Call Center Scheduling Featured Article
Use the Quiet Summer for Contact Center "Housekeeping"
The “dog days of summer” is a common phrase in the English language, but it doesn’t apply only to bored school children with nothing to do but laze around the yard. American business typically slows down during the summer months, too, as families take vacations, workers take advantage of unused vacation days and European partners go on hiatus for weeks at a time thanks to generous vacation schedules.
In the contact center, things often slow down as well (unless you’re selling air conditioners, summer travel services or ice cream). Customers on vacation are less likely to call, and many organizations – particularly business to business customer support – find extra time on their hands. It’s a great opportunity to do those tasks that there never seem to be time for during the rest of the year, according to Monet Software (News - Alert) CEO Chuck Ciarlo in a recent blog post. One of the most critical things that can be done to fill slower days is agent training.
“Agent training should be an ongoing activity, but when things are busy these sessions tend to get squeezed into shorter windows, and may not be as effective,” wrote Ciarlo. “If the phones are not ringing as often, this is a chance to take a closer look at the data you have on each agent (assuming you have a workforce optimization solution) and provide customized training on specific areas of concern.”
You can use your quality monitoring solution to identify areas of greatest need across the contact center as a whole, or across agent groups and even individual agents. From here, you can customize training solutions and take the time to do something special, like role playing or simulations…things that you just don’t have time for during the daily grind of high season.
Managers can also use the time to evaluate hiring needs for the future, and collect and collate the applications and contact information of previous interview candidates who showed promise. Ciarlo calls it “freshening up” the stand-by list.
“Many contact centers hold on to contact information for promising agent applicants, to fill in during peak periods or to consult when current agents leave,” he wrote. “Typically you may not review this information until additional personnel are needed. But why not use this time to check in with these agents-in-waiting, to see if they are still available?”
Chances are good that once things get busy again, managers won’t have time to make lists of the most promising potential agents, and when current workers leave, the jobs are more likely to be filled with “any warm body,” which doesn’t do great things for the customer experience or the contact center’s quality metrics.
Finally, it’s a great time for managers to get to know their agents better, which can lead to improved retention and employee experiences. Managers can do this by opening the channels of communications.
“Use the summer lull to get to know your team better,” wrote Ciarlo. “Ask them about their families and outside interests. Find out what they like about their job and what is causing them problems. By taking an interest you may build that relationship in a way that keeps that agent around longer. Their feedback may also contain good ideas that can be implemented throughout the contact center.”
Summer is even a great time to do some fun things with agents: hold competitions, start an employee-of-the-month program or have theme days on Friday with refreshments and entertainment events. Employees will be more likely to go the extra mile for their company during the busy times if the company is willing to go the extra mile for them during the quiet days.