Call Center Management Best Practices

The 2016 football season is winding down. We’re watching some of the best teams in the league dominate their divisions and others not live up to their potential. To know how to weather the challenges of the league and win games, you study other teams. To run a great customer service center, call center management should watch those who are winning every day.

Call center management solutions provider Monet Software (News - Alert) recently posted a blog on the topic of borrowing call center performance tips from the best in the industry. Fortunately, the company has already done the hard work for you and looked to leading call centers to see what they are doing to produce results. Let’s take a look at what they’ve put together as it might be helpful in your own environment.

The customer – one of the tips received from others in call center management is to make the process as easy on the customer as possible. While a focus on friendly service is great, what customers really want is an answer and a fast and easy way to get to it. Focus on the speed and put the right technology in place to enable agents to satisfy the customer quickly and effectively.

Integrated communications – there’s nothing worse than calling a company and repeating information that you’ve already shared via the self-service channel. It’s important to know the strengths and weaknesses of each channel in use and to train agents according to the specific channels. At the same time, make them integrated so the information shared on one transfers to the other.

Engaged agents – if you truly want to produce results on the frontline, you have to be sure your agents are fully engaged. Measure attribution and absenteeism so you weed out those who don’t really want to be there. Offer flexible hours and invest in your agents with continuing education and advancement opportunities.

Internal information – the cult classic, “Office Space” is a movie about the ridiculous activities companies put in place to waste time and resources. The software company that employs the main character hires consultants to tell them what they are doing wrong and how to fix it. Much of what the consultants need to know they get from current employees. Why not leverage this wealth of information and get the scoop from those in the know before you invest in outside resources? (And check out the movie if you’ve never seen it – well worth the time for anyone who has ever been in corporate America.)

If you haven’t yet embraced these opportunities for improving performance in your call center, now is a great time to make some changes. Given them a try and see if you produce better results in 2017.

Edited by Alicia Young