New Year's (Recycled) Call Center Resolutions

Hey, why should your call center be any different from real life?

Even those of you who don’t recycle do, in fact, use one thing over and over: Your New Year’s resolutions. Come on, admit it. You still want to drop that ten pounds, you still want to learn to play the guitar and you still want to cut down on the drinking. And you will. Starting January 1.

So in the spirit of a green-minded New Year, we’ve recycled some of the better call center resolutions we’ve seen from last year. Because, hey, they still apply. Just like your determined promise to yourself to read War And Peace.

Steve Norman, Business Development Director, Garlands offeredthisone in 2009: Ask yourself “what value is the customer getting?” If you’re wondering why customers make repeat calls after saying they are happy with the way their last call was handled, Norman wrote, “it could well be because you’re failing to fully understand why they’re calling in the first place. The answer is often to spend more time listening to customers. A better understanding of the customer’s problem will often improve the ‘value’ of the service you ultimately provide – and could suggest valuable cross- and up-sell opportunities.”

Take the opportunity to find talented people, recommends Paul Miller, Associate Director – Prolog Contact Centers. “Recessions are full of opportunities as well as threats.” Hey fancy that -- we still have a recession. Guess the White House doesn’t believe in keeping their New Year’s resolutions either.

 “In 2009 we will work hard at our day job of efficiency and quality. This is made harder by the constant change and uncertainty which a recession creates,” Miller said. “We will also always search for the new opportunities, created by change, to recruit talented people, attract great new customers and purchase new technology at a time when our competitors may be unable to. We will be better after the recession than before it.”

And finally, Guy Tweedale, SVP EMEA Operations, Jacada (News - Alert), recommends “Give agents the tools they need to look after customers. With the plethora of choices now available to consumers, companies have an even tougher, more complicated challenge of keeping their existing customers – those that were hard won and expensive to acquire.”

David Sims is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of David’s articles, please visit his columnist page. He also blogs for TMCnet here.

Edited by Chris DiMarco