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Article : Count for Highly Skilled Agents

How has recruiting for contact centers changed over the past 5 years?
In the environment we move, it's very imperative to count skilled people that understand how to provide excellent customer service to clients. Over the years, the recruitment process has remained much the same in most aspects.

However, companies are starting to differentiate from each other by offering their candidates new incentives or bonuses to hire the best people for their organizations. People make decisions, they create and more than ever they can make a difference for the organization.

Special attention is given to hire the best candidates, so the recruitment process has been evolving into a one that places special attention into the human aspects of the candidates. Tests and other ways of evaluation are still used, but interviews with different people in the organization has become a must, to ensure all areas of involvement provide the proper grounds for the right decision.

What mistakes do companies sometimes make when recruiting agents/reps?
Most common mistakes are:

  • People that submit resumes are not properly informed of the outcome of the recruitment process, hence, creating a negative image in the labor market.

  • Requisites are not set clear enough in the ads, therefore, lots of unwanted resumes arrive to the Human Resources Department.

  • Commonly, not all places are taken into consideration for recruitment. For example, Universities, colleges, Technical Schools, and others.

  • A phone interview is missing in the process. A phone interview is a very efficient way to filter people out.

How important do you feel 'call/contact center' specific qualifications are today/will become in the future?
This is crucial for the success of a contact center business, due to the fact that today's way of differentiating from competitors is to have the most qualified people.

Every day, reps need to be more professional in the different fields of knowledge that they work in. If a company offers technical support for end users, clients expect the provider to have technicians certified in different technical areas such as A+, MS Certifications, Cisco, etc. Besides technical certifications, customers expect our agents to have undergone formal training on soft skills such as: Customer service, telephone skills, how to handle irate customers, and others.

When talking about supervisors or managers in the Contact Center, they should also have some certifications on Contact Center Management, Quality Assurance methods, Help Desk Management and others.

What are your views on pre-employment testing?
Experience should be tested to ensure information in the resume is true and up to date.

Psychological testing is important to ensure the right people are hired to the different positions in the contact center. Usually, turnover is high in Contact Centers due to the fact that candidates are not properly tested and hence, wrongly hired. Not all people are suitable for the Contact Center work. Candidates need to be patient, very knowledgeable of the customer and its needs, and very tolerant.

How do you think organizations will recruit in the future?
There are some ideas out there on how to recruit in a more efficient way. There is a computer program that allows people interaction with the phone system. This system filters out people and lets the candidates know weather they are out or they have the chance to go on with an interview.

Nowadays, more and more companies are using computer applications to ease their work. I believe recruitment won't be the exception, however, human intervention would never be old fashion and users will always demand to have someone at the other end to hear what they have to say.

What value do recruitment comsultancies add?
We have not used recruitment consultancies. Our company does all the work.


About Albin Chinchilla:
Albin Chinchilla has been in the Call Center business since August 1995 and has worked in different areas such as Quality Control, Technical Support, Customer Service, Telemarketing, and Critical Issues. He has worked for ITS since 1999 and was responsible for the implementation of the Call Center business within ITS.

About ITS:
This cost of not hiring the right candidate could go up to losing an account, which is invaluable.ITS is a provider of Call Center and Network Services in the Central American region. In the Call Center arena, we specialize in Customer Service, Telemarketing and Help Desk/Tech Support. In the Data Networks area we are capable of handling the complete operation: design, installation, maintenance, monitoring and security.

Today's Tip of the Day - Keep Cost In Perspective

Read today's tip or listen to it on podcast.

Published: Thursday, November 7, 2002

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