster, reducing downtime, frustration, and productivity losses across the company.
Training as an AI Age Investment
AI is reshaping contact centers – we are in “the age of AI” - but it does not reduce the need for training. In fact, AI increases it. As chatbots handle simpler inquiries, Tier 1 human agents focus on more complex Tier 2 issues. This shift requires stronger soft skills such as empathy, critical thinking, and negotiation.
Remember, AI-driven tools like knowledge bases and speech analytics are only as effective as the people using them. You can invest millions in software, but if agents cannot phrase queries correctly, interpret AI suggestions, or respond appropriately based on AI insights, your return on investment will suffer.
Team leaders and managers also need training to fully leverage AI. Understanding dashboards, spotting coaching opportunities from analytics, and translating trends into performance plans all demand new skills.
Training is a long-term investment, not a short-term expense. This is especially true in AI-driven contact centers, where agents must handle increasingly complex Tier 2 issues.
Greg Daugherty underscores this point in his Investopedia article, “4 Things You Should Do to Protect Your Business During a Recession”:
“Many businesses find that employee training (such as on a new computer system or other technology) is a good investment during a recession. For one thing, employees may have a little more downtime than they did when the business was running at full steam. For another, it prepares them (and the company) to reap the productivity gains from their new skills once business picks up again.”
Cutting your training budget during downturns can backfire. Investing now helps retain customers and generate upsells during a recession, while preparing your team for a stronger recovery.
Final Thoughts
Whether your team focuses on customer service, insurance claims, mortgage broker support, or sales, training drives results that matter: revenue gained, revenue protected, and productivity improved.
...we are in “the age of AI” - but it does not reduce the need for training. In fact, AI increases it.
During a recession, companies often look to cut costs. So, remind senior leadership – in their language - that your contact center, when supported with the right training, is a revenue defender and generator, not a cost center. Like the wings of a jumbo jet, it provides the lift that keeps your business in flight.
To safeguard your training budget, start by measuring your team’s financial impact. Communicate those results clearly to executives. Demonstrating the value your contact center delivers in dollars and cents helps keep training a priority when budgets tighten. Taking these steps now positions your team to continue driving results when they matter most.