With a struggling economy, nearly all businesses are faced with cutting budgets even more than they had planned. Decisions on where to cut costs are not easy, and management forced to make these changes must be as well informed as possible in order to make effective decisions.The only way to make effective business decisions — and this is true under any circumstances, but is highlighted during economic crises — is to have the fundamental knowledge of how your business works, and which aspects are most efficient, and which require improvement.

 While the call center industry as a whole is still prospering, the simple fact is that many will be forced to make staffing decisions reflective of the failing economy.  But just as any business process, staffing decisions must be made effectively. Again, this means managers must be aware of which agents are performing to expectations, which excel at creating satisfied customers, and which are driving customer churn.

It also means having a solid knowledge of the call center’s operations, as well as an understanding of best practices with regard to training, development, technology, metrics, and all other aspects of call center management.

Unfortunately, not all managers are equipped to make these critical decisions. 

Fortunately, The Resource Center for Customer Service Professionals (RCCSP) has a program to help.

To ensure call center managers have the skills necessary to manage their facilities — from basic hiring, training, monitoring, and coaching tasks, to effective leadership, technology selection, and data analytics, RCCSP offers a series of comprehensive Call Center Manager Training and Certification courses in locations nationwide, with several sessions still to come this year, and events scheduled through the middle of 2009.

The curriculum for the Call Center Manager Training and Certification course was updated earlier this year to cover all the major skills and knowledge required for call center managers to make the most of their resources. The course covers tactical call center management responsibilities, including the fundamental tasks of hiring, training, monitoring, coaching, maintaining employee morale, forecasting, scheduling, and performance metrics, to advanced skills, like quality assurance, technology selection, cost management, strategy, leadership and more.

However, RCCSP is also mindful of call centers’ budgetary constraints — that is, after all, one of the key reasons managers should attend RCCSP courses. To help ease the financial burden, RCCSP is offering a variety of discount programs for its entire 2009 lineup of call center certification events.

It has always been the case that the most successful businesses excel in customer service, driven by highly effective call center operations. But their operational efficiencies required development, which requires a skilled and educated management team. With budgets tightening, and with staff cuts looming, call centers, like any businesses, are forced to do more with less.

The only way for them to ride this recession and come through unscathed is to ensure their managers have the tools and skills to make effective decisions.