Customer Service King

It’s been a great year for me and yet another one to add to my experience in the industry.

I was given a chance to write for a great blog network, thank you Tim Stay for introducing me to Know More Media.  Since I started blogging, despite of my hectic and erratic schedule, I’ve loved every minute of it and still loving it.  It has given me a chance to fulfill one of my dreams – to be a writer and be heard.  Thanks to all the readers who dropped by, shared their thoughts and still reading.

I had the opportunity to travel to Australia, to learn the aviation industry.  Met a lot of people and learned to live and breathe their culture.  I traveled for business but came back home to gain a new best friend.  The challenge of focusing on a project that was considered to be “gold” and taking care of a department while I was out of the country was rewarding.  Pressure was intense and the expectations were very high.  Working with a company that took customer satisfaction to a higher level was priceless.

It is important that a call center manager has in his possession a tool that will aid him to run the site as efficient as possible.  I’ve always relied on data and calculations when doing analysis on call monitoring or training effectiveness.  This is the same for operations and workforce management.

Call Center Mathematics, a scientific method for understanding and improving contact centers is authored by Ger Koole.  Topics include staffing levels, call forecasting, the Erlang C formula, abandonment of calls, workforce planning and more.  You can download the book for free and utilize different calculators such as call blending, multiple intervals plus a simulation tool for two skill sets.

The OBP research group has dedicated a site that discusses the quantitative management of call centers.  It is a great resource for research and experimentation.

Sharing with you has been a blast!  I’m blessed to share my thoughts to a wide range of readers.  Different opinions from all walks of life have made this blog soar to new heights.

With the advice column, my posts were geared towards the audience.  It was gratifying to quench your thirst for knowledge; as basic as what a call center agent is all about, voice management which is critical to an agent’s job, expectations of an airline customer representative, passing recruitment interviews and assessments, improving agent attendance and call handling skills.

The stories and jokes that have been emailed are what we need in this industry.  A little laughter along the way has helped thousands of people to cope with the stressful environment, along with the challenges in the day to day tasks.

As always, we learn something new everyday.  Finding out call centers are expanding to nations like Bhutan, prison inmates are agents, a prayer request is just a call away, looking at CSAT in telemarketing plus new innovations in recruitment.

The list hasn’t ended yet.  If you haven’t read most of the posts yet, here are more to gobble up before the year ends.

Outsourcing has always been a topic that is both political in nature and will strike in everyone’s chord.  It has always been tied to complaints due to a heavy accent and the acceptance of what English should be.  Training organizations opened and flourished, trying to convince businesses they have the best solution to offer and improve English communication skills.  If it succeeds, does it help customer satisfaction?

A humble beginning with intense passion for quality and writing, this year has given me the chance to write and share my thoughts to my readers around the globe.  It’s been a fulfilling year here in Know More Media.  Here are the most prolific topics that have been written and discussed.

A never-ending discussion on utilizing scripts, seeing both sides of the coin, the community had different perspectives on how this works.  Home based jobs was a hot topic for working students, single mom and dads, retired businessmen and even whose personality couldn’t take the corporate environment.

A myriad of agent topics, focusing on coaching from a call monitoring perspective to scorecards, understanding the differences in cultures and managing performance to ensure 0% attrition by boosting morale of the workforce.

Continue on to more favorite and interesting posts...

Krissy of BPO Tiger discusses virtual representatives being the biggest threat to the outsourcing industry.  Companies have started this a few years back and now one of the largest call centers, Convergys will be utilizing a mix of human interaction and virtual representatives.

Should we start worrying? NO.

The concept is sound but with the current trend of “delighting” customers (and believe me it’s not going to change anytime soon), this concept will not affect the industry nor will it be a popular choice.  Yes, it helps the businesses cut costs and it “avoids” outsourcing more work, but it will not help companies retain their clients.

I read a post by Dr Catriona Wallace speaking of her experience when she visited a call center in Changi Women’s Prison, Singapore.  Having to learn of a nation called Bhutan was something to rejoice about; realizing that we expanded to other countries, but this is a first for me. It was to much my surprise that there was even one that existed.

I admit that negativity set in as soon as I finished reading.  This explains the questions that lingered in my thoughts.  How is it being managed?  What are the precautions?  What calls are they handling?  What type of recruitment or assessment does each candidate go through?  Are they being monitored like any other center?  How are they being trained?

Here's an insightful article by Allison Kaplan that originally appeared in The Minneapolis-St. Paul Pioneer Press:

It's that time of year when we reflect on what really matters, like being able to find a salesperson when we're ready to pay.

Better customer service never seems to come in Santa's bag, so the following list of retail resolutions is intended to inspire salespeople, store owners and producers of objects of all kinds to make improvements. Because no matter what differences exist between us, fundamentally, we all want the same thing: To shop without pulling out our hair.

You've got to dream big.

Dear retailers:

• Unless you'd like to go out on a date, don't ask for our phone numbers at the register. Being pumped for personal information makes a shopper think twice about buying.
• When a customer presents a gift receipt to return merchandise, don't ask for the original receipt. Obviously, she doesn't have it. As the term 'gift receipt' suggests, the item was a gift.
• On the subject of receipts, why do they seem to get longer with each trip to the checkout counter? All we need is a record of the purchase A A- not an unwieldy scroll of advertisements, store information and coupons for the very items just purchased. Inevitably, the coupons will expire before these goods are used up.
• Also on the subject of receipts, set the cash register to print out the copy that needs signing first. Then, we'll have something to do while the customer copy is printing, rather than standing there jiggling our car keys, as so often seems to be the case. It's all about empowering the guest.
• Scan the credit card for us until your store can streamline the self-scanner situation. That machine is always covered in tape, or it is positioned too close to the counter to make a complete swipe or it simply doesn't work. We're annoyed.
• Don't think you're fooling us with the buy one, get one half off sale. The only people who need two are twins.
• Keep a few sweaters and jackets and mittens and boots in the store at least through February. It's a long winter, and we're apt to lose stuff.
• Stop basing shipping fees on the price of the item (Macy's). It should not cost more to mail a dress than a new piece of luggage because the little slip of a dress happens to be a designer garment. Base the fees on weight, just like they do at the post office.
• Offer a broader range of sizes in stores, not just online. Whether tall, petite or curvy, we'd all like the opportunity to try things on before buying.
• If you're going to sell pants that are a mile long, include free alterations A A- even when the merchandise is on sale.
• If you're going to 'support a cause' with sales from designated merchandise, have the integrity to disclose how much is actually being donated and where the money is going.
• Lots of us appreciate fashion even though we lack the means to drop $200 on a simple cotton top. If boutique owners want to steal our business away from the mall, they need to seek out more affordable but still stylish lines. High prices are not the only way to distinguish a specialty shop.
• Memo to shopping centers: Get some new stores. We're bored. Bored with seeing the same chain stores everywhere. Bored with not knowing if we're in Woodbury or Maple Grove A A- and not caring. Bored, bored, bored.
• While it would seem to go without saying, this clearly needs to be said once again: Get off the phone, stop chitchatting with co-workers, remain within eyesight of the cash register. Acknowledge us and offer assistance, but don't hover. And we, in turn, will be appreciative and less grumpy.
• And stop claiming this is the last chance to save. We know there will be another sale tomorrow.

I’ve discussed the possibilities of Precision Monitoring in your center.  I’m certain that you’ve come up with more objectives and criteria to start implementing this. This is the next step in the process.

If you have the luxury of spending money, getting a system that offers speech analytics will make your job easier when picking the calls.  If not, then you can either do the following:

• Use existing data that your quality team has and let them tag calls that match your purpose and criteria. 
• Let agents tag the calls through your CRM applications.  This can be done by adding a category or modifying how your data is grouped.  Choose the type of issues or perhaps classifying them by product. You can then search the calls in your monitoring system, whether it is 100% recorded or not.
• Random monitoring can also be used as a last resort, but it might not be as useful as the first two options.

I’ve been working in the industry for so long that my body has adapted to the graveyard shift.  A year ago, I had to go back to living and working around the normal shifts – daytime.  It was tough and had to compromise with the bosses and came in late in the morning so that I can do more work when operations close for the day.  This came in handy, since I had to take care of the department and meet with my night managers.

Now, my work schedule has been erratic.  Since I need to cover all of the accounts and meet with my staff from different shifts, you can say I’m truly a 24x7 manager.  There came a point where I couldn’t follow my own schedule because it was difficult to wake up causing my body clock to get confused.  Talk about sleep deprivation.  I was hurting.