Call Center Scheduling Featured Article
Call Center Management: Build Loyalty with Employees and Customers Using Trust and Collaboration
There are few company employees as pushed and pulled in separate directions as the contact center manager. This person is beholden to the executive suite to keep costs down and customer satisfaction rates up. At the same time, he or she is often expected to “make do” with old technology thanks to budget cuts. On the other side, the contact center manager is responsible for mentoring agents, solving disputes, training newbies and building schedules. The job of contact center manager is a bit like playing all the roles in a circus: juggling, taming lions and walking the tight rope.
Despite all the effort, many contact center managers continue to find themselves up to their necks and sinking quickly. The immediate needs of the call center often prevent managers from making any long-term improvements or plans. Often, managers need to identify just a few of their many long-term priorities and focus on them rather than trying to accomplish everything at once. But where is the most effective place to focus efforts?
While the needs of contact centers will vary radically depending on the size of the call center and the industry it serves, there are a few goals that should be common to customer support organizations of all size. In a recent blog post about “spring cleaning the contact center,” Monet Software (News - Alert) CEO Chuck Ciarlo outlined several of the best areas to focus limited resources. Many of these tasks involve empowering agents to do the best job possible.
“Trust agents with the authority to handle basic transactions without a supervisor’s involvement or to use his or her best judgment with more complicated issues,” he wrote. “This expedites the customer’s call and also makes agents feel more valued.”
Agents that are micromanaged down to the most basic detail will never grow in their profession. They will never learn to take the initiative, feel confident in the work or earn the approbation of their managers and supervisors. The first place to start building great agents is before hiring them: ensure you’re taking on people who actually like talking to and helping others.
“Take potential agents on to the floor to listen to calls before they go into training,” wrote Ciarlo. “This makes training more relevant and ensures they feel comfortable with the role and environment. Then start new agents on the phones with support before letting them fly solo. It builds their confidence.”
From here, ensure new agents have easy access to knowledge bases (so they can find the right answers quickly), have the ability to collaborate easily with knowledge workers and back-end departments (accounting, warehousing, etc.) and understand that it’s more important to take a little extra time with the call and get it right rather than rushing a customer off the phone before he or she is fully satisfied.
Once agents are fully trained and ready to begin taking calls and other contacts, ensure they always have a place to go when they have a question by keeping an open door policy.
“Agents appreciate a manager that is available to them when a problem arises or a question needs to be asked,” wrote Ciarlo. “The closer managers are to the area where agents are fielding calls, the better sense they will have of what is working and what is not. This is important for team-building as well.”
Finally, be sure to give recognition when it’s due. Nothing sours a contact center worker on his or her job faster than not being recognized for a job well done. Promote from within, and regularly remind your workers that their work has value, and that you (and the company) appreciate their hard work.
Edited by Stefania Viscusi