Call Center Recording

Traditional call centers throughout the world have long relied on call recording applications to provide supervisors and managers with the ability to monitor agents’ calls to determine where training is needed, if customer needs are being met and a change is needed in processes.

 

While call recording is an essential tool for managers, it can also be a very valuable tool for call center agents. Contrary to popular belief, not all agents are in their position without choice. Many of these individuals enjoy their work and would benefit from the value that call recording can provide.

 

Managers and supervisors can spend hours listening to recorded calls to identify areas of weakness. Why not work such monitoring tasks into the agent’s schedule? While it is understandable that the call center would rather have the agent on calls rather than listening to calls, it makes perfect sense that the agent may be able to guide their own performance improvement through this motivation.

 

It is highly likely that the agent has been inundated with information from his or her superiors on how to improve their calls, what to avoid and what to focus on, how quickly the call should be handled and how many calls should be completed within a given time frame. While all of these points are important, hitting on them everyday won’t necessarily entice the agent to improve.

 

Empowerment is a completely different story. Studies throughout the world have shown that when a person is empowered to make change, change happens and it happens swiftly. The person is motivated be his or her newfound position and strives to make the necessary changes to succeed. The same is true within the call center.

Any agent worth keeping in the call center understands the performance points that must be hit every day. Why not empower them with their own improvement processes? Allow the agent to listen to his or her own calls and measure their own performance against the standard KPIs within the center.

Call recording is meant mainly for training purposes within the call center. For those agents that really are looking to improve, listening to criticism from a supervisor or manager – no matter how constructive it may be – can cause the agent to stop listening. This defensive mechanism tends to be built into our psyche to protect our fragile egos. In the call center however, it can work against the agent trying to improve.

Turning to a strategy of empowerment could instead motivate the agent base to improve their performance on their own. Such a strategy could not only improve overall KPIs, it would also free managers and supervisors to focus on more important business drivers, and may even require less management within the center. The benefits are numerous – why not give it a try?

For more, check out the Call Center Recording channel on TMCnet.