Call Center Management: 3 Simple Ways To Drastically Trim Down Call Center Operational Costs

A call center business demands a significant cash investment. These include employees, key equipment, and business location. You could effectively cut down costs and provide good call center management if you have a clear understanding of these basic sources of call center expenses.

1.  
EMPLOYEES ( Staff)

People make up 90 % of your call center investment. They are the frontline fo your business. Hiring the right people and offering them the right incentive could spell success for your investment. Without the proper renumerations, a call center will suffer from a high turn-over. People won’t stay long in the company and it cost more in terms of training lost and resources. How could you trim down the employees aspect of a call center? Well, it’s simple, actually. You implement a sensible hiring process. Screen applicants to weed out the “ unfits” , the “ misfits”, and the people who do not have any customer service inclinations. This way, you hire only people who are best fitted for the job. Go for quality, rather than the
quantity of recruits. It is better to hire 15 best performing call center employees rather than hire, train, and pay 30 mediocre employees. And once you have good workers, constantly monitor and upgrate their productivity. It is worth mentioning that you should also make pro-active plans regarding :

a.) Agents’ Talk Time— you should implement the necessary metrics to gauge an agent’s work output. The longer your employee stays on the phone for one caller, the more costly it will be for your company.

b.) Resources —- the agent should be able to resolve a caller issues and not transfer the call to a supervisor. Provide your employees with comprehensive trainings.

c.) Total volume of contacts— while a call center welcomes calls, there are some call types which are best blocked at the start. This generally refers to prank callers, stray calls, and other unproductive callers. Your call center must decisively handle these types of calls.

2.
EQUIPMENT

Call center operations need dedicated phone lines, computer workstations, and proprietary software. You
will incur bigger expenses if you go for used equipments or worse, inferior hardware. While these equipment may initially cost less at start up, you will be plagued with server downtime, choppy receptions, and costly repairs. Better select the best equipment and software available at the start to have a worry-free call center operation, than suffer from periodical interruptions due to faulty equipment. I n  this regard, you should do some research on the hardware vendors. Conduct business only with legitimate and duly licensed vendor companies.

3.  
LOCATION

US-based companies pay premium fees on employees’ salaries and building costs. However, outsourcing your call center to other locations— like Philippines or India– results to substantial cost reduction. No wonder companies prefer to invest in call centers abroad. Basically, it costs less building call centers in foreign locations outside USA.

Cutting down unnecessary call center operational costs can be achieved with sound call center management strategies. You should exercise caution, though, on what , where, and how to cut expenses for greater impact and effectivity. Otherwise, you will be spending more than you hope to save in the long run.

Article source :
http://24hourscall.wordpress.com

Preparing for a call center agent job interview: What skills are required?

Author: Donna Fluss

The call center is a dynamic and fast-paced department. It's a highly-structured operating environment where constant change is the norm. Having said that, a typical call center agent candidate profile includes the following skill set requirements:

• Excellent oral and written communication and interpersonal skills
• Professional and courteous demeanor
• Ability to multi-task in a fast-paced, high-volume environment
• Excellent problem-resolution skills
• Strong systems skills
• Ability to learn, retain and apply large amounts of product, procedure, policy and system information
• Ability to meet established productivity, effectiveness, training, sales (if applicable) and quality goals
• Ability to work in a highly-structured environment – take scheduled lunches and breaks
• Ability to accept and incorporate constructive feedback to improve performance
• Flexibility in responding to change or business needs
• Ability to accommodate non-traditional work schedules
• Patience
• Willingness to help peers
• Excellent attendance and punctuality
• Good team player
• Self-starter
• While it's not a requirement, it's also an asset for a candidate to like people and enjoy helping them.

The interview process will be focused on evaluating how closely and to what extent you, or any job applicant, meet the skill set of the candidate profile. How this is accomplished can vary greatly among organizations.

Some organizations use a competency-based assessment tool as part of the hiring process to evaluate call center agent candidates. These online tools assess skills as well as personality traits that are critical to being a successful,
happy and satisfied call center agent. Simulation tools – online applications that simulate the actual customer service environment – are another way that organizations can assess your ability to perform as a call center agent. Still others may use behavior-based interview questions. These questions are designed to elicit specific examples from candidate's previous job(s) where they successfully handled situations that they are likely to encounter as a call center agent. For example, a behavior-based question might be, "Please tell me about a specific time when you had to deal with a difficult or unreasonable request from a customer."

VoIP Call Center Solutions

Author: Kent Pinkerton

 

In recent years, companies have realized the value of call centers, as they have the potential of effectively expanding a business. Call centers allow businesses to operate on a 24/7 basis and provide customer service to clients wherever they might be in the world. However, setting up a call center involves high costs that most small businesses cannot afford. Fortunately, there are a number of options borne out of developments in technology that businesses can choose that enable them to set up a call center without having to incur huge costs. One of these includes using a recent innovation in communications technology -- Voice over Internet Protocol or VoIP -- aimed to render long distance calls obsolete. This technology bypasses traditional telephone company infrastructure to deliver phone services over a broadband Internet connection.

Apart from the benefit of being a more convenient and affordable option for communications, as opposed to having multiple phone lines installed, there are also a number of benefits that VoIP provides its users, specifically for businesses. You can establish a business presence in different locations through the network that VoIP provides that allows a business to set up a number of toll free lines that their customers can access.

In other words, VoIP allows businesses to set up a mini call center that provides immediate solutions to their customers in different locations. Through the network, a business can take multiple calls at the same time. VoIP also has features that give customers a number of options on how to get assistance including click to call capabilities, integrated conferencing, auto-attendant capabilities, call routing and web based voice mail.

Nowadays, businesses are realizing the benefits of a call center to a business, as it allows a business to provide services to their clients in different locations and to operate on a 24/7 basis. Fortunately, recent developments in technology such as VoIP allows more businesses, especially the small ones, to take advantage of the opportunities that having a call center provides. This is because VoIP provides both a convenient and an affordable way for a business to find immediate solutions to their clients anywhere in the world.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Kent_Pinkerton

Call Center Morale Boosting Strategies

Morale is deceptively important in the running of an efficient call center. The reason it is deceptive is because while most bosses acknowledge the relationship between morale and productivity, few call center bosses are able to accurately pin down a decrease in productivity as being directly related to a lowered morale. The reason it is important is the same; namely that a higher morale means happier workers, which in turn leads to an overall increase in call center productivity.

What does it mean to have high productivity in a call center? Well for starters it means a higher level of customer focus, as call center agents with higher morale are going to sound more pleasant over the phone. It is human nature to unconsciously let feelings show through and in a job that involves a large amount of telephone conversation, it becomes easy to see how an unhappy worker can result in customer complaints and unnecessary headache further on down the road.

More than just customer focus, high morale in a specific worker can lead to that worker contributing to a more relaxed working environment, which in turn can have a positive morale effect on another worker. This worker then contributes to an even more relaxed working environment and so forth. Morale boosting can create a positive feedback cycle that benefits the whole staff of a call center, thereby making things easier for everyone involved.

So how can one increase the morale of their call center staff? The first step is in understanding what causes morale drops in the first place. Call center employment, as far as front line services go, is the ultimate emotional roller coaster ride. A worker can receive a compliment from one customer that makes them feel great and thirty seconds later be in tears from an angry client using harsh words against them. While it is impossible to avoid angry clients, attentive bosses can take steps that diminish the impact angry clients and other potential obstacles have on the morale of their staff.

The best morale boosters are ones that understand how humans work and think. Incentives are a good way to start; a bonus for achieving a milestone (such as working a certain number of hours without receiving a complaint) is something that will make a worker feel special, as well as let them know that their boss is looking after them directly.

Recognition is another important form of morale boosting that is frequently overlooked by call center administrators. Human nature is such that even a simple thank you can last a long time. Call center staff that have been working the phones a long time develop a confirmation bias that magnifies one type of call and diminishes another in their memory. If their bias is toward positive phone calls, then half the battle if done. If however it turns out to be toward negative phone calls, they will need help to keep their morale high.

And that is where recognition comes in. Finding a way to recognize workers on a regular basis for a job well done can really keep them in high spirits, allowing them to get through that next bad day with less effort than otherwise. Remember what I said above about the positive feedback high morale can generate? Recognition is a simple way to start that loop.

In conclusion, a good way to view call center morale is to think of it as a tool of the trade that is used to increase worker productivity. Call center administrators need to be savvy enough to realize the important relationship between worker morale and worker productivity. High morale is one of the most important aspects of a good call center and with it the sky is truly the limit to what workers can accomplish.

Trainings in Call Centers

Author by Hani Masgidi

Source :www.steptocallcenter.com 

The remarkable growth of Call Center Industry has ushered to the opening of Call Center Training schools. Training schools may be accessed on line where all claim to be best in the field. There are two constants in the area of training; one is that training costs and it is actually consuming large portion of call center’s resources; two is the accounting of the result of the training, there must be an improvement in the performance that would justify the resources spent.

Training is made so as to improve and further develop the performance of an agent. The training satisfies two areas such the personal and individual professional growth of the agent and his delivery of good productivity to the company. With good training, the call center should expect the following results:
- Agents could handle themselves more professionally and with confidence. 
- New hires could no longer be distinguished from the experienced agent.
- Better customer satisfaction. - Better productivity.

Training is not a one time deal, it is continuous. It is an indispensable tool that would help to keep the performance of agents on target. Best agents are those that have both the training and the experience. A call center agent is developed as he faces and handles the widest set of situations in the day to day performance of his job. But an experienced and consistently trained agent performs best. Good training provides additional knowledge and confidence to the agent. An effective training is one that derives its training objectives from the business objectives.  There are two truths with training; it could only claim to be effective when the results are seen and it is a continuing program. Training is a part of growth and development resulting to a better performing individual. Here are some good reasons why a call center executive should be an advocate of continuous training: 
- It boosts morale. An agent would feel motivated will the newly acquired knowledge and added skills.
- It costs less than recruiting and hiring. Call center have the reputation of having the greatest turn over and this could be reduced if not eliminated through training.
- Training stimulates the desire of an individual to improve.
- Training keeps the pace with the rapidly changing technology.
- It develops teamwork and thus results to better productivity.
- Training is an investment that returns many times over. Because it raises morale it directly boosts efficiency and therefore productivity.
- Training raises the rookie to a professional. Investing in training your staff or agents gives the feeling of being valued that could help build their loyalty to the company.  
- It eliminates stress. A good training provides agents with the skills and tools needed to handle stressful situations, especially in dealing with angry customers.



Considering all of these, management and supervisors can rest assured that the call center operation will run smoothly and customers will be satisfied with the service they receive from a motivated call center agent. All Center training is not mere compliance to a system; it is an essential part of development and an absolute requirement, just like computers and head sets to a call center.

Call Center Service Level Matters!

Can your customers reach the services they need, when and as they want?

Source : Brad Cleveland President, ICMI

Accessibility—providing access to the services customers need and want through the channels they choose—goes to the heart of what call centers do. Yes, the quality of services delivered are what ultimately matter… but you can’t even get started until contacts get to the right places at the right times.

The following are well-established principles of managing call center service levels. Reviewing them often and building them into both strategic and day-to-day operational decisions will ensure that your call center is both efficient and accessible—prerequisites to building high-value services.

Categorize contacts correctly. Service level has a specific definition: “X percent of calls answered in Y seconds”—e.g., 90 percent answer within 20 seconds. It is a concrete and stable objective for contacts that must be handled when they arrive, such as telephone calls, text chat, walk-in customers, etc. Response time is the related objective for contacts that don't have to be handled at a specific time, e.g., handling customer email messages within 24 hours. Differentiating between service level and response time is essential because base staff calculations vary for these two major categories of contacts.

Apply appropriate staff calculations. Because of random call arrival, base staff requirements for those contacts that must be handled when they arrive must be predicted by using either a queuing formula that takes random call arrival into account (e.g., the widely-used Erlang C formula) or computer simulation. To calculate the staff required for contacts that do not have to be handled when they arrive, you can generally use a more traditional approach to planning—e.g., if you have 60 customer email messages to process today, which require an average five minutes time, you have 300 minutes of workload to fit into staffing requirements.

Ensure service levels are in parity across contact channels. Being in parity in this context doesn't necessarily mean being equal—e.g., it doesn't mean you necessarily need to respond to email as fast as you answer calls. But it does mean operating within general customer expectations across contact channels. For example, a customer who expects a reply to an email within a few hours but doesn't get it may pick up the phone and call. Similarly, if the customer ends up in an endless telephone queue, they may send an email. Assessing and meeting expectations across contact channels will keep your center in balance.

Manage service levels by increment (interval). Consistent performance by interval (e.g., half hour), is one of the telltale signs of a well-run call center. (Daily, weekly and monthly summary reports often conceal problem areas.) Teach your team to think, plan, report and manage in terms of what’s happening throughout the day—that’s a key to consistent performance.

Don't force occupancy to unrealistic levels. It’s a well-worn principle that when service level gets better, occupancy (the time agents spend handling calls versus waiting for calls) goes down. Therefore, average calls handled per individual also will go down. But remember, this "unproductive" time is sliced into 12 seconds there, two seconds there, and so on, the result of random call arrival. Don't try to force occupancy within an increment to be higher than what base staffing calculations predict it will be, or you will jeopardize service level.

Ensure that budgets reflect workload dynamics. Today's customers demand user-friendly self-service systems and the means to reach well-informed and capable customer service and support representatives when and as they need them. Yes, it's important to do everything possible to provide and encourage customers to use automated support alternatives where that makes sense… but it's also necessary to be realistic about demand for agent-assisted services in operational budgets.

Support service levels with effective workload planning. Effective workload planning involves the totality of forecasting, staff and system calculations, scheduling and real-time management. The most successful call centers have an established, systematic planning process. And good planning provides benefits far beyond accurate schedules… it is a catalyst for the kind of collaboration across the organization that effective customer services require.

In the end, service level must be viewed in the context of a much larger objective: customer satisfaction and loyalty. Service level does not guarantee a great customer experience. But it cannot be minimized, either. It is an enabler—an enabler to everything else that follows!

As president of ICMI, Brad Cleveland has delivered keynotes, executive briefings and consulting services in over 50 countries. ICMI is part of the UBM family of companies, a global leader in business information services with offices around the world. Brad can be reached at bradc@icmi.com.

Team building games for call center agent

Bet you didn't know this

This is...
An icebreaker activity in which participants share little-known facts about themselves.

The purpose is...
For participants to learn something interesting about each other. This information may
prompt some small talk later.

Use this when...
- Individuals already know each other at least a little bit.
- A new team is forming, especially with participants who already know each other.
- People seem bored with each other and need a boost of energy.

Materials you'll need...
- One index card for each participant.
- A straight pin (or tape) for each participant.
- A pen or pencil for each participant.

Here's how...
1. Divide the group into two teams.
2. Give everyone an index card.
3. Have all participants write one little-known fact about themselves on their card.
4. Collect all the cards from Team 1 and Team 2. Place the stack of Team 2's cards aside for now.
5. Randomly distribute Team 1's cards to Team 2, keeping them face down (so participants can't read them).
6. Have the Team 2 participants pin the card they have on their back, written side showing (so that everyone can read the card except the one wearing it).
7. All the participants mingle. Each Team 1 member finds his or her card on the back of a Team 2 member and pairs up with that person.
8. When paired up, the Team 2 member asks the Team 1 member yes/no questions to determine (guess) what is written on the card.
9. Repeat the process for Team 2's cards.

Ask these questions...
- How much did you learn about each other? (I had no idea that she . . . ; I don't want to mess with this guy; Looks are deceiving!)
- How difficult (or easy) was it to guess what was on your card? (Harder than I thought, because I kept wanting to ask more open questions; Easy once I figured out it was a sport she liked.)
- What questions helped you the most? (Questions that were broader; Questions that didn't assume too much to begin with; Just asking lots of questions fast.)
- Why do you think it's important to get to know each other here at work beyond just knowing the tasks that each other performs? (Because we work with the whole person, not just a part of that person; So we can enjoy our time together more; It allows us to appreciate each other better.)
- How can we get to know each other back on the job?

Tips for success...
- After each round, give the group a little time for discussion. Many people will have read the cards that others wrote and be curious who wrote this one or that one. Undoubtedly, there will be a few stories that simply must be told!
- Make sure no one looks at or reads the card that goes on his or her back.
Try these variations...
- Have participants write two statements on their card, one true and one false. Follow the same procedure, but, after the wearer has guessed both statements, he or she then must guess which one is true and which one is not.
- At Step 2, rather than a little-known fact, have participants write a provocative question. At Step 7, Team 1 participants do not pair up with whoever is wearing their card. Instead, everyone mingles freely. As participants read the questions on others' backs, they merely respond to the question (without telling what the question was). Team 2 participants are challenged with guessing what the question on their back is.
- At Step 2, have the participants write a fact that is well known about themselves. At Step 7, Team 2 participants mingle with Team 1 participants and ask them yes/no questions about the fact on their back. The challenge is to guess what is written and who wrote it.

For virtual teams...
This activity works well for groups that are able to communicate with each other via instant messaging, e-mail, or telephone.
1. Pair everyone up.
2. Person A keeps his or her information secret while Person B asks the yes/no questions.
3. Each of the variations listed can work for a virtual team.

Steps to Effective Call Center Scheduling

By Susan J. Campbell, TMCnet Contributing Editor

Call Center Scheduling can be a challenge in that the manager wants to ensure that the center is staffed to respond to anticipated call volumes, but not overstaffed so that agents are sitting idle. Understaffing can create an even bigger problem as customers are forced to wait longer to speak with a live agent and agents are stressed with a heavier work load while trying to still deliver excellent customer service.

As a result, the call center manager must be able to achieve that delicate balance when scheduling for the center. He or she must consider hours of operation; the mix of full-timers, part-timers, permanent and seasonal employees; volume fluctuations; the support staff; occupancy and service level targets; specific customer service representative skill sets; and multimedia contacts and blending.

In order to effectively schedule for the call center, the manager must follow certain steps. First, he or she must gather forecasted call volumes and types that the call center expects over a given period. Second, the manager must establish what service level objectives have been established for the call center.

The call center manager can then distribute the volumes and contact types across a typical week. The next step for the manager is to calculate the base staffing requirements. This can be done using workforce management applications. This practice will help the manager to determine how many active agents are required in each time interval.

Once base staffing requirements are determined, the call center manager must then add in rostered staff factors. This rostering will ensure that the staff level can account for unproductive or non-contact time such as lunches, breaks, training, vacation and sick time.

The manager should next create various models or dummy schedules and run simulation tests to determine the impact on service level and occupancy. To gain a complete understanding of possible scenarios, the manager should create an aggressive model, a conservative model and a mid-point model.

Finally, based on these test results, the call center managers should select the optimal model for his or her call center. It is at this point that staffing level projections can be translated into agent schedules.

As much as following a process like this can help the call center manager develop accurate schedules, no system is fool proof and the proper resources must be in place to handle unexpected peaks and valleys. The most important consideration should always be the level of service that the center is providing the customer and that scheduling is done to achieve or exceed that goal.

Susan J. Campbell is a contributing editor for TMC and has also written for eastbiz.com. To see more of her articles, please visit Susan J. Campbell’s columnist page.

Smart Way To Get Information From Call Centers

Supposed you are looking for some information which is very important for you. To get that information you did call to customer care service but you get disappointed because due to some communication problem you could not get the desire information.
Most customers call to the customer care when they get any problem in their purchased products or if they want to take some useful information from the call center. They dial the company's phone number expecting that someone from the company will respond to their needs. Indeed, someone would take the call. But too often, that someone does not originate from the phone company office.

The person at the other end of the line answers from a call center.

If your approach to get the information for your damage products is not right then remember that the customer service representative will most likely hang up the phone.

To get the accurate and full information for your desired query, here are some good manners for customer.

1. BE CALM
When you are calling to customer care stay calm and do not shout. Realize that the call center agent did not manufacture the defective product you just purchased. They are lowly employee paid to answer the calls of the customers. If you come up with angry attitude then you are just dialing a wrong number. So remain calm.

2. BE POLITE
You have to give the answer with politeness when agents will ask you certain questions like your name, address, birthday, etc. This is for verification purposes. Call center management requires this procedure. Don't get irritate by the call center agent. Instead, answer the questions properly.

3. BE SPECIFIC
Give the essential details like the name the product, model number, name of the store outlet you purchased it from, the date and time, etc. Giving this essential information will greatly help and speed up the kind of help you need. Remember you are complaining about a defective product in this instance, kindly state your problem very clearly.

4. LISTEN CAREFULLY
As soon as the call center agents process your issue, they will respond properly. Listen carefully. In this particular instance, you bought a defective product and you either want it replaced or repaired. If you want it replaced, they will give instructions on how to proceed. If you want it repaired, Agent will then set the necessary appointment

5. SAY THANK YOU
After getting all the information on how to proceed, you are requested to confirm what you understand. Most customers simply hang up the phone after hearing the call center agent's instruction, not knowing the basic information given to them. And when customer will get some problem again then they have to call to customer care and do the same process again. But if you want to save your time just check the details before hung up the call. And when you feel now you have get all the point about the process then at last say thank you to the customer care agent. It will show that you are good person.

Article Source: http://www.1888articles.com/author-marketing-team-1210.html

The Journey to a World-Class Customer Service Culture

Source: http://www.beldingskills.com

Achieving a culture of consistent World-Class Customer Service in any organization is a journey. And like all journeys, there are a few things that need to happen for yours to be a success. A good start, for instance, is to make sure you have a clear understanding of where you are, as well as where you want to end up. It's a good idea to have a map.
Your drivers must have the skill to stay focused on the road, with enough foresight to minimize the bumps, and make the quick stops for things that unexpectedly run out in front of you. They require the ability to navigate through poor conditions. They need to know when its time to step on the gas, and when its time to just sit back and enjoy the scenery.
Your engine should run smoothly with the myriad of specialized, fine-tuned parts all performing independently and interdependently to a common purpose, each trusting the others to accomplish their task. Your vehicle should be proudly cleaned and polished, to protect it from corrosion and the wear and tear of the road.
Keep in mind that stopping to refuel occasionally is not a waste of precious time but a necessity for reaching your destination. Oh - and while you're there, check the oil and change parts that have worn out.
Most importantly, keep reminding yourself why you are on the road in the first place. Believe in the importance of your journey.

20 Tips for Improving Your Contact Center

By Dr. Gary S. Goodman

Every call center or contact center manager wonders how to make his or her unit more productive.

Here is my list of 20 points of leverage, things you can do and have your CSR's and telemarketers do, that should boost your results.

(1) If you want to decrease turnover in service or telemarketing, double the pay! This sounds radical, but it isn't, if you factor in the true costs of recruiting, hiring, training, and then promptly losing good people.

(2) If you want to create turnover in your service unit, implement outbound telemarketing! Say, you need to downsize, but you don't have the heart to let anyone go. Enlarge the job to include selling duties, and you'll thin the ranks, pronto!

(3) Casual dress in your contact center may be getting you casual results, or worse. A major car manufacturer actually measured differential performance based on casual versus formal dress and found tatters less productive than ties.

(4) Stave off boredom & send the right message by playing “The Please & Thank You Game.” Count the number of times you say please and thank-you to customers, just for fun.

(5) Scripts are inevitable in customer service & telemarketing. Even when we think we're winging-it, we're not.

(6) Don’t be needlessly authoritarian: Let a thousand scripts bloom! There are more ways than one to make a sale or to delight a customer!

(7) CSR’s: “Call me MISTER Tibbs!” Don't lets reps sound too chummy with customers who like to be called, Mr. or Miss, or Ms.

(8) “Dear Customer: I’m Here To Listen.” Supervisors should says this when they take a call that is escalating.

(9) Reduce stress & tone up with “desktop” isometrics & free weights. Push aside those corn chips and replace them with little dumbbells. It will be a smart change that can tone you up while reducing your stress.

(10) Don’t mistake customer fear for anger. Fear is the disease that needs to be treated, and anger or customer aggressiveness is only the symptom. Reassure fearful folks; that's what they need.

(11) When recruiting, avoid using the dumb statement: “No phone calls, please!” This is a VOICE job, so you need to hear their voices. Resumes don't sell or service; people do!

(12) Manage the Three T’s: Text, Tone & Timing. These are the key variables in telephone communication. Most otherwise capable managers don't know how to manage tone, but it's crucial.

(13) Reps should self-score their calls and be scored by supervisors. Participative evaluations are the best kind because they get reps to freely commit to improvement. Assigned scores don't work as well.

(14) Gee, why not write a script that doesn’t sound like one? Use words in your scripts that sound uncontrived, like the word, "Gee!"

(15) Do Tibetan Telephoning: Take a cleansing breath between each call. Don't rush to take that next call! You could contaminate it with the mood of the last one if you don't take a cleansing breath, first.

(16) Defining customer satisfaction is half the battle, but it’s necessary. Most of us talk about "service" but that's something we do. Satisfaction is what the customer GETS and WANTS, and that's what we should be focusing on and measuring, constantly.

(17) Introduce merit pay into service work. Salespeople make commissions when they get results, so why shouldn't service folks prosper when they get results?

(18) Customer retention secret: Make an offer they CAN refuse! The gesture counts when we go out of our way to lend a helping hand even if a customer has two good ones of her own.

(19) It’s great to be a telemarketer! There are ten reasons. See my article on this one!

(20) Remember: Customers “R” Us! If you want to know how to thrill your customers, start by remembering when someone thrilled you!

Every tip is also the subject of an original article.

Dr. Gary S. Goodman is a top trainer, conference and convention speaker, and sales, customer service, and negotiation consultant. A frequent expert commentator on radio and TV, he is also the best-selling author of 12 books, more than 1,000 articles and several popular audio and video programs. His seminars are sponsored internationally and he is a faculty member at more than 40 universities, including UC Berkeley and UCLA. Gary brings over two decades of sales, management and consulting experience to the table, with impressive academic credentials: A Ph.D. from USC, an MBA from the Peter F. Drucker School of Management, and a J.D. degree from Loyola Law School, his clients include several Fortune 1000 companies.. His web site is: http://www.customersatisfaction.com and he can be reached at: gary@customersatisfaction.com. His blogs include: YOUR CUSTOMER SERVICE SUCKS! and ALWAYS COLD CALL! at: http://www.alwayscoldcall.blogspot.com Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Dr._Gary_S._Goodman

Metrics Than Help to Manage Call Center

Applying metrics than helps to manage call centre may be more advantageous to come up with immediate resolutions.

Metrics than helps to manage call center – what are they and what benefits can they bring to the call center industry?

Helping the call center can be done by hiring analysts and experts to check the performance of call center agents and the environment of the working place. Analysts can be from independent or hired employees of a call center business. Outside help can provide the industry with sound business strategy, which can be necessary to meet its objectives and defined goals.

However, in managing a call center, help from experts may be costly or even ineffective at a certain degree. In call center management, one of the things that managers of contact centers can use to measure efficiency and efficacy of the business functions is the metric system. One of the metrics for measuring the performance of the call center agents, as well as the managers, supervisors, and other employees with direct relation to the business and its functions is the KPI.

KPI is perhaps one of the popular metrics, either financial or non-financial, for measuring the activities that may be too complex to quantify, but are still quantifiable. This metric tool, known as key performance indicator, can be used to assess factors that are crucial to the functions and strategies of businesses. The factors which may be seen as key performance indicators may be critical in meeting the objectives of a business enterprise, in this case, the call centre business.

The factors that may be crucial to a call center business may include the proficiency and competency of employees, particularly agents, the average response time of calls, the rate of abandoned calls, the cost per call, and customer satisfaction.

The things that need to be quantified and measured can be kept at a minimum number. As they say, less is more. Thus, the factors that can be considered key performance indicators should only be those that have direct connection and response to the performance of a call centre business.

KPI of call centers can be used not only to measure the performance, but also to help identify strengths and weaknesses in the work setting. The performance metric can, likewise, be utilized to determine and diagnose the problems and drivers of performance gaps.
Moreover, KPI may also be applied in call center businesses to come up with prescribed actions for performance enhancement. In some cases, it can be benchmarked to industry peers so other players of the call center industry can come up with ideas for performance measurement. Further, the use of KPI can help a call center business in establishing the performance goals for the entire organization.

The balanced scorecard is another metric that can be used in call center management to assess the performance in the call center agent level and other departments in the call center business. It is also a performance measurement that can assess quantifiable and complex activities that have importance in the call center business. Balanced scorecard software is a tool that can help call center managers in determining the performance level and rate in the business.

Assessing performance involves measures than helps to manage call center. Other tools and methods proven to be effective can also be applied in call center management.

Measure & Control Call Center Performance

To measure and control call center performance, you will need to gauge the rate at which it is performing. These measures can show you how.

Simple call centers evolving into multi-channel contact centers do not just happen in a whiff. Adding or upgrading technologies and expanding staff skills are important following the addition of new applications such as e-mail and web chat. Also, it is necessary to determine which performance measurements should be used for this new kind of operation.

Performance measures that are associated with service are said to be the most important. These measures may work for both call and contact centers or change depending on the type of transaction.

An example of call center performance measure is blockage. This accessibility measure indicates the rate of customers at which they cannot access the center at a specific time due to inadequate network facilities. Measures that indicate blockage or busy signals by occurrences of “busy trunk lines” are utilized by most call centers. Failure of a blockage goal enables a center to meet its rate of answer goal by blocking excess calls. It may appear as if the call center is doing a good job at managing call queues, but it can actually have a negative impact on customer accessibility.

The call center should also carefully know how much facilities are needed for email server capacity and bandwidth to avoid huge quantities of emails from overloading the system. The same goes for the number of lines that support fax services, which must be adequate enough to allow reasonable blockage.

Another way to measure call center performance is through abandon rate. Call centers usually gauge the number and rate of abandons because both correlate in terms of revenues and retention. However, it has to be noted that the abandon rate is not completely under the control of the call center. While the average waiting time in queue can affect abandons, there are a lot of other factors affecting this number, among which include availability of service alternatives, time of day, caller tolerance and many others. Also, while the abandon rate measure is not commonly related with email interactions, it applies, however, to web chat communications.

Self-service availability and utilization is also an important accessibility measure and is commonly gauged by self-service menu points and methodology, demographic group or time of day.

On the other hand, the most common measure for speed of answer in a call center is the service level. Meanwhile, the longest delay in queue (LDQ) is another gauge for speed of answer, which is used to indicate when it is necessary for immediate staffing reactions. LDQ is categorized into two namely longest delay to answer and longest delay to abandon. The former is the delay for a customer’s transaction to be finally handled by the agent and the latter is delay for a customer to abandon the contact.

These measures usually gauge the speed of call center performance. There are still many other performance measures applicable to call centers, both in-bound and multi-channel. These may be used to measure individual agent performance or overall call center operations. In all cases, these measures should be used to determine performance excellence as well as gaps that need improvement with different adjustments.

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Value Creation in Call Centre

by Niels Kjellerup,
The Bubble is ready to burst.
It is only 18 months since the Dot Com bobble burst. Today similar signs are on the horizon for the CRM & Contact Centre Bobble.
Over the last 12 months Customer Satisfaction has been dropping in all Industry categories – the message is very clear : “We don’t like to be treated like cattle; we don’t like talking to machines when we call to get help or assistance, and we hate the long waits on the phone”.
The Companies, which allowed their IT departments to dictate their Customer Service Delivery Platforms and Policies, are finally waking up to the fact, that the promised Return on Investment (ROI) is not going to materialise and the customers are walking to the competition with better service.
It’s easy to point the finger at the Vendors & Consultants who sold this piece of blue sky. Over the past 5 years a minimum of $30 billion was invested in CRM- E-commerce-Call Centres with very little to show for it. Call Centres are failing because they aren’t adding value to the Business Model

Senior management permitted Customer Service to be removed from the Business Model and allowed it to become an appendix, where customers were kept at arms length at as low a cost as possible. The Call Centre became a Call Producing Factory only interested in cost per call, length of call. Adoption of these vendor dictated Metrics gave the Call Centre its False Benchmarks.
Management failed by not applying common sense and asking : “ If the customer is our most important asset and the sole source of our revenue stream – how come Call Centres are not measured on how they add value to revenue”?
Sales were happy, as they didn’t have to share revenue with any one else.
Marketing was happy, as no one had to pay attention to the feedback from the customers via the Call Centres.
Call centre management was unhappy, but nobody had to pay attention as cost centres are normally invisible to Senior Management.
The real challenge.
Corporations need to revisit their Business Model and review the core role customers have in ensuring profit growth above and beyond, what can be achieved by cost cutting. Any Business Model, that does not see Customer Service Delivery as an essential integral part of future revenue creation, will fail. Viewing sales as an interactive process with the customer is the key to this change. Selling is Service and Service is Selling.
CRM fails along side the Call Centre Channel, when the Business Model doesn’t view sales, marketing & service as an integral process.
Only Senior management can review and implement these changes.
Capturing Value Creation in the Call Centre.
The CRM & Call Centre Vendors failed to provide us with the tools, we need to capture & document the Customers Experience. In fact because they only could measure the mechanics of the call, they created a ‘false’ science of how to manage a call centre based on call metrics. Sure you need some operational data to optimise manning and minimise waste – but to make this the purpose of your activity – you gotta be kidding.
The first step is to realise, that these so called ‘Best Practices’ are seriously flawed and led us into the tunnel of no meaningful productivity gains in the first place.
Second step is to realise that High Customer Satisfaction or Excellent Customer Experience matters not at all, unless this is reflected in the customer becoming more profitable to the Business Model. In other words, unless we can develop methodologies and applications, which allows us to document, how the Customer Experience leads to more sales at less cost, we’re still fighting the windmills.
Third step is to realise that the flip side to the coin called Customer Experience is Senior Management Satisfaction. The Call Centre provides Senior Management Satisfaction by Value Creation, i.e. engaging customers in interaction with the Aim of 1) Taking cost & Time out of the process of doing business with us, 2) Marketing & 3) Selling. Ensuring that these values are captured, documented & part of the Business Model is the primary job of Call Centre Management.
Light at the end of the tunnel.
Call me an optimist, but in the last 12 months I have travelled the world with this message and been in front of 100’s of major corporations with large Call Centre operations. Every single senior manager, I spoke to, understood and accepted the need to integrate the Call Centre with the Business Model and focus on Value Creation.
Restore Customer Values to all your activities and trust your common sense more than the Vendor-Metrics and you have a head start on the competition. I have located technology (Eyretel) which enables capture & documentation of Value Creation and lets the Call Centre deliver senior management satisfaction for a change value to the Business Model.

Productivity Measure in Call Centres (Quantity versus Quality)

By Editor Niels Kjellerup, Senior Partner in Resource International

The Unites States Government Bureau of Statistics was measuring productivity improvements incorrectly during the 90’s. This is one of the fascinating facts uncovered by Bob Woodward in his new book “ Maestro: Greenspan’s Fed and the American Boom”. It details Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan’s search for an explanation why the official statistics showed declining productivity in the Service Sector while employment was increasing dramatically. In September 96 Greenspan finally had proof that the measurements Models for service delivery were plain wrong. In Greenspan’s words “ There is a real world out there and they are not measuring it properly”. As a result the Fed kept interest rates steady and the US Economy continued to boom.
Why is this discovery important to the Call Centre Industry ?

More money has been invested in Technology to improve service delivery & customer satisfaction in the last ten years in the Industrialised World than ever before, YET customer satisfaction is dropping , in the US, in the UK, Europe and Australia/NZ .
The only answer is that we’re measuring Call Centre productivity incorrectly. By adopting our measurements from Vendors and their models for productivity improvements we’re letting the customer down.
Most vendors present a business case outlining how the investment will lead to Call Centre Productivity Gains and a satisfactory Return on Investment… but in most cases these ‘Investment justification documents’ are not related to organisations Business Purposes, ie more revenue at less cost or improved complaint handling at less costs. These so called Business Plans view the Call Centre as a ‘ Call Production Factory ‘ and only looks at quantitative measures – such as : Number of calls per Rep( always called AGENTS), Call Length & Wrap up Time. Vendors rarely understand your business or the role of the Call Centre in the Customer Contact Process, yet we let them define the key measurements of the Call Centre. Sure it is easier to adopt such ready-to-use measures, but what happened to our own understanding of the Call Centres role in the organisation ?
Better Measurements are available.
The TARP Teleservice Research from 1997 for the first time established that Call OUTCOME was a senior measurement to ensure the Call Centre was fulfilling its mission.
Sure you need to have operational measurements for no of calls and average call length, how else can you use your Erlang tables to produce rational staffing schedules. But who said these measures were the deciders if the Call Centre is successful or not ? Only the vendors.
To introduce better measures for success or failure for your Call Centre and your staff , in teams or individually, you had better start looking at the business purpose of the Call Centre and its role in the Customer Contact Process and how value is created and added to companies bottom line.
Individual Performance Based measurements.
In a recent Case Study I meet with a young Manager for a Call Centre in Australia, owned and run by a US based conglomerate. His story : “Last year (2000) I scrapped the quantitative measurements which we had been given by our US Parent, as Best in Class to manage and supervise our 60 reps. Instead we introduced Individual Performance Based Measures, which reflected the reps success with the customer. Naturally I was called to US to explain, but when I showed it had led to a 20% increase in revenue & a fall in cost per order, the change in key performance measurements was accepted.”
We’re (Resource International) currently conducting a series of Case Studies to document how Individual Performance Based Measures helps focus the Call Centre on call outcome and help demonstrate to senior management, how the Call Centre is actually adding value and an acceptable return on Call Centre Investment.
You need to question those ' wrong-measures': " which should determine and drive your Call Centre's future?" - "Are we actually delivering better outcomes to customers?"- " How do we measure that, and how do we introduce Performance Based Measures for our reps and supervisors ?."