Five Tips To Boost Agent Success

By Sean Hawkins

On a daily basis, call center managers are inundated with data, decisions, escalations and reports. If all goes well, service levels have been met, CSAT or NPS will be satisfactory and you may actually have time to take an uninterrupted lunch. Such is the life of the contact center manager.

At the end of the week, month or quarter, we review performance levels and take pride in the success of our centers. Accolades are shared amongst leadership for a job well done. At this point, we can breathe a sigh of relief and repeat the cycle all over again. In between this never ending cycle, we may develop a new process or promote a new initiative to better our center. Personally, this is one of my favorite parts of the job as I enjoy innovation and creativity. Who doesn’t want to be considered innovative and at the top of their game?

While all of the events described above are a necessary and critical part of the job, they take our attention away from something more important. This is usually where I get a cynical look followed by the question, "What could possibly be more important than metrics to a call center manager?" My response is short, simple, and to the point, "the agents".

Unfortunately, our most valued asset is often overlooked and lost in the day to day management of the call center. The pressures to obtain outstanding metrics often come at the expense of the agents. However, the two are dependent on one another. The work of the agent is measured by metrics, and the metrics tell us their story.  

We all know that happy agents produce happy customers. For some this is simply a slogan thrown out at industry events, or in published articles or tweets. I urge you not to lose sight of the agents. They have a profound effect on your metrics but more importantly on your customers. To ensure your agents are positively impacting your customer, you must have a positive impact on them. These tips are a good starting point and have proven to be successful for me over the years. 

5 Tips to Success

1. Value agents as you do your customer
2. Train agents for success, and continually train them
3. Accept agent feedback and include them in the decision making process
4. Praise and reward agents
5. Provide a career path

As you can see, none of these are hard. In fact, this is what managers should be doing. So, go onward, "Strive for Five"!

I have over 15 years of progressive call center leadership and experience in the public, private and government sectors.

I have led or consulted contact centers of various sizes across numerous industries. Additionally, I’ve implemented new technology and products, while maintaining award-winning contact centers.

Connect with me on LinkedIn and Twitter.

Customer Service Principles ALWAYS Apply

By Ana Simões

I left the contact center in April of this year to embrace a new role at a start-up company as an IT Recruiter. Please note, my prior experience in the contact center is a reality for many in my region of Portugal.

In my experience, the agents were usually treated as numbers, and were made to feel as if they are expendable. When you leave, you will quickly be replaced. Unfortunately, these positions in the contact center are often seen as dead-end jobs. To the agents, this may create pushback, anger and frustration that may unexpectedly be directed at customers. While this is not right, and there is no excuse for such behavior, it is an inevitable reality. Fortunately for me, I was quite keen to offering exceptional service.

I am loving my current job! I no longer feel like a number, and I am no longer treated as such. I feel like my work matters and my efforts are noticed. However, when I look back, although I am no longer working as a Customer Support Representative, I noticed enough similarities to understand how working as a CSR has shaped me professionally, and how similar the positions are.

The obvious part is that I still have KPIs and metrics that allow my superiors to assess my evolution. But, the greatest similarity resides in the fact that we are in the business of providing services and support. I am in contact with potential candidates, with the Sales team that act as liaison with our clients, and with business partners, which can be recruitment agencies, or consultant agencies, among others.

It feels natural to apply the principals I learned while working in customer support. I do my best to find the best match for each job request we receive, and I also provide feedback to both candidates and coworkers. There are times a candidate is not selected, or sometimes we do not have a match for a given profile. In those moments, empathy plays an important role. In addition, I do my best to be clear, concise, and transparent. I also strive to provide the best possible customer service.

You’ve read correctly! I said customer service. After all, they are my customers.

To the candidates, I am selling a service: a potential job that might interest them and might make them choose to be part of my team. To our clients, I am offering the best candidates for the job. And, I always provide a few lines on why I consider those specific candidates the best options for the job.

I am a strong believer in treating people like they matter, despite their roles, because they do matter. My coworkers matter. Our candidates – my potential coworkers – matter. Our clients matter. We are all important for our (tiny, but growing) IT company to be successful. And this is what makes a company grow and be successful: showing people they are important.

Ana Simões is an experienced customer service trainer and recruiter. Her background as a psychologist provides her with an insight into the mind and behavior of customers and agents. The result is a unique, personal approach to the contact center.

Connect with Ana on LinkedIn and Twitter.

What are Your Thoughts on After Call Talk?

By Sean Hawkins

We should all be familiar with After Call Work, aka wrap up time. This is simply the post call tasks agents must perform to complete the interaction. Inevitably, during this time, agents are prone to offer commentary on their call. This is generally said to no one in particular, but it's usually heard by everyone within range. I call it After Call Talk. Comments may express delight, humor, or frustration. Most often, it is the latter. Many contact center managers try to discourage these conversation, while I have witnessed others ignore it.

From an operations standpoint, this increases ACW time. Professionally, you want to be certain what is said is respectful, and appropriate for the work environment. Also, if agents are consistently expressing anger and frustration, it may negatively impact the team and the culture.

As contact center leaders, it is important to allow agents to embrace their emotions. However, through training and coaching, we achieve the opposite. We spend much time teaching agents not to get upset, but little time is spent training them how to handle their feelings. It's only natural for them to blow off steam. If they don't so with the customer (let's hope not), their idea time is after the call.

What are your thought? How do you handle this in your center?

I have over 15 years of progressive call center leadership and experience in the public, private and government sectors.

I have led or consulted contact centers of various sizes across numerous industries. Additionally, I’ve implemented new technology and products, while maintaining award-winning contact centers.

Connect with me on LinkedIn and Twitter.