// Dixons Carphone launches customer service training centre at Birmingham’s Fort Dunlop building
// The £4m investment will allow it to double the number of hours of training for new colleagues
Dixons Carphone has opened a new customer service training centre today to offer its colleagues an additional 400,000 hours of training.
The owner of Currys PC World and Carphone Warehouse aims to “help everyone enjoy amazing technology” with the “state of the art” learning and development centre at Birmingham’s Fort Dunlop building.
Dixons said the £4 million investment would enable it to double the number of hours of training for new colleagues.
Over 6000 Dixons staff annually will go through Fort Dunlop, where the training will be provided.
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Dixons’ scheme, which is called the Academy@Fort Dunlop, will share the retailer’s vision and strategy, and equip staff “with the skills to give first-class customer service and help customers choose, afford and enjoy the right products for them”.
The 19,000sq ft academy includes four mock-up stores, eight training rooms and 22 supplier zones.
There will also be programmes for managers to help them “support colleagues’ continued learning in stores” and suppliers will demonstrate new products.
“Capable and committed colleagues are our greatest advantage,” Dixons Carphone chief people officer Paula Coughlan said.
“We want Dixons Carphone to continue to be a magnet for great talent and we are investing more than ever before in giving our colleagues the tools and skills to put our customers first from their first day in-store.
“The Academy@Fort Dunlop is about giving our colleagues the best possible start to their careers with us.”
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19 Comments. Leave new
Everything is based on customer service score the bad mouthing is diplorable as we do get training plus there are brand ambassadors and to the point of routers there are targets like any sales jobs if you don’t like an attempt to saving money buy on the curry’s website via your phone or stop complaining
I complained on 5 August 2019 to the store where I bought a laptop as it wasn’t working and I had a service agreement. I was treated very badly and received no apologies in store. The KnowHow team apologised and told me the matter was to be looked at by store manager. I’ve heard nothing! I subsequently wrote to senior management at the parent company, but haven’t even had acknowledgement.
It’s now 24th September. It’s not only store staff who are remiss.
Carphone colleagues get a commission based on every sale, currys colleagues have it based on a % of total sales, 400,000 more hours of training for new starts is a joke, considering recently cutting basic training in the academy from 3 to 2 days. It’s all based on passing an FCA test for insurance compliance which cannot be implemented in stores due to kpi targets.
None of this will trickle down to the callcentre staff, who are woefully mismanaged and under equipped to deal with the ever increasing deluge of complaints.
Yeah they don’t have a clue. They are just trying to push whatever they make most commission on and have no real understand of technology… in my experience. Also.. I’ve been in before to buy a specific item, I router I think it was and then they just kept trying to sell me a phone contract even though I said I wasn’t interested.
They don’t get paid commission why does every man woman and dog think that.
We do get paid commision, and we have to hit a commission target for us to qualify for it.
Not true. There are no commission targets in Currys. In fact all bonuses to staff are linked to there customer satisfaction scores.
Let’s try and not talk about things you Clearly don’t know about.
Because they do
I mean they get paid a bonus from a % of what they sell and also now get a set amount for each care and protect sold. Sort of is commission…
because they used to back in the dixons days and now the targets for KPis are so high that the average consumer would assume they were getting kickbacks for pushing the likes of mcafee.
the company gets the kickback, the staff, if they’re lucky, get to keep their job. no one gets a bonus cos the guys are fudging the figures by discounting target items off, just so they can put a tick in a box.
They don’t get commission, they’re just trying to do their job. They are trained on all the technology that they talk to you about but also have a job to do to offer you their services.
Knowing that an i7 processor is better than an i3 processor is not being trained in technology. Knowing the differences between them and how they will behave with other components is.
Colleagues are pressured by management to hit targets or face a 3 months period where they must improve or are dismissed
I currently work at Dixons carphone as a customer service advisor and it’s truly disgusting how the majority of management treat under performing colleagues. I am also staying anonymous because I could face disciplinary action by just posting this.
Again not true. Dixons have over 800 stores. Clearly your store is not a true reflection of the business.
If you feel so strongly about it, I suggest you seek advice from your regional manager.
Just has an FYI all companies will have a capability process, meaning when a job isn’t well done your accountable to the salary the business pays you. That would be for behaviour and your targets,
They do get paid commision, same as most sales roles
They exactly earn commission. Its just not using the name commission. They earn a %age of all items they sell. That is commission
is this in addition to the Carphone Training academy or just a rebranding? Also will this be to train staff in real customer service or just to push KPI driven items that customer don’t actually want?
Having worked within all 3 aspects of the business. Carphone, Knowhow and Curry’s..
They definitely do have a structure in place for commission.
We’ll call it “Bonus” shall we?
They get an hourly rate and then some extra if they hit the figures presented to them.
So yeah, call it what you want.
Incetivised up selling, maybe.