Call Center Management Featured Article
Management Practices Can Make or Break the Customer Experience
When it comes to implementing good management practices, a call center is like no other business in the world. Not only do management practices impact employee performance and work environments, they directly affect customer satisfaction and can make or break the entire customer experience.
Playvox, a company that provides quality assurance software for call center management, examines some of the worst call center management practices in use today. The company spoke to call center agents to get their take on which management practices could use improvement, and one of the top complaints is a lack of transparency and accountability. Simply put, agents would like clear metrics in place when it comes to evaluating their performances. This enables better and more targeted coaching as well as recognition of those who are performing well.
And speaking of recognition, many call center agents would prefer better rewards for a good performance, including teambuilding activities, and wellness classes and other experiences that help them become actively involved in achieving company goals.
We recently discussed the importance of predictive worker scheduling, particularly in the call center, for its myriad benefits including improved worker health. Along those lines, call center agents would prefer not to work long shifts, complaining long work hours leave them tired and unmotivated. Those traits have a direct negative impact on customer service and should be avoided at all costs. Temporary workers can be a great benefit for handling those extra hours and workloads to avoid overscheduling regular employees. Managers should take care not to rely on them too much, however, and prioritize permanent team members whenever possible. And within a normal workday, many agents complain of receiving too few or too many responsibilities, which points to an overall management issue. Better delegation will make everyone happier in the long run and ensure the call center is running as smoothly and efficiently as possible.
Poor staff training is another common complaint among call center agents, who would prefer to receive better and more accelerated training to meet the diverse demands of their customers. Similarly, agents would prefer to have updated tools and technology, helping them to improve productivity and performance and deliver the best levels of customer service.
Feedback is essential to good agent performance and improvements, and many call center agents complain of not receiving enough or the right type of feedback. Another popular complaint is when bad metrics and outcomes are blamed on individual agents, rather than examining widespread call center management practices and trends. And agents also worry when managers become too removed from their work, complaining they don’t understand the struggles and challenges they are forced to deal with.
Perhaps one of the most important call center management practices is recognizing agents’ improvements and positive performance. Recognition is a powerful tool in management inspiring loyalty, an improved work ethic and ultimately a higher quality of customer service. Managers would also do well to ensure they are setting appropriate goals for their agents. Goals should be ambitious but also realistic, positioning agents to achieve and succeed.
Edited by Maurice Nagle