The call center is a blend of many high end technologies, all working in harmony to produce an ecosystem which helps efficiently service customers en masse. While IVR systems and other self service options have come a long way, there’s still one thing that has yet to be automated in the call center: your agents.

A recent Coordinated Systems Inc. (CSI (News - Alert)) white paper provides 10 tips for improving contact center agent performance, and gives call center operators and managers a number of suggestions that utilize call recording and metrics monitoring in inspiring your agents to go above and beyond standard practice. Motivation strategies that make agents feel like they’re part of a team or hold them to higher standards have been proven to increase service levels; both of these criteria can be enhanced with call recording or monitoring services.

It’s easy to monitor a business process or a device running your call center because they have definable failure points. With people, it’s always a matter of circumstance, and having call recording at your disposal can help you illustrate agent weaknesses and give you the examples needed to identify areas of improvement.

Just knowing that they’re being monitored is often enough to trigger agents to be on their best behaviors while dealing with customers. The whitepaper suggests that you take this one step further by using correctly executed calls as examples on how to conduct oneself during a phone call. This additional push gives agents something to work towards and be proud of.

Likewise, by gaining insight into the areas that everyone in your call center needs improvement on, managers will be better prepared to create training lessons that help put everyone on an even level of performance and increase agent confidence as they deal with customers.

There are a number of other initiatives you can implement using your call recording strategy that will increase the effectiveness of your staff and your operation overall. The informative CSI whitepaper offers each tip in specific detail and is a must read for anyone who wants to improve the quality of their call center.

To view this and the other resources offered by CSI, check out the call recording channel on TMCnet.

Chris DiMarco is a Managing Editor for TMCnet. He holds a master's degree in journalism from Quinnipiac University. Prior to joining TMC (News - Alert) Chris worked with e-commerce provider Suresource as a contact center representative and development analyst. To read more of his articles, please visit his columnist page. Follow him on Twitter (News - Alert) @cpdimarco.

Edited by Rich Steeves