Brief article on key thoughts for how to maximize utilization of call center staff given unpredictability of call arrival patterns.

1. Article : Top Tips For Getting Your Staff To Improve Customer Service - CRM, Contact ... Page 1 of 4
EDITION: GLOBAL NORTH AMERICA CENTRAL & SOUTH AMERICA UK & IRELAND EUROPE MIDDLE EAST & AFFRICA AUSTRALIA & NEW ZEALAND ASIA
OVER 121,000 MEMBERS
The Global Association for Contact Center Best Practices & Networking
CHANNELS: Agent Zone Benchmarking CRM HR Outsourcing Performance Quality Technology Telecom Training Workforce Management
Top Tips For Getting Your Staff To Improve Customer Service
Industry Awards
We wanted to know from contact center professionals their top tips in regards to getting staff members Login
Industry Certification motivated to provide the best possible customer service. Each tip provides wisdom that can help you Username:
find the way to excelling in your service levels.
For Your Center Password:
Conferences & Events - a survey by Joss Jalbert, ContactCenterWorld.com
Editorial Features
Forgot Password?
"Contact center science shows that of all quality drivers and drivers of employee commitment Become a Member
Articles & Papers
Case Studies
to customer satisfaction, one of the most powerful is supervisory and peer support of fellow
Contact Center/CRM News service team members during the service delivery process. Provide adequate supervisory
Customer Service Stories support, and cultivate team-based support processes and practices. If you want to raise Newsletter Registration
Contact Center Research employee retention, hire, train, and retain great call center supervisors. Look for (or cultivate)
Executive Interviews supervisors that have exceptional skills in team building, conflict management, quality Email:
Today's Contact Center Tip
Video Interviews
monitoring, training, mentoring, time management, attrition management, coaching, coaching
and coaching. Then make annual supervisor training mandatory, for current supervisors and
Forums team leads.
Tools & Utilities Good supervisory support practices in a team environment are infectious. You’ll reap more
and more service improvements for less and less investment."
Site Map
About this Site
- Nina Kawalek, CEO, RCCSP Professional Education Alliance, United States
Contact Us
"S-O-P. Standard Operating Procedures. There are few things more frustrating than asking
two agents the same question and getting two different answers, then escalating to a
supervisor and getting a third answer, then reviewing your account documents and finding
that none of the answers are consistent with the guidelines you have in writing. Standardize
FEATURED SUPPLIERS your processes and get everyone working from the same playbook."
on ContactCenterWorld.com this
week: - John Gourdin, Financial Advisor, New York Life, United States
"Recruitment and selection of agents who have a positive attitude, as being enthusiastic
Top Ranking Performers during the call will open up impactful conversations, knowledge and other skills can be trained
Conferences 2010 in, but a good attitude is part of persons make up."
- Christine Bryant, Head of Contact Centre Management, Wunderman, United Kingdom
14
Blue Ocean Contact Centers "To attend correct customer service training. Any training that is given must be fully piloted
and examined to ensure that this is correct for the call centre that you are trying to develop.
There are many courses that are available and places for example the Industrial society may 28
be something that may be considred."
- Pat Webber, Change Manager, United Kingdom
41
TopPlace2Work
LATEST MEMBERS
ASSISTAT MANAGER
OPERATIONS
HCL-BSERVE
OPERATIONS
Allnone
MANAGER
ACS INC
PROGRAM MANAGER
AGESS RESEARCH
CONSULTANT
"Place more emphasis on people skills versus technical expertise/experience. Hire people Over 121,163 Members in the
oriented agents who genuinely care about helping others and they will overcome technical contact center, help desk,
OPEX Hosting CRM industry
learning curves. The genuinely care factor is very difficult to teach." View members' directory
- Silvio Stroescu, Head of National Channels, Analytics and Support, ING Direct, Canada
"Burn out. Managers and agents have to be very aware of the initial signs of burn out, cancers
or agents that play the "wait till I get fired game". Momentum and rhythm can either make or
break a campaign and there should never be a weak link to the chain. Address the situation
immediately, show compassion and if possible, work with the agent to have them find their
Global Benchmarking Study of
composure and go the distance. If you see the agent has lost their spark or desire to be
Top Performers successful, they must be removed and substituted with a fresh face that is ready to conquer
the world. Just remember, it is nothing personal and is in the best interest of the company and
especially, the client."
- Richard Blank, CEO, Costa Rica's Call Center, Costa Rica
http://www.contactcenterworld.com/static/ar/ar_%7B3021E373-692F-4C59-9BA6-15D6A... 5/26/2010

2. Article : Top Tips For Getting Your Staff To Improve Customer Service - CRM, Contact ... Page 2 of 4
"My tip would be for managers and not for the staff. Role playing, quizzes, and interactive
Business Systems UK Ltd
training will get better results than handing out employee handbooks and pacing the floor
admonishing employees that don't have their shirts tucked in or sound tired on the phone.
Having employees play your customers can help them anticipate problems, learn to have
empathy, and think like your customers do."
- Russell Schmidt, CEO, Extenda Communications, United States
Click on the company name for more
details!
"Trust your staff more, and give them the training they need to be more successful. You
invariably get significant performance improvements when you give contact centre agents
more control over different aspects of their jobs."
- Robert Wint, Senior Vice President Marketing, EMEA, Verint Systems , United Kingdom
"When we analyse calls handled by agents that receive the highest customer satisfaction
results, there are quite a few observations that differentiate their calls. Using the ContactPlus
evaluation framework, those agents who provide a great service rate higher on skills and
behaviours such as listening, questioning and empathy. However, if I were to distil these skills
and behaviours into one tip it would be – “Always try to deal with each customer the way that
you would like to be treated”. It really is the golden rule, and all of us who work in call centres
also spend enough times speaking to call centres as a customer to be able to put ourselves in
the shoes of our customers."
- James Eyre, Head of UK Sector Marketing, Vertex, United Kingdom
"Make sure one of the final steps in the selection process involves, if at all possible, having
the candidate spend time on the production floor with people actually doing the job for which
they are applying. It's an eye opening experience to some, and despite best efforts many do
not seem to fully grasp the concept until they see it "live." I'll also offer another tip - Employee
Engagement teams. Make sure front line employees (a sub-set that represents the larger
group) are actively involved in issue resolution, policy creation and continuous improvement
efforts of the site to the greatest extent possible. They usually have the right answers. When
in doubt (and often when not), ask the front line employees."
- Ellen Hosafros, Marketing Communications Manager, Connextions Inc, United States
"Put yourself in the mind of your customers. Most of us have had a poor customer service
experience at some point in our lives, and we often find ourselves saying, if they would only
take time to think about how this makes me feel."
- Steve Shefveland, CEO, Ashesi Global Services, Inc. (AGS), United States
"Commitment to customer satisfaction. When it comes to your staff it is important to hire
people who sincerely care about the needs of others. An employee that honestly cares about
the welfare of others will make the best effort to satisfy their needs and wants. Maintaining a
staff that takes pride in supporting and solving customer problems is the best way to provide
the highest level of customer service."
- Dan Whelan, Senior Vice President, Worldwide Support, Epicor Software Corporation,
United States
"Situations cannot be pre-scripted but the skills to structure the handling of any situation can
be taught. Staff has to be taught key skills related to resolving contradictions making use of
readily available resources to make them more innovative in their thinking.
Systems can crash, staff strength may be low on any given day, the volume of customer
transactions may spike and many other things could go wrong but the structured approach to
each situation remains unchanged. This is a key skill that staff need to be taught to avoid
situations like staff blanking out for lack of answer, staff regurgitating what was taught to them
in their induction training."
- Aditya Bhalla, Practice Head, Innovation Practice, QAI Global Service, India
"People are generally more capable than managers give them credit for and enjoy being
involved in solutions. Treat them as you would wish them to treat your customers and involve
them in improvement. They usually know what needs fixing and just need the tools and
methodologies to help them."
- Sue Warner, Call Center - Manager, Six Sigma Student - Southampton Solent
University, United Kingdom
"High employee engagement is the first step to good/great customer satisfaction scores.
Proper coaching and training is also required, but if you have the commitment and
engagement from your team members you’re heading in the right direction."
- Phil Taylor, Head Of Sales & Service Toronto, ING Direct, Canada
"To deal with any enquiry at the first point of contact and when it can’t be resolved straight
away be pro-active in responding. Never leave a customer feeling like their problem has not
been taken seriously or solved.
If you act fast, customers are more likely to want to return to you. Even if you don’t get the
problem resolved first time the fact that you have contacted the customer to provide them with
an update will leave them with a positive experience."
- Jonathan Grant, CEO, New Voice Media, United Kingdom
http://www.contactcenterworld.com/static/ar/ar_%7B3021E373-692F-4C59-9BA6-15D6A... 5/26/2010

3. Article : Top Tips For Getting Your Staff To Improve Customer Service - CRM, Contact ... Page 3 of 4
"Empower your support staff to make decisions on exceptions--the best retailers do this.
When you have a problem, the CSR offers solutions and often includes some sort of
compensation (e.g., free shipping, a discount, a credit, etc.) for your trouble. Educate the
CSRs so they can make these decisions and help smooth rocky customer relationships."
- Patricia Seybold, CEO, Patricia Seybold Group, United States
"Staff members want to do a good job, but 95% of what goes on in a call center is controlled
by the processes. Look at improving the processes to help the staff shine."
- Dave Thomson, European Marketing Manager, Cisco Systems, United Kingdom
"Take the initiative to be an advocate of your clients. Put the requirements for training,
scheduling, documentation, procedures, and systems needs in the context of how it will
enable superior service. Help management understand WHY things have to improve so that a
clearly communicated ROI in terms of service improvement, customer retention, and over time
market share, can be attributable to what may appear initially as trite requests. Have the
courage and fortitude to persist - companies need more "heroes" at the front line, and to get
them, it is going to mean taking the risks to get that point across."
- Steve Callahan, Practice Development Director, R E Nolan Company, United States
"Tackle call pattern forecasting to within 90%. Until you know when you actually need your
agents there, you are never going to overcome high queues and long wait times for
customers."
- David Shaffer, Director, West Corporation, United States
Related Articles
• Motivating Employees to Take Pride
• Tips For Improving Customer Service Through Staff
•
What Are The Biggest Challenges Facing The Industry? Part 1
•
Three Days With The Best In The World
•
Three Days With The Best In The World
•
How Call Blending Can Help You Achieve Maximum Service Levels
About ContactCenterWorld.com:
ContactCenterWorld.com (www.ContactCenterWorld.com), the conference, research and on-line
magazine for the contact center industry is a resource for contact center professionals around the world.
Through a unique blend of high value editorials and carefully placed advertising, clients around the
world benefit from substantial exposure and quality leads. We currently have over 120,000 corporate
members of which 40% are at a senior executive level within Contact Centers globally. The quality
content on the site is what draws 7,500 unique users every day.
Date Published: Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Printer friendly version
Recommend to a friend
Bookmark & Share
ContactCenterWorld.com Forums
Training & HR
Your place to post comments, queries and anything else you want to share about Training & HR.
View All Forums
Start a New Topic
1 2 3 4 5 6
Topic Latest Post
Today's Tip Of The Day - "Test Skills When Recruiting" Wed, May, 19 2010 7:06 AM EST
Today's Tip Of The Day - "Team Leaders" Thu, May, 13 2010 5:26 AM EST
Today's Tip Of The Day - "Incentives" Mon, May, 10 2010 3:24 PM EST
Today's Tip Of The Day - "Educate To Accumulate!" Mon, May, 10 2010 2:48 PM EST
Today's Tip Of The Day - "Recognition" Sun, May, 2 2010 5:00 AM EST
Today's Tip Of The Day - "Stop-Start-Continue" Fri, Apr, 23 2010 9:11 PM EST
Today's Tip Of The Day - "Cancel Training At Your Peril" Fri, Apr, 23 2010 6:08 AM EST
Today's Tip Of The Day - "Scripting" Fri, Apr, 23 2010 5:37 AM EST
Today's Tip Of The Day - "Recruiting The Right Staff" Thu, Apr, 22 2010 7:48 PM EST
Benchmark request: time spent in training? Wed, Apr, 21 2010 8:17 PM EST
Today's Tip Of The Day - "Think About Demotivating Your Wed, Apr, 21 2010 1:51 PM EST
http://www.contactcenterworld.com/static/ar/ar_%7B3021E373-692F-4C59-9BA6-15D6A... 5/26/2010

4. Article : Top Tips For Getting Your Staff To Improve Customer Service - CRM, Contact ... Page 4 of 4
Staff"
Today's Tip Of The Day - "Training Sweetener" Mon, Apr, 19 2010 5:30 PM EST
Taking Pride in your Work Mon, Apr, 19 2010 6:58 AM EST
Profiling New Hires Mon, Apr, 19 2010 6:58 AM EST
Team Developement Mon, Apr, 19 2010 6:58 AM EST
1 2 3 4 5 6
-Back To Top-
| Request Information from CRM & Contact Center Suppliers | About ContactCenterWorld |
| Advertise CRM & Contact Center Solutions | Link to this site |
| Submit CRM and Contact Center Content | Contact Us | Privacy Policy |
| Recommend this site to other CRM & Contact Center Professionals | Disclaimer |
©ContactCenterWorld.com 1999-2010
The Global Support Organization For Contact Center Professionals & the place for information on:
Internet Telephony (IP), IVR, Knowledge Management (KM), Metrics, Multimedia Contact Center, Offshore Outsourcing, On Hold, Outsourcing, Predictive Dialers, Quality Monitoring, Recruitment, Self Service, Speech
Recognition, Telemarketing, Virtual Contact Center, VoIP, Web Chat, Work at Home
http://www.contactcenterworld.com/static/ar/ar_%7B3021E373-692F-4C59-9BA6-15D6A... 5/26/2010