A new CSR doesn't fail because they're bad on the phone. They fail because nobody taught them the difference between a torsion spring and an extension spring before putting them on a live call with a panicked homeowner. This 30-day CSR training plan fixes that with four weekly phases: learn the product, learn the scripts, shadow, then fly solo with a safety net. It assumes a smart hire with zero garage door experience — which is most hires.
Goal: the CSR can understand any caller's problem in plain terms.
Day-by-day focus:
Days 1–2: Door anatomy. Sections, tracks, rollers, hinges, springs (torsion vs. extension), cables, drums, opener types (chain, belt, screw, direct-drive, jackshaft). Have a tech walk them through a door in the shop or on a ride-along. A diagram on the wall near their desk pays for itself.
Days 3–4: The ten calls that make up 90% of the board. Broken spring, door off track, opener dead, remote/keypad issues, door won't close (sensors), door won't open, noisy door, panel damage, new door quote, warranty callback. For each: what the caller says, what it usually means, what the typical ticket range is at your shop.
Day 5: Your shop's rules. Service area, hours, service windows, emergency definition, after-hours premium, warranty policy, payment terms. Print it. They can't book honestly if they don't know the rules.
End-of-week test: play or describe ten real call scenarios. The CSR should name the likely issue and the right response type for each. Don't advance until they can.
Week 2: Learn the Scripts (Practice Calls Only)
Goal: the talk tracks are muscle memory before a real customer hears them.
Days 6–7: The core call flow. Greeting → triage ("Is the door stuck open, stuck closed, or something else? Is a car trapped?") → capture (name, number, address, issue) → window offer → confirmation. Drill it 20 times. Pull greetings from a greeting library so they have options that sound like your shop.
Days 8–9: The hard conversations. Price shoppers ("It depends on the door, but most spring jobs land between X and Y — want me to book a window?"), angry repeat-failure callers, warranty vs. paid-work confusion. Role-play with you or a tech playing the difficult caller.
Day 10: The FAQ bank. Hand them your 25-question FAQ call bank and quiz them until the answers come out naturally, not read.
End-of-week test: three recorded or live mock calls scored on greeting, triage, capture, and close. 80% or better to advance.
Week 3: Shadow and Split
Goal: real calls, with training wheels.
Days 11–12: Pure shadowing. The CSR listens to your best phone person (or you) work live calls. After each call, two-minute debrief: what the caller wanted, what was booked, what was tricky.
Days 13–15: Split duty. CSR takes the easy queue — confirmations, reschedules, status calls — while the experienced hand keeps new-customer and emergency calls. Swap for an hour each afternoon so the CSR hears harder calls too.
Ongoing: the CSR writes down every question they couldn't answer. Review the list together each day at 4 PM. This list becomes their personal FAQ file.
Week 4: Solo With a Safety Net
Goal: full queue ownership, with structured review.
Days 16–19: CSR owns the phones. You're not listening live anymore, but every call still gets logged with outcome. Check in twice a day.
Day 20: First scorecard review. Score five calls on a 100-point rubric: greeting, triage quality, capture completeness, window control, close, tone. This is coaching, not discipline — find one strength and one fix per call.
Days 21–29: Solo with weekly review. One scorecard session per week from here on. The habits that stick are the ones you review.
Day 30: Full review. Compare their capture completeness and booking rate against your baseline. A competent CSR at day 30 should capture full details on nearly every call and book most viable leads into windows.
What This Plan Costs You
Roughly 30–45 minutes a day of your time for the first two weeks, less after that. The expensive version of CSR training isn't the hours — it's skipping it and letting a half-trained voice be the first impression of your company for the next six months.
Where Ava Fits
Here's the uncomfortable truth about this plan: every hour of it has to be repeated every time a CSR quits, and the average shop repeats it more often than it wants to. Many owners run both — Ava handles every call 24/7 with the same greeting, the same triage, and the same capture fields every single time, while a CSR does dispatch, follow-up, and customer care that benefits from a human. Ava's setup is done for you in under 24 hours: you answer the same questions this plan asks — service area, emergency definition, pricing stance — once, and she never needs retraining.
Hear Ava Work Before You Pay a Dime
Call the live demo and have Ava call you now — hear exactly what your customers will hear when they call your shop.
$97 first month, then $297/month flat. Unlimited calls. No contract. Cancel anytime.
30-day "First 10 Leads On Us" guarantee. If Ava doesn't capture your first 10 leads, you get your money back.