Customer Service King

Do you have your own website that caters to the call center industry?  Do you work in a call center and write about your experiences while at work in your personal blog?  Do you have iGoogle and get your customized updates on your personal home page?  Maybe you’d like to check out our latest posts using an alternative way other than subscribing to RSS readers.  If you answered yes to any of these questions and agree with the last statement, then the Call Center Script widget is what you need.

So, if you are in the mood to share what you’ve read and would like to help spread the word, get the widget and publish it.

Thank you in advance for the tremendous support! Keep on reading!

There are tons of articles and even research studies that claim that working on the night shift is unhealthy, especially, if coupled with a high stress environment. I'm not discounting the fact that it has its disadvantages, more so for those who are day walkers. But, being an agent can mean shifting your sleeping habits just to earn a living.

This is true for those who work in centers that are open 24 x 7 and who service the international markets like India and the Philippines.

To keep yourself sane and healthy, the adjustment phase is crucial for you to survive. Transitioning to the night shift, one has to start practicing sleeping during the day and work out your schedules, even before you start your first day on the job.

Give yourself at least two weeks or a month is even better if this is your first time. If you've been doing this for quite some time, then make sure you are on a good shifting schedule and changes should be minimal, about 2 hours earlier or later, not more than 4 though.

The report is comprehensive, yet it is concise and offers a simple analysis of its findings.  It summarizes the most important aspects in the business that focuses on management and employment practices across Asia, Africa, South America, North America and Europe.  Covering almost 2,500 centers in 17 countries that include 475,000 call center employees, it paints a holistic picture of the industry.

Excerpts from the report include:

Results suggest that institutional factors, business strategies, and operational choices play important roles in shaping call center management and employment outcomes.

Centers that target a unique customer group are able to design their management and employment systems to match the demand characteristics of that group.

Subcontractors differ significantly from in-house centers in their management and employment systems. It may be explained by their higher strategic emphasis on cost reduction and greater fluctuation in demand as they handle multiple client contracts.

Here are some of the questions that will be answered in their study:

I personally don't like dealing with IVRs, but it is integral to any call center. It has its pros and cons, and it really depends on what the center's call volume looks like. It also depends on the company's strategy and focus on customer satisfaction.

I'd like to highlight Gus' ideas on how the IVR should be set up. He is one of our newest readers, having to “stumble upon” our site. Here is what he has to say.

An IVR should be as simple as possible, and should the customer select the wrong option, the process of transferring to another department should be done quickly and painlessly, without the customer having to re-verify.

Press 1 - Billing
Have this option first, as injured pockets are the worst thing to deal with, and people always want to get through as soon as possible.

Press 2 - Technical Enquiries
It doesn't work. Put me through to someone that a) knows what I'm talking about and b) knows about the product and how to rectify problems when they occur.

Press 3 - All Other Enquiries
People handling these calls shouldn't be “new starts” who may not know where to direct a particular call, but multi-skilled agents who can either deal with the call themselves, or have the savvy to be able to direct it to the appropriate place . Customers who don't like IVRs always look for the “all other enquiries” option - I do - and it becomes very frustrating when companies try to hide it.

A pattern has emerged. When we analyzed the attrition reports, we've noticed there were more nursing students who either went on AWOL after training or after 6 months. When we talked to some of them during the exit interviews, they had the same answer. They only joined the industry to get paid enough to continue pursuing their nursing course.

There is a huge demand for nurses abroad, and it pays well. But, it is also expensive as this is a medical profession.

This is where the interest of joining a call center comes in. It's not only the pay that attracts them but also a chance to practice their English skills, for them to be ready when they need to leave the country, as soon as their visa is ready.

Though they are loyal employees and very determined, it's difficult to keep them long enough because being a call center agent is just a means to an end.

Despite the need for more people to fill the center's seats, recruitment is now hesitant to hire someone who intends to become a nurse in a few months.

It takes a lot of patience and being mindful of what goes on daily in a call center operations floor.  You have agents answering numerous calls that it becomes monotonous and stressful (especially if calls are queuing).  Team leaders can be busy with their paper work.  Managers can be in meetings all day.  There is an opportunity for complacency and if this happens, it only spells trouble.

I’d like to highlight a recent news story, to make one realize how any call that comes into the center is equally important than the next.  It may be just an ordinary day for you, but remember every customer that calls into your center has a need that you have to fulfill.

Here’s an excerpt of the story...

Ten dispatchers were available when Brenda Orr's call came in at 10:31 a.m., but the phone rang six times before an 11th dispatcher, who was already on an ambulance call, picked it up out of frustration and put it on hold.  ''911, can you hold one second, please?'' Orr replied, ''I can't! It's an emergency, nine, one, one emergency, three, four, zero Doyle. Bed on fire!'

“Orr, 53, died from smoke and soot inhalation in the blaze..."  Complete Story

If you were to outsource your calls to other countries than your own, one reality the business has to face is to deal with accent, pronunciation, grammar and comprehension of the language.

On the account of saturation and harsh competition, the level of a competent labor pool specifically on mastering the language has now dropped.  But, the demand is still great and you need to put on your thinking hat to address the issue.

Training is now critical to meet this demand.

It usually takes about two weeks to get new hires reach an acceptable level of English proficiency.  Some centers have resulted to longer training time, but this has affected the bottom line.   "Near hire" training might be the answer, but it is dependent on how robust it is and again, longer time to train.

More countries are opening up to encourage the US to invest and bring their call center business.  Like India and the Philippines, Pakistan has the infrastructure, cost efficiency and labor pool to support the business.

But, due to political instability and travel advisories from the US embassy, it has turned away potential clients to bring their business into the country.

Though there are existing call centers in the country, yet another reason have hampered the growth.  The labor pool has to deal with call center scams as well.  Centers have started and will be gone after a few months (probably profits weren’t realized and went bankrupt).  Some are promised huge commissions with bogus expectations and newbies find themselves in a predicament, having them to work for a certain period and when the “promised” pay day comes, there is always a problem.  The bottom line is they don’t get anything or at least just a portion of what they were expected to get.

The country has its potential, but it needs support from their government to jump start the development and growth of the industry.

News of jobs being lost is reported almost every day. Ironic as it is, outsourcing news is huge, increasing the demand for jobs. Not to say that these news are closely related, as some are just related to ongoing business changes locally, not necessarily as a result of transferring jobs elsewhere.

Though, it is an interesting trend to ponder on.

Riverbank Call Center Workers Face Layoffs

Last February 13, company officials of GoAmerica started telling employees of a call center in Riverbank that many of them will be laid off. The center had to shut off calls that were entering their network, specifically those coming from Great Britain and Nigeria.  Complete Story

Companies to Invest Heavily this Year in Sri Lanka for Back Office and Call Center  Work

Providence Network and Parsec Technologies of India have teamed up to start an outsourcing venture in Sri Lanka. The initiative will noticeably boost the outsourcing industry in the area to create more jobs and attract foreign exchange. Complete Story

Employment Minister to Help Sacked Call Centre Workers

A union has stepped in to find jobs for Telstra Call Center workers after Call Centrelink took a different turn and changed their recruitment plans.  Complete Story

Part of my job is to view reports on overall performance of each site and account.  Not only do I need to analyze them to check if the metrics make sense as a whole, but determine the roadblocks for me to recommend a solution, which usually ends up in training the agents, their supervisors, operational support and leadership.

My past experience as a call monitoring specialist has always led me to focus on call quality and CSAT (Customer Satisfaction) when viewing the reports.  I always question the validity of the scoring system of Call Quality within the center because often enough, the numbers don’t make sense.

Tom Vander Well, writer of QAQnA revisited one of his posts, reminding readers that having a “Not Applicable” value in a quality form is definitely applicable.  It does skew the numbers, if not used properly.