Workforce Management Featured Article
4 Strategies to Quickly Boost Morale and Performance in the Call Center
When was the last time you thought about performance in your assessment of workforce management? If you’re in the call center space, chances are this is a top of mind initiative on a daily basis. Looking for ways to boost morale is a common activity, unless your MO is to simply put up targets and hope your agents strive to surpass them.
The reality is that hope doesn’t get you very far in terms of performance. You have to take action through planning, execution, measurement and more. The good news is that it doesn’t have to be an arduous process that never ends. Yes, you have to focus on performance on an ongoing basis, but it can be fun to boost morale. The key is to look at it as a way to improve outcomes for everyone involved.
Fortunately, this is a topic often visited upon by workforce management solutions provider, Monet Software (News - Alert). The company recently posted a blog with a few tips that just might help drive improved performance through refining and fine-tuning a few steps along the way. If you apply them as intended, you can help good agents become great agents and your overall performance soars.
First, use role play with your agents. Fill the role of the customer and complete a variety of different kinds of calls to determine the kind of service you will receive. This is the best way to determine the type of service customers are actually receiving from your agents. Share this information with agents so they can all learn from the good and the bad.
Second, allow agents to review agents. They can offer a fresh set of eyes and ears. Be sure they do so with a positive attitude by demonstrating this approach through leadership. Share success stories among the team and allow everyone to join in the celebration. When someone demonstrates they have gone above and beyond when it comes to customer service, recognize this effort publically. If you have openings at the supervisory level, look for opportunities to recruit from within.
Third, schedule an open house and invite your customers. It is a great way to continue to build closer relationships and your clients may even have ideas they can share that could lend value to your workforce management.
Finally, don’t spend so much time harping on Average Handle Time and more time focused on the type of experience your agents create for your customers. Implement speech analytics and quality monitoring to better measure experiences and understand what customers want.
In workforce management, it really is possible to create the ultimate experience by boosting morale and performance output. If you make it a team effort, you’ll be surprised by how quickly you can achieve the desired results.