Call Center Management Featured Article
Are You Making These Performance Management Mistakes?
One of the key components of successfully running a call center is implementing performance management tactics. Performance management is a necessary part of every call center because it, as the name suggests, helps managers keep tabs on how agents are performing. There’s already plenty of advice out there about what to do when it comes to performance management. So, let’s take a look at some common mistakes and what call center managers should avoid when it comes to performance management.
First of all, managers should avoid setting general goals for the entire team. Although goals such as “Help Customers As Quickly and Efficiently As Possible” are good pointers in general, the fact remains that they’re general. Rules like that aren’t specific to each situation, and they’re certainly not specific to individual agents. Agents come from all walks of life and they’re all at different levels when it comes to dealing with customers. Veteran agents may be able to follow general rules easily because they’re experienced and know exactly what a manager is looking for, even when they’re vague in their direction. However, newer agents need more instruction and more personalized goals. Therefore, setting general goals won’t work in the call center. There’s no “one size fits all” approach to goal setting, so make sure to go the personalized route.
Call center managers also need to avoid putting off performance management. It’s easy to forget about performance management reviews when they’re not built into a weekly or monthly schedule. Yet, skipping performance reviews suggests that it’s not really important to the managers. Once agents get that idea in their head, they’re going to question why they should put so much effort into their performance when it’s not even considered important by managers. That’s the last thing a manager should want, so it’s important to stay on top of performance management reviews.
Skipping reviews and setting overly-generalized goals are two of the biggest mistakes call center managers make when it comes to performance management. By becoming aware of these issues, managers should be able to make helpful changes that will keep their operations running smoothly.
Edited by Maurice Nagle