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Article : Help: Our Customer Service Department Is Now A Call Centre!

The call centre has historically been linked to "production" environments, in which the dynamic is to process as many calls as possible in as short a timescale as possible. In terms of good customer service, the focus on how many calls came in and how many calls each person handled has historically caused a perceived quality conflict.

The agents on the phone are often torn between the call they are on and the calls in queue. This is further amplified in some centres with readerboards alarming, lights flashing and managers running around like lunatics. No wonder there is a resistance among customer service departments to acknowledging that they are, in many cases. Call centres or at least use a call centre as a key delivery channel.

These conditions certainly do not have to be true. Just for the record, in a well run call centre, the agent is responsible for the call and the management is responsible for the queue.


Kathleen Peterson
Founder & CVO
Powerhouse Consulting

So what do you have to do to create a high performance service culture within a call centre environment? Here are four key areas to evaluate in your quest for call centre mastery.

 

First, make sure that the call centre is part of the big picture
To take on the responsibility of the queue, management must view the operation as a total process, one that is connected to the enterprise. This connection must be made in terms of the organisation's values, vision and mission. It is clear what role the call centre plays in the overall objective of the company? This clarity will allow for inclusion and recognition instead of being thought of as a back room operation.

Call centres do not generally generate their own activity (queues); these are typically a result of marketing promotions, product enhancements, billing issues, service additions, changes in policies or procedures and so on. This being true it would follow that the parts of the organisation responsible for these functions should partner in the planning and audit process. This involves acknowledging that the call centre is part of a total process, not simply a random series of phone calls coming in and being handled by our staff.

 

Evaluate your planning process
Queue management begins with an effective "forecast" of demand. Strive for accuracy within plus or minus 5%. An effective forecast is tied to the other objectives we have for our centre such as customer retention, satisfaction and sales as well as employee satisfaction and shareholder return. In order to evaluate the planning process we must determine if we have allocated the proper resources to the task. The forecasting tasks include the storing and analysing of historical data, creating and adjusting schedules, intra-day queue management, the reallocation of staff and the managing of the scheduling software system, if you use one.

The forecast person is sometimes known as the "capacity manager". This person should also be responsible for formalising the flow of information between other departments and the call centre. The position of capacity manager should not be shared; to be effective there needs to be a dedicated resource. This person may need the support of the call centre manager (and occasionally even more senior management) to be certain other departments provide the information necessary to achieve a high level of accuracy. Historical data is only the starting point for an effective call centre forecast.

Call centre managers must radiate credibility to their counterparts. They have to be kept "in the loop". In order for that to happen, their peers must respect them and feel confident in sharing vital information with them; vital information such as two million sales brochures going out in next Tuesday's mail, listing the call centre's toll free number as a response mechanism, for example. The call centre manger, as well as the "capacity manager" needs to be aware of this information in order to know how many people to schedule for what is likely to be an increase in the number of calls.

Sometimes those information handoffs are not made. The result: lost revenue and frustrated customers. All the staff-forecasting software in the world cannot overcome a problem like that. To make matter worse, call centre morale can take a nose-dive when reps are faced with angry customers who know more about a sale or product launch than they do. A strong liaison with other department managers and a calendar prepared by the capacity manager or forecasting team can solve the problem.

Conversely, the call centre can and should provide vital management information to other departments. Inbound call centres are staffed, to a large extent, on the basis of the number of inquiries and/or complaints they receive on a given number of issues. If, for example, an automobile manufacturer's top consumer complaint last year was that customer keys broke off in the door, it is incumbent upon the call centre to share that data with the engineering department. Fixing the problem will mean happier customers and fewer calls to the call centre. Fewer calls will mean a need for fewer representatives on the phones and will cut the overall costs of the centre.

 

Quality must be the primary focus
Do you tell phone agents to act differently during busy periods? I have repeatedly asked this question of call centre managers and often get an emphatic response of "Well, yes, of course." "Exactly what so you tell them to do?" I ask. Some say, "We just tell them not to cross sell." So, we sacrifice revenue opportunities in favour of calls in queue. Ask yourself "Does the answer to this question – what to change when it's busy – initiate a quality conflict for the people taking the calls?" If so, you are making a mistake.

We must understand it will always take longer to do it over than it will to do it right. If we ask front line staff to compromise quality because we have a queue issue, we will be setting the stage for the oft-found belief in call centre staff that management cares more about quantity than quality. This is not to say that our front line staff may not be able to reorganise the workload or make some adjustments in their behaviour during peak periods, but this should not be at the risk of quality.

 

Commit to training
Training is the single most important investment in the customer service call centre. In most call centres, initial training is often lengthy and ineffective; ongoing training is often cancelled and monitor programs leave much to be desired. Good training acts as a morale booster. One of the major contributors to turnover is when people feel as if their growth doesn't matter to the organisation. To improve quality, improve training.

Call centres must also be creative about training, because you simply cannot take staff off the phone for instructor-led programs, as you can with other departments. The use of audio tapes, video tapes, the Internet and intranets, CD-ROM and computer based training all lend themselves to dynamic scheduling and self-paced learning.

When preparing your budget, plan for a minimum of ten hours per year per person for taining (this is a minimum – not a recommendation – I believe it should be much higher). Then measure whether it took place.

Study the error rates and types of errors in your centre to adjust the training curriculum. Have your training people do an analysis of the types of calls handled and the skills required so they can maintain a skills matrix and prepare individual training plans.

Finally, make your monitor program an absolute training vehicle and not necessarily a strict performance measurement tool. The monitor program is like providing your front line staff with a "personal trainer". This is a very expensive program when you figure in all the supervise hours and, in many cases, the technology investments. We must demand a performance return on this investment. Hold your monitor scores up against other measurements. If the program is effective (assuming your turnover rate is not in the double digits) you should see improvements in handle time, service level and occupancy.

Naturally, the right kind of training is essential; product knowledge training, customer service training and training in how to use the phones, computers and software necessary to run a call centre enterprise. When training lasts eight, ten or twelve weeks, however, there is a risk your people will be overwhelmed with information. On the job training can go a long way toward teaching reps the practical skills of applying product knowledge to a factual situation or learning how to defuse an angry customer.

The configuration of your people should also drive the type of training provided. For example, while all staff may be trained in answering basic product inquiries and complaints, several reps might be assigned to specialised teams which deal with technical issues, high ticket items, high volume customers or customers with special needs. Those special needs must be addressed in the training curriculum. Be aware, however, that productivity is a potential tradeoff in an environment with many small teams. Larger, generalised groups of representatives can take more calls than a consortium of smaller ones.

Many call centres receive training from a designated corporate training department, somewhat disconnected from the call centre. It's important in a call centre for the trainers to report to the call centre director and to have continuous exposure to the call centre environment.

Within that framework, trainers can take on a mentoring role during the first 90 days a trainee spends on the floor. It's important for trainees not to feel they've been cast adrift the moment the initial training period is over.


About the Author
Kathleen M. Peterson is PowerHouse Consulting Inc. founder and Chief Vision Officer (CVO). She is an acclaimed Call Center consultant and recognized industry visionary. Kathleen offers a refreshing and often challenging philosophy to positioning the Call Center as the true lifeline of the enterprise.

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

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

Published: Sunday, January 5, 2003

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