Managing call center infrastructure has never been a simple task. The sheer volume of contacts that a contact center representative must handle individually on a daily basis can seem overwhelming–especially when considering that each call fielded must be monitored for quality assurance, and the representative must handle all with grace and professionalism. Call centers and their highly professional call center agents must keep up with the latest trends in quality assurance, best practices for customer service and the latest in technology.
Managing a contact center isn’t simple, but as a call center manager, there are a number of ways that you can effectively lead your team to success without losing your sanity in the process.
1. Hire fantastic call center agents.
Success starts with a high-quality team of agents behind you. In order to manage customer satisfaction and your own internal goals it’s essential to recruit, train, and retain a highly professional and experienced team of calling agents. Call center quality assurance is based primarily on everything that stems from these decisions early on, so getting this right at the beginning is crucial for a new call center manager, as well as for those who have been promoted to an oversight role that includes more representatives.
2. Use modern technology for the recruitment process.
Utilizing highly effective recruiting methods are a great way to supercharge your hiring process. Tools like GoodTime help streamline the interviewing process and give call center managers access to interview materials and candidate resumes, simply and efficiently (see goodtime.io for more). Interviewing top talent, especially during this time while we must remain socially distanced from one another, is always a challenge. However, with the addition of these powerful tools, you can get a sense of your prospective new hire’s demeanor over the phone and more personally at the same time.
3. Retaining talent is crucial to success.
In order to grow your team’s success, it’s important to act as an approachable manager. You must remain professional while staying personable with your team, in order to keep your best call center agents for the long haul. There is simply no substitute for natural phone personalities with years of experience, and they are incredibly hard to replace once they decide to move on to another facility, or to a completely different industry altogether. It takes years of practice and a passion for customer service in order for a contact center caller to become a pro on the phones. Identifying talent that could grow into this natural ability is one thing, but once you’ve hired a high quality caller you need to foster their development and take care of them. These types of callers are fantastic assets for a call center operation, so keeping them on board is critical for training others around them and boosting the overall morale of the office.
Star phoning agents are an essential feature of any contact center that is performing well. They share their experiences with colleagues, help out when their neighbors are in a jam on a call, or report back with bugs or scripting ideas to their supervisors at regular intervals. In order to enjoy a humming call center, you must foster these types of relationships with your most talented callers in order to incentivize them to stay with your firm for as long as possible.
4. Don’t skimp on hardware and software upgrades.
Call centers that invest in the latest quality assurance software and contact center solutions are better prepared for the future than their competitors. It’s as simple as that. In order to position yourself for continued growth and increased business over the long term it’s a great idea to shift over to cloud-based calling software, and retire the bulky control room hardware that was once the mainstay of the industry.
By moving over to cloud based solutions, you give your agents the freedom to generate their own scripting ideas rather than following the preloaded, stuffy lines that used to pervade call center software packages on outdated machines. Cloud based systems improve the metrics on your contacts, and improve customer experience at the same time. Call center agents are able to code notes and callback times easily and can effortlessly move on to the next number on their list once a call disposition has been recorded. These newer systems give customer service agents the freedom to work from home as well.
During the pandemic, more and more call centers have had to bend over backward in order to enable offsite calling solutions to protect agents and supervisors while maintaining the high level of customer service that clients have come to expect. Among centers that had already made this switch, the move to offsite call handling and monitoring was done seamlessly. Quality assurance doesn’t have to suffer, nor should the health and safety of your callers. High caliber call center agents can work in the office or remotely to meet key performance indicators without sacrificing call center quality if you give them the right tools.
5. Dress for success.
Call center quality is measured in voice and data analytics. Your clients will never see the faces of your staff members, nor will they see the clothing that your team dons as they head into the office each day. But dressing for success is truly a mark of professionalism and highly agile agent performance. Dressing for success is a time honored tradition, and it really does help your team ensure peak performance on a daily basis.
A great way to exude confidence is with the Rolex Datejust watch series. A high quality timepiece with a beautiful bracelet, dial, and bezel is a great way to flash the confidence in your team that you have as their supervisor. Dressing for success is about showing your pride in a job well done to others, but it’s also about feeling good. With a Rolex or other classic timepiece on your wrist you can rest assured that confidence will follow you wherever you go.
Running a successful contact center is all about people. In order to find success you must hire and retain high quality callers and provide them with the confidence and tools to succeed.
