Call Center QA Featured Article
November 16, 2009
BPA Offers Advice on Managing Operations and Staffing Successful Agents
Enlisting the services of 3rd party remote call monitoring provider BPA International does more than just improve sales for any company within the call center industry, telecom field or customer relationship management, or “CRM,” spectrum.
In fact, Lisa Renda, CEO, BPA International, told TMCnet in a previous interview that maintaining quality is critical in every aspect of a company’s operations. And, since first impressions are everything, a call center carries the burden of providing a company’s first impression.
“Whether that impression is positive or negative can help advance the relationship with the customer or prospect – or end it before it ever really begins,” Renda said. “Consequently, managing quality in the call center has to be considered a top priority.”
There are various parts to managing the quality within a company. At the route of this, is the core operations of a call center and the agents that perform the actual operations. However, there are specific ways to tackle these tasks.
“Perhaps the most egregious error a growing company can make is to focus on the core operations of the company at the expense of the call center,” Renda said. “There’s no question that sustaining the company’s most essential functions must continue unabated.”
Additionally, while core operations are at the route of a company’s successes, many expanding companies tend to put all of their resources into this tasks, often neglecting other interactions and necessities of maintaining a call center on a daily basis.
“It’s not unreasonable to concentrate heavily on the areas that helped generate the growth period in which your business might currently find itself,” she added. “But, to do so while ignoring the more minute yet essential transactions that define the call center can be commercial suicide.”
Therefore, finding a balance as a way to manage how well a software system performs, as well as the call center agents’ customer interactions is a difficult tasked, but if accomplished, can lead to a well rounded and successful business.
In piggy backing the well rounded operational approach, Renda also discusses how a call centers agents’ play a large role in the performance of the company. But, finding agents to fit the mold of what a company is looking for is much more difficult than finding people to fill those agent seats.
“You must ensure that those seats are filled by the right people,” Renda said. “Unfortunately, growing businesses are often so focused on simply filling positions they are sometimes not as focused on the actual qualifications of the people they hire.”
Therefore, by not focusing on the person, some companies don’t employee the appropriate people for the right roles. By staffing a company with individuals as place fillers, rather than dedicated employees, performance can often suffer, and a company can develop a revolving door, which adds time to retrain new hires.
And, in the current economic recession, quality employees need to be valued, as a way to increase sales and ROI for a company. “Staffing your call center with quality people is a critical key to success,” Renda said. “The demographics of the population, including education levels, literacy, unemployment rates and wage costs are all factors that must be accorded high priority.”
In fact, Lisa Renda, CEO, BPA International, told TMCnet in a previous interview that maintaining quality is critical in every aspect of a company’s operations. And, since first impressions are everything, a call center carries the burden of providing a company’s first impression.
“Whether that impression is positive or negative can help advance the relationship with the customer or prospect – or end it before it ever really begins,” Renda said. “Consequently, managing quality in the call center has to be considered a top priority.”
There are various parts to managing the quality within a company. At the route of this, is the core operations of a call center and the agents that perform the actual operations. However, there are specific ways to tackle these tasks.
“Perhaps the most egregious error a growing company can make is to focus on the core operations of the company at the expense of the call center,” Renda said. “There’s no question that sustaining the company’s most essential functions must continue unabated.”
Additionally, while core operations are at the route of a company’s successes, many expanding companies tend to put all of their resources into this tasks, often neglecting other interactions and necessities of maintaining a call center on a daily basis.
“It’s not unreasonable to concentrate heavily on the areas that helped generate the growth period in which your business might currently find itself,” she added. “But, to do so while ignoring the more minute yet essential transactions that define the call center can be commercial suicide.”
Therefore, finding a balance as a way to manage how well a software system performs, as well as the call center agents’ customer interactions is a difficult tasked, but if accomplished, can lead to a well rounded and successful business.
In piggy backing the well rounded operational approach, Renda also discusses how a call centers agents’ play a large role in the performance of the company. But, finding agents to fit the mold of what a company is looking for is much more difficult than finding people to fill those agent seats.
“You must ensure that those seats are filled by the right people,” Renda said. “Unfortunately, growing businesses are often so focused on simply filling positions they are sometimes not as focused on the actual qualifications of the people they hire.”
Therefore, by not focusing on the person, some companies don’t employee the appropriate people for the right roles. By staffing a company with individuals as place fillers, rather than dedicated employees, performance can often suffer, and a company can develop a revolving door, which adds time to retrain new hires.
And, in the current economic recession, quality employees need to be valued, as a way to increase sales and ROI for a company. “Staffing your call center with quality people is a critical key to success,” Renda said. “The demographics of the population, including education levels, literacy, unemployment rates and wage costs are all factors that must be accorded high priority.”
Kelly McGuire is a TMCnet Web editor, covering CRM and workforce technologies, and anchor of its daily TMC Newsroom video broadcast. Kelly also writes about eco-friendly "green" technologies and smart grids, compiling TMCnet's weekly e-Newsletters on those topics, as well as the cable industry. To read more of Kelly's articles, please visit her columnist page.
Edited by Kelly McGuire
