# Call Center Onboarding Checklist

A week-by-week plan for launching a remote support or calling team without a chaotic first month.

Provided free by VoiceSupportCrew. Use it with any provider or for an internal team.

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## Before day one — setup

Nothing on this list should be discovered during training week.

### Access and accounts
- [ ] User accounts created in every system agents will use
- [ ] Permissions set to the minimum the role genuinely requires
- [ ] Access tested by logging in as the agent account, not as an admin
- [ ] MFA configured where required
- [ ] VPN or IP allowlisting arranged if needed
- [ ] A named person on your side owns account creation and revocation

### Telephony and routing (voice campaigns)
- [ ] Numbers provisioned
- [ ] Inbound routing configured and tested end to end
- [ ] Outbound caller ID configured and verified as compliant for target regions
- [ ] Voicemail and out-of-hours handling defined
- [ ] Call recording configured, with the legal position confirmed for every region called
- [ ] Overflow or fallback routing defined

### Chat and helpdesk (written campaigns)
- [ ] Agent seats provisioned in the chat platform
- [ ] Queues, tags and canned responses configured
- [ ] Routing rules set — who receives what
- [ ] Business hours and out-of-hours messaging configured

### Reporting
- [ ] Reporting format agreed
- [ ] A sample report produced and reviewed before go-live
- [ ] Delivery frequency and recipients confirmed
- [ ] Dashboard access granted where applicable

### Material
- [ ] Product and service documentation delivered
- [ ] Scripts drafted and approved in writing
- [ ] FAQ document with real questions and real answers
- [ ] Escalation rules documented with named contacts
- [ ] Authority limits documented with numbers
- [ ] Sample calls or chat transcripts provided

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## Week 1 — training

### Days 1-2: Business context and product
- [ ] What the business does, who the customers are, what matters to them
- [ ] Product and service knowledge session
- [ ] Common customer misunderstandings
- [ ] Knowledge check: can each agent explain the offering unprompted?

### Days 3-4: Systems
- [ ] Guided walkthrough of every system
- [ ] Agents perform each core workflow themselves, observed
- [ ] Where to find information under time pressure
- [ ] Knowledge check: can each agent complete key workflows unaided?

### Day 5: Scripts, policy and escalation
- [ ] Script walkthrough with rationale, not just wording
- [ ] Authority limits — what they may decide alone
- [ ] Escalation triggers and paths
- [ ] Knowledge check: present five scenarios, confirm correct routing for each

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## Week 2 — practice and supervised live

### Days 6-7: Scenario practice
- [ ] Role-play the five most common contact types
- [ ] Role-play the difficult ones: angry customer, out-of-policy request, no documented answer, system outage
- [ ] Review recordings of the practice with the agents
- [ ] Correct tone and process issues before real customers are involved

### Days 8-10: Supervised live handling
- [ ] Start with a limited contact volume
- [ ] Review every contact in the first two days
- [ ] Move to sampled review as accuracy stabilises
- [ ] Log every question asked — this becomes your documentation gap list
- [ ] Daily debrief, kept short and specific

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## Testing checklist — before full volume

Run each of these as a genuine test, not a discussion.

- [ ] Inbound call reaches the agent and is answered correctly
- [ ] Outbound call displays the correct caller ID
- [ ] Chat arrives in the right queue and is answered within target
- [ ] Email or ticket arrives, is tagged and can be resolved
- [ ] Agent can find a customer record and update it
- [ ] Agent can book an appointment that appears in the right calendar
- [ ] An escalation reaches the named contact and is acknowledged
- [ ] The out-of-hours path behaves as expected
- [ ] Reporting captures the test activity accurately

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## Go-live readiness — pass or fail

Do not go live unless every line is a yes.

- [ ] All access working, tested by the agents themselves
- [ ] Scripts approved in writing by the client
- [ ] Escalation contacts confirmed reachable during coverage hours
- [ ] Agents have passed scenario practice
- [ ] End-to-end test completed on every channel in scope
- [ ] Reporting produces a sample the client accepts
- [ ] Internal teams informed that the service is starting
- [ ] A named person is available for questions during week one

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## First month review agenda

Hold this at day 30, with the data in front of you.

1. **Volume** — handled versus expected, by channel and by hour
2. **Quality** — sample five random conversations together and score them
3. **Escalations** — how many, what themes, were they appropriate
4. **Documentation gaps** — what the question log revealed, what has been closed
5. **Staffing** — is the agent count right for the actual volume and coverage
6. **Process changes** — what to change for month two, with owners and dates

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## The three most common launch failures

**Going live before systems access works.** It feels like a small delay to fix. It is not — it produces a bad first week that colours the whole engagement.

**No reachable point of contact.** Agents will have questions in week one. If answers take two days, they stop asking and start guessing.

**Training only on the happy path.** Customers do not stay on it. Rehearse the difficult cases before they happen for real.

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