Managing a Successful Call Center

A happy and hardworking team benefits not just the customers but the business, the individual members of the team as well as the operations management.

One of the biggest mistakes that call center managers make is to decide the productivity of their agents based on the number of calls they take and the time they take for each call. Call center agents are also often expected to account for every minute of their time. The company might be setting impossibly high standards like 70 calls a day, for example. In order to achieve such a target, agents would be forced to ‘cheat’ i.e.; they might try to close a call before it is finished, they might ask customers to call back or try to re-route difficult calls.

The truth is that many of the factors involved are beyond the control of the agents. It could be the nature of the customers (no two customers behave in the same way), the nature of the products, the nature of the procedures or the nature of the information. When the workers are held responsible for these, naturally they get stressed out and become demoralized. The agents are also often torn between the call they are on at the moment and the calls that are in queue. Reminders like alarm systems, flashing lights and distraught managers running around the place will only add to the stress of the employees. The final result would be poor performance, low productivity and loss for the company. The reason for poor results here is thus, more often, the system and not the employees.

As in other scenarios, a successful manager is the one who knows the interests of his/her team and acts accordingly. Certain agents might be comfortable dealing with just one kind of call while others might like variety. Leaving the decision to the agents themselves will surely show in the results. In other words, the focus of the manager should change from managing people to managing the system, that is, understanding and bettering the flow of the work as well as fulfilling the customer’s expressed value.

Keeping agents engaged, and energized is critical to a successful call center. Here are a few tips that should help:

Empower agents by allowing them to make certain decisions to help resolve customer issues. This will allow the agents feel more respected, and lead to quicker resolution for customers.

Continual training to help agents optimize essential communication skills

Recommend the latest self-help books or industry trade journals

Include agents when planning on future innovations and changes. Agents are closest to the customer, and will most certainly offer good insights.