Customer Service King

You greet the new batch of trainees and start day one of training. For outsourced centers, communication and culture training is what they learn. They go through pre-assessments and much to the trainer's dismay, yet another group of agents are not within the expected level, which the curriculum can train someone in two weeks. By reason of the needed workforce, they were given a chance and move to product training.

However, another trainer was frustrated because the people hired were not within the profile (again). Either their personality or experience was not suited, and they were deemed as not fit for the job.

As they enter nesting and take in calls, they realized they couldn't handle the calls and were very anxious. As they move on to day to day production, they further fail and as a result of frustration, they leave.

It's obvious that training may be the root cause, but I go back to the first step, recruitment. If we had the right assessment tool, didn't compromise because of quantity needed for the ramp, and continuous pressure from operations to get the number of people hired, then we could've tailored the training to fit the profile. We could've turned an inexperienced agent to the best one on the floor.

“I don't have time!” This is what we usually hear from most team leaders. Whatever the task may be, the answer is the same, even if it is part of their job duties. They seem to be busy bodies, and you're pretty sure they are doing something.

Most managers would turn to time and motion studies, assuming their supervisors are spending too much time on certain tasks. It is an effective tool, but if not done properly and if only used for time tracking, you will only frustrate your team. This even demoralizes them.

What you need to do is use the tool to identify what tasks are not part of their duties. Another question to ask is how much time is actually spent on their REAL duties, such as coaching and developing the agent.

Here is what you may find:

• Too many meetings
• Too many reports (shouldn't you be hiring someone else to do this?)
• Ad Hoc discussions with agents (why not schedule one-on-one sessions instead) 

One more thing, you have to do it on yourself too! We fail to see that there are times when we delegate too much, believing your objective is to develop them, but in reality you are only adding to their work load and hours, beyond the expected duties of a supervisor.

I received an email today and thought of sharing it with you folks.  It came from a trainer who was leaving the company for personal reasons.  It warms my heart because I know, as a company we are doing something right.  Here is an excerpt for your reading pleasure.

Working here in (company omitted) has been the best working experience of my life, not only because it was my first job, but because of the working environment. Well sure, I had to drink buckets of coffee everyday and yeah I learned to live like Dracula but I LOVED it. I met a lot of interesting people. One thing I have observed here is that the people who have high positions are the most down to earth employees. They are the ones who greet you and never forget your name. They always have something nice to say about you. You would not see that in other places.

I can say that I grew up here. I came in here as an immature kid, but now I can say that I am leaving as a better person. I learned a lot, gained a lot of friends, and survived trials. The company has offered me a lot of opportunities, believed in me, and trusted in me. I would like to thank everyone who helped me along the way. - Beng Ocampo, Trainer.

Hiring the right person is key, to ensure success in your operations team. The debate, believe it or not, is since the demand for good talent is increasing in the outsourcing business and the supply and availability is the challenge, is whether hiring someone outside of the industry is the right thing to do.

This is usually considered when hiring for manager level or even director positions. Since they have the experience as a manager, it would be easier to expose them to operations and learn the industry.

This is advisable, but it depends on the current situation. If you are in dire need of this post to be filled and expect the person to hit the ground running, then don't do it. You will regret it. If you don't have the time to train this person in the next 3 to 6 months, then don't do it either.

I've tried that route and 90% of the time, they either leave after a few months because they couldn't survive the fast pace environment, can't sleep during the day or just don't agree with how business should be run.

You are about to sign your contract and the recruiter says, “You will join a sales account.” You freak out and assume it's an outbound account. The recruiter tries to explain it is inbound sales and a major metric would be sales conversions, but you won't do any cold calling. You still don't sign the contract and leave.

I've met many first timers who expect call centers to be focused only on customer service and can't imagine what an inbound sales account would be like and believes they won't be successful.

Contrary to a recent study, after proper training, agents absolutely love to be in a sales account (more inbound though than outbound). The calls are shorter; the customers on the phone are more pleasant, reaching the sales goal is easier and customer satisfaction is higher. The production floor environment has more life as well.

So, before you crumple that contract, try it first and you won't regret it. Just ask if the company offers sales training to start you off on the right foot.

Your food establishment is doing very well but one thing that the customers are clamoring for is an option to order for delivery or pick up.  You can’t afford to set up a traditional center since all you know is to run a restaurant with great food and service.  But, you know it will impact your market base and might lose to your competition.

Stellar Restaurant Solutions is operational to just solve this problem without you worrying about call volume or hiring the agents to take your customer’s order. Imagine over 500 agents whose expertise is the food industry and focus on delivery service and mimic your unique restaurant’s culture.

Will this concept be widely accepted?

My experience with a bank has led me to think why a division of their contact center handles its customer transactions differently, in relation to service.

A customer service representative I spoke to regarding my balance was very polite and professional.  You would literally want to hug and thank her for solving your problem.  But, a friend of mine who received a call from their collections department said she wanted to hire an assassin to shoot the agent.

Though one would understand the difference, my question is why shouldn’t it be the same?  Digging deeper, the agent’s metrics are entirely different, having CSAT and FCR for customer service and commissions drive the collections agent’s aggressiveness.  This is a classic example of assigning the wrong KPIs that lead to bad behavior.

I disagree with this approach because I know one could be successful when collecting overdue payments by still being providing excellent service.  There are other ways of dealing with delinquent customers without adding more of their stress by being rude and condescending.  I would suggest adding retention as a metric for collections, bearing in mind that person who may not be able to pay on time, can still impact your marketing efforts of getting new contacts.

I am an avid fan of the TV series Friends and yes, I absolutely like David Schwimmer.

When I found out that there was a short clip of him working as a call center agent, I couldn't resist to post and share it with all of you (regardless whether you are a fan of him or not). Call it biased, but it's one of the few professional videos out there depicting the life of a call center agent.

WARNING! Video contains vulgar words and profanity.

The four (4) minute video has captured the essence of what goes on in a call center. Some may consider it a bit exaggerated but the truth was told, injecting humor in the right places.

So, how much is one paid when they become home based agents?  There are several compensation packages being offered by several companies.

The contract is dependent on how the company views the home based program.  The limitations of the contract, like work hours, and availability of the agent will dictate how much one would make.

In the United States, an agent would be paid around $10 to $15 an hour without benefits, but incentives are definitely included based on performance (usually tied to quality or customer satisfaction).  For the Philippines, an hour would be about P150 to P200, sometimes the usual government benefits are included.

Some companies would offer a “per sale” or “transaction” basis.  Usually if it’s outbound, a company has offered $10 per sale, regardless of the hours you spend in a month, within the basic 8-9 hour work day of course.

If you are part of a workforce that serves as back up to fill in seasonal call volume or for disaster recovery, then you might expect less hours.  Your contract will stipulate you need to be available on certain hours of the day and be ready in case they call you to log in.

Will this work for you?  Yes.  Just remember to start planning and forecast your earnings to make it worth your while.

In outsourced centers, the generation is younger.  It has also been considered as an extension of college.  Let’s bring it a little bit further, shall we?

Creating fraternities in the center is something that has started.  Can you believe it? I couldn’t.  There are two situations.

Extension of Brotherhood and Sisterhood Loyalty
A sure way of getting more people to join the company, recruitment has looked into checking whether the candidates are connected or is a member of a frat group.  Encouraging them to join is one thing but once they are in, this is where we see possible anxieties and friction amongst the workforce.  Yes, the “society” has been extended to the workplace.

Starting One for Social Sanity
Because of the stressful environment, one may say, in order to cope it’s better to be part of a group than be alone.  Alas, the fraternity or sorority has now begun.  Initiations in the center are not evident, but there are cases where one will take advantage of the “membership” to get ahead.

Are you one of them?  Perhaps you started one.  Maybe it doesn’t even strike your fancy.  One thing for sure, the industry has created a society that thrives on companionship, networking and acceptance.