While a single bad customer transaction might be written off as “no big deal” to most companies, it’s critical to look at the big picture. Each bad customer transaction likely results in lost business along with bad word-of-mouth that leads to more lost business. The situation escalates and ultimately costs a company a large chunk of revenue.

Cloud contact center solutions provider NewVoiceMedia (News - Alert) recently put a price tag on bad customer service, estimating that U.S. companies with poor customer service are losing $41 billion each year.

Part of the problem is that Americans are increasingly “striking back” against bad customer service. The survey found that 44 percent of American consumers take their business elsewhere as a result of bad service. Of those consumers, 89 percent report having switched at least once or twice in the last year. Some companies don’t even know what has hit them: fully 53 percent of American consumers, when denied an opportunity to speak to a live agent immediately, switch to a competitor without even attempting to resolve the problem. More than half of respondents – 58 percent – say they will never use a company again after a bad customer service experience.

Given statistics like these, it’s a wonder that so many companies are still failing at customer service, but rising “customer rage” proves that the problem is getting worse, not better. Companies are unwisely cutting budgets in contact centers in a misguided attempt to improve profit margins, ignorant of the fact that the cuts are costing far more than they are saving.

For many companies, the biggest roadblock to good customer service is the high turnover in contact centers. Agents don’t stay long enough to become truly proficient, and as a consequence, their employee engagement and loyalty is very low. While low pay is often blamed for this, it’s more likely that insufficient training plays a huge part. Newer agents feel overwhelmed, abused and in over their heads. They take no pride in what they are accomplishing, and they tend to view call center work as a stop-gap paycheck rather than a career.

Robust, intensive and continued training is necessary to build a great contact center agent. When employees feel that time and effort is being invested in them to help them succeed, they are more likely to stay, and to view their jobs as having value. So while scheduling training sessions may be a pain, they are absolutely critical to an agent’s success.

Training shouldn’t be all about listening to lectures in classrooms. While classroom-based training has a part to play in building a great call center agent, it shouldn’t be the only part. One-on-one training with managers is necessary and critical, as are frequent evaluations. Simulations can also help, as can “gamified” training solutions that allow agents to learn while interacting with a solution in a video game style, allowing them to earn points and badges and rise to the next level.

For companies truly committed to stellar customer service, third-party training by professionals can also play a large role. Managers are often too busy or too distracted to concentrate on the training necessary to ensure success with new agents or existing agents who need remedial skill refreshers. Outside training firms can ensure agents get both the hard skills and the soft skills they need to experience success.

Whatever combination of training programs a company chooses, a training program needs to be robust, consistent and ongoing. Otherwise organizations will find themselves making up a large part of those $41 billion in losses.