Managing a call center full of employees goes beyond simply overseeing employees. Your employees must trust and respect you to be the authority on any difficulties they may be having with work, but you also must constantly be working to encourage employees to better themselves and also be aware of any improvements you can make in your personal managing style. Although there are many different traits that call center managers have that can be valuable in the work place, there are five in particular that can lead to success in the workplace both for yourself and for your employees.
Leadership
While this is the most obvious trait, it is also the most important. Too often managers don’t take initiative to lead their employees in the workplace. Giving clear directions to employees to achieve obvious goals will clear up any general confusion among employees, and when those goals are achieved through leading your staff by example, everyone in the call center will feel more accomplished.
Relationship Building
Being a leader is important, but you must also be personable. Having friendly, casual relationships with employees will not only allow you to understand them better, and therefore work with their needs to create a flourishing center, but it will also allow your employees to understand you. If an employee knows your motivations for instructions in the workplace, they will be less likely to avoid work that needs to be done, and feel as though their work benefits both themselves and you personally as well as the company.
Organization
Managing scheduling, employee needs, customer service, and all the other requirements of managing a call center can easily become overwhelming. Natural organizational skills are extremely valuable to anyone in a managerial position, but if you find yourself struggling to complete all your duties, try really focusing on organization. When tasks fall through the cracks, people can find become less positive about your management abilities, but when everything is running smoothly, your entire call center will be happier and more profitable.
Adaptability
There will be something new every day that you will have to deal with as a manager. Your ability to adapt to new situations will define whether you are an effective or ineffective manager. When an employee calls in sick, or a customer files a particularly strong complaint, you must be able to reorganize the day for yourself and for your staff. Dealing with difficulties promptly and wisely will insure that your call center never feels chaotic, even if chaos is happening.
Self-Development
Always be on the lookout for new ways to better your management abilities. Becoming stagnant in your strategies for leadership can lead to your whole call center becoming stagnant. Stay motivated, and encourage your employees to also go above and beyond for the workplace. If you continue you develop yourself positively in the workplace, leading by example can inspire your employees to give a little more effort in their jobs. Having a fresh look at call center management every day will keep your workplace progressing and positive
While you are experimenting with how to put your best traits into your managerial position, take a look at our Enterprise Feedback Management software to not only keep track of how well you are doing in the workplace, but also how well your employees, peers, and customers are doing. Staying aware of new technologies in the call center field can help you keep your workplace on the cutting edge, and help you create the best work environment possible.
You know how critical your contact center staff is to your success. As the front line of your business, they touch your customers’ lives and leave an indelible impression on your bottom line. What motivates them? What makes them try harder and work smarter? Here are five concerns your staff faces and strategies you can use to make the most of this vital relationship.
Working in a contact center day after day feels like a thankless job on their side of the telephone. Does anyone know if your staff member goes the extra mile for a customer? Who even cares if an agent takes special interest in the needs of the caller? Regular recognition and feedback reinforce those critical habits that make the difference between stale and stellar service. Develop a strategy and hold supervisors accountable for every level of agent feedback – verbal affirmation, public recognition, and monetary rewards. Happy staff members make happy customers!
Your staff takes pride in a job done well, but sometimes agents don’t know how to take their service to the next level. Regular one-on-one coaching (call monitoring), done in a positive manner, motivates staff to make each call stellar. Department training and skills coaching help them practice and learn in a non-threatening environment alongside their peers. Even the most seasoned agents appreciate learning new tools and strategies to keep their customers happy.
Contact center staff can easily fall into a rut, experiencing the same-old questions and the same-old conversations every day. Help them stay creative and motivated by encouraging flexibility in as many areas of their job as possible. Give them more control over their work schedules, seating arrangements, work space, dress codes, and more, then watch morale and productivity increase.
Your staff are not only contact center agents. They are also spouses, parents, friends, and community volunteers. They are juggling several roles, and sometimes it all feels like it’s crashing around them. Find meaningful ways to show your company cares, whether it’s with benefits, flex-time, or vacation time. When you demonstrate tangibly that you value each agent individually, your staff will then give that same care and commitment to your customers. Your bottom line starts with your employees.
You know that your contact center staff makes the world of difference for your brand. How they answer your customers, the level of care they give each issue, determines the satisfaction of your customers and will make-or-break your long-term relationships. Your agents, however, can easily lose sight of the importance of their role. It gets lost in the daily grind, as the monotony of the job takes its toll. Keep the departmental vision before them. Remind them of call center success stories customer testimonials. Post visual reminders of personal and departmental achievements prominently. Never stop reminding your agents of the lasting contribution each one makes to your customers and to your company as a whole.
Your contact center staff is the lifeblood of your business. They are the faces and the voices of your brand for your customers. Keep in close touch with them by remembering these five needs. Continual recognition, meaningful training, workplace flexibility, tangible family support, and values reminders all play an integral part in growing your center’s morale and increasing your bottom line.
Our Workforce Management scheduling, Performance Management, Coaching + e-Learning, and Customer Feedback solutions help foster an environment that employees want to work in.
For managers, a lot of thought goes into mastering the art of scheduling. Determining and assigning shifts can be a difficult and time-consuming process, but it is an activity that needs to be done in every contact center. Instead of guessing what the agents want when creating the schedule, the following tips may be helpful in knowing what they actually want.
While it may be impossible for a manager to put schedules out months in advance, it can be extremely helpful to the agent to have a certain amount of consistency. They may not know 100% what the schedule is, but they know that they typically work Monday through Thursday during the mornings. By respecting this rhythm, agents have a degree of consistency that allows them to plan events with family, children and friends in advance.
If there is a major event happening next week that will likely increase the volume of calls in your contact center, you will need to have more staff on hand. These days happen occasionally, but it is important to notify the agents who will be added on for extra shifts more than one or two days in advance. This forward thinking may not be a possibility for every industry, but the agents will appreciate any possible planning.
The main purpose of flexibility is making sure that agents know whom they’re “interchangeable” with. In the case that they want to change their shift, they should know which other agents to approach and are suitable to swap with. Once the team has worked together for a considerable amount of time, agents will know exactly how to exchange shifts without having a major impact on the functionality of the contact center. By developing this type of system, agents know they are never locked into the shift they’re assigned, providing them with the flexibility that they desire.
The fact of the matter is that schedule changes occur fairly often and will continue to forever. No matter how much work you’ve put into designing the perfect schedule, keep in mind that changes will absolutely happen. Agents may be able to swap shifts amongst themselves, as mentioned above in the flexibility section, or, in some cases, may approach you as the manager with requests to change their shifts. While it may be annoying and time-consuming, handling the stress is something to accept as part of the role of manager and handle it with a smile and positive attitude. Maintaining an air of approachability with the agents is one of the keys to running a successful contact center.
Keeping these four tips in mind, managers have a sneak peak into the minds of their agents. Knowing exactly what they’re looking for from the managers in the scheduling process can help the managers to improve their own performance in this area.
If you are looking for more assistance with designing your schedules, consider investing in workforce management software. Contact KOVA today to learn more information about our Verint Media Recorder software program.
December is coming to an end. And with 2015 just around the corner, it is only natural to think of the changes you hope to implement within the workplace. As you transition to the New Year, consider adding these noteworthy goals to your New Year’s resolution list.
As a contact center supervisor, you serve as a professional mentor, teacher if you will, to your staff. Your employees, much like students, look to you for instruction, guidance, and support. Whether you are testing their knowledge on exceptional customer service, or providing the latest contact center industry news be sure your staff is aware of the proper procedures to handle any contact center crisis that comes their way.
How well do your team leaders actually know their team? Take the time out to get to know your teammates. A successful call center organization values and acknowledges its staff. Listening and learning about your employees is a great way to show that you care. This approach by managers can have a positive impact on employee motivation.
Measure your performance with the right business metrics. Tracking your metrics will you give you insight into what is and isn’t working. Contrary to popular belief, average handling time may seem like the most significant metric to keep an eye on, but it doesn’t tell you the entire story. It does not illustrate the result of the call nor does it indicate other interactions. Companies are evaluating customer satisfaction levels, new business sales, net promoter scores, and life-time value of customers.
If you find that the goals you are setting lead to distress rather than success, then it maybe time to set more realistic goals. Make a New Year's resolution that the goals you set this year will be goals that are attainable, rather than unrealistic pipe dreams. It is not to say that your dreams won’t come true, but it just might take a bit of time. Keep in mind that any worthy long-term goal takes patience and persistence. Build that dream goal by breaking it down it small goals. Don’t lose hope and remember keep your eye on the prize.
Nothing beats talking to other business professionals for igniting new ideas, tweaking old business principles, and establishing connections to leverage your contact center’s success. There are a variety of networking events, and groups you can find through a simple Google search, your chamber of commerce, or even LinkedIn. Whether it's an organization geared towards networking or dedicated to a unique business found in person or over the web, joining a group will make you a more well-rounded leader in today’s competitive business environment.
With these New Year’s Resolutions, you can make 2015 the best business year yet. And KOVA can help. Our Verint Media Recorder Workforce Management solution allows contact center managers to track performance, pinpoint areas needing improvement, and then set up the training necessary to make that change happen. Contact us today for more information on how we can customize a solution to fit your contact center’s needs in 2015.
Providing quality customer service is one of the main goals of most contact centers. By promoting strong customer service, contact centers are looking to drive their performance and improve their organization’s position in today’s competitive market. With so many companies working towards the same goal, it is natural to wonder exactly what the customer’s think of your company in return. Do they appreciate the customer service you’re providing? Do they think it could be better? With the Customer Experience and Survey Software from KOVA, you can take away the uncertainty and know once and for all what your customers think of you and your performance.
This software, which is a browser-based solution, allows companies to gather feedback from their clients at the end of calls through either IVR or email surveys. It utilizes short surveys to collect information about products, staff performance and other relevant indicators. The program has high response rates, which allows you to have a representative sample from a variety of clients.
Through the collection of data, the Customer Experience Software provides a variety of diverse benefits for your contact center. The software program is part of the network of Verint Media Recorder, which includes Speech Analytics, Text Analytics and Enterprise Feedback Management. Together, the information within this network facilitates your ability to share information easily between others in the office.
Aside from this major benefit, others include quality monitoring, quality evaluation forms, speech analytics, performance management and lessons management.
Quality management allows your contact center to link the recorded customer conversations with the corresponding surveys. Not only can you obtain survey responses, but they will also be put in the context of a conversation, providing more thorough answers to each question.
Quality evaluation forms provides you with the opportunity to compare the internal and external quality scores that your contact center receives. Determining the discrepancies or consistencies in both evaluations can be an important indicator for quality.
Speech analytics, slightly different from text analytics, analyzes the audio recording of customer responses, helping to identify trends, for example, between the answers provided by different customers.
Performance management utilizes advanced scorecards to provide key performance indicators. Once the information is obtained, you can compare the customer’s ratings with the service goals that your contact center previously determined.
Finally, lesson management refers to the workshops and eLearning sessions available according to customer feedback. Based on scores from customers, these sessions will be sent to the employee’s desktop to help improve their service.
The Customer Feedback software can be an invaluable tool for companies to utilize. Not only does it provide a contact center with a host of benefits including quality monitoring, speech analytics and lesson management, it can lead to an improved overall performance by agents. This type of improvement is a guessing game without the information provided by a software program such as that offered by KOVA.
If you would like more information on the Verint Media Recorder Customer Feedback software, contact KOVA today. We will be happy to answer any questions that you may have!
TDOS (Telephony Denial of Service) is an ongoing threat to basic public safety communications. Information gathered from a multitude of jurisdictions continues to show that this kind of an attack remains a serious threat to public safety.
Perpetrators identify a network and then flood it with incoming calls, tying up the network and blocking any emergency calls going through to dispatchers. To date, over 200 TDOS attacks have been conformed.
A checklist has been created through the cooperation of Federal authorities, commercial service providers, and local and state public safety representatives in order to facilitate the formation of continuity of operations plans in the event of an attack.
Preliminary work is essential to successfully coping with an attack.
1. Contact your service provider and discuss how best to respond to a TDOS attack. Be sure to include all service providers and emergency communications vendors in this discussion.
2. Make sure public safety communicators have direct access to the service provider’s response team for a TDOS.
3. Discuss with your telephone systems engineer to find ways to protect your system from attack. Configuration adjustments might be able to shield critical lines from administrative and other lines – by preventing a landslide of calls from overloading non-critical lines and rolling them over to 9-1-1 emergency operators.
4. Remind and reassure telephone operators that if they are attacked, it is not their fault. Be sure to caution them against revealing any personal information in an attack. A sophisticated criminal enterprise, a TDOS attack can result in identity theft.
"1. Save the voice recording of suspects who may call before, during or after the TDOS events.
2. Record all phone numbers and account information, if the caller is demanding payment(s):
i. Start and stop times of the events
ii. number of calls per hour or per day
iii. phone numbers and other ANI/ALI information of the incoming calls
iv. IP addresses if applicable
v. Any instructions for how to pay, such as account number, call-back phone number, etc.
3. Retain all call logs and IP logs.
4. Attempt to separate the affected phone number from 9-1-1 and other critical trunks – work with your PBX provider/maintainer.”
1. As soon as possible, a complaint should be filed
If law enforcement is unsure of how to proceed, they can contact the FBI, the FCC, the FTA (Federal Trade Association), or the Department of Homeland Security to obtain resources to aid their investigation.
2. Mark for retention all call or IP logs.
TDOS is a very real threat to public safety. Preparing for an attack can help ensure that disruptions are contained as much as possible, and 9-1-1 operations are not completely disrupted. It is advisable that 9-1-1 call centers and PSAPs share this information with other public safety institutions, such as ambulance services, hospitals. etc.
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski addressing public safety officials in Arlington, VA. last month, spoke about the need to adapt to modern communication: “It’s time to bring 9-1-1 into the digital age.”
Genachowski went on to say he would initiate a proceeding to gather public opinion how best to transition from current emergency communications to broadband-enabled, Next Generation 9-1-1.
21st Century Emergency Communication
These comments come hard on the heels of recent announcements by the FCC concerning the need to increase location accuracy for emergency calls originating from wireless devices. Currently, location technology is able to detect location of calls made outdoors, but is often unable to give similar information for indoor calls. Since the majority of 9-1-1 calls are made on mobile devices, there is a significant gap in emergency response communications.
According to Genachowsky, “The current 9-1-1 system is efficient and reliable—handling more than 650,000 calls a day. But today’s 9-1-1 system doesn’t support the communication tools of tomorrow. Many 9-1-1 call centers don’t even have broadband, and some are in communities where broadband isn’t even available. That is unacceptable.”
Of those 650,000 9-1-1 calls made each day, 450,000 are made on mobile phones.
“Even though mobile phones are the device of choice for most 9-1-1 callers,” continues Genachowsky, “and we primarily use our phones to text, right now, you can’t text 9-1-1.”
Genechowsky brought his message home to his Arlington audience. He cited the Virginia Tech shootings as a case in point – as the tragedy was unfolding, students tried to text 9-1-1, but those messages were never received by emergency dispatchers.
Call For 9-1-1 Texting Controversial
But providing support for 9-1-1 texting is not welcomed by all. To some the format is not ideal for communicating with 9-1-1 dispatchers. Chris Pearson, president of 4G Americas, is hesitant to see texting become a means of contacting 9-1-1 operators. “While we understand the desire to use SMS [short message service] to contact 9-1-1, SMS has significant limitations and shortcomings that do not make SMS suitable for emergency communications, especially under life-threatening conditions.”
Social Media And 9-1-1: The Expectations and Realities
Despite Pearson’s concerns, the reflexive use of social media by a majority of the American public has a serious impact on how they respond to emergency situations. Many teens and young adults are unaware that they can’t reach out to 9-1-1 dispatchers using texts or social media.
The American Red Cross recently issued a study of the ways modern digital communication affects the ways Americans attempt to contact 9-1-1. The results found that:
The Future
Realizing the overwhelming need to adapt to current communication platforms, for Genachowski the way forward is not in dispute: “While the need for action is clear, modernizing 9-1-1 raises complex challenges that will take not only time, but also significant coordination. We need the help of our federal, state and local partners, public safety, lawmakers, communications and broadband service providers, and equipment manufacturers to develop a national framework for Next-Generation 9-1-1 services across the nation. FCC staff recognize the importance of this work and what it takes and continue to work diligently with all interested parties to move this initiative forward.”
CRM, or Customer Relationship Management, solutions are a valuable tool for many companies, including contact centers. In a nutshell, CRM is a system for managing a company’s interactions with its customers, utilizing technology to streamline processes such as sales, customer service and technical support. There are a variety of useful products on the market, including LCD monitors; desks and CRM solutions, so it can be helpful to know which aspects are especially useful for contact center CRM solutions.
With a wide range of functions included in the majority of CRM systems, it can be difficult for users to navigate. Multiple tabs, menus and dashboards lead to confusion due to a high level of complexity and, consequently, waste time trying to compete tasks. It can be helpful to purchase a CRM with a logical interface, making it easier for employees to use and adapt to the needs of each specific department.
Not only does the CRM need to be adaptable to each department, it should be able to be integrated with all of the back-office systems and other contact center software as well. Often times, integration comes as an option with a CRM purchase, but it can be at an additional charge or project deployment time. Before making the purchase, be sure that the solution you are purchasing has the capability to be integrated throughout your entire business.
A CRM solution is the central location for all of the customer data in your company, ultimately creating reports of this data for analytical use by the company. In some cases, the reports are standardized with the software while, other times, the software allows each individual company to create its own customized reports. This provides an opportunity to have an all-inclusive view of the company, instead of just a departmental one.
If a CRM solution provides the opportunity to create customized reports, then it probably possesses a fair amount of flexibility. Flexibility is a great attribute for a CRM system to have, so all of its functions, from the smallest to the largest, can be fit specifically to your company, increasing efficiency and usage.
By syncing the CRM software with the cloud, a company gains a variety of things. Cloud-based solutions allow organizations to pay for the number of users needed, rather than an often more expensive package deal. They can also receive automatic software updates, instead of paying additional costs or waiting until signing a new contract.
In the end, many companies are looking for control in their software programs, not just an automated system that is not tailored specifically to their business. The same goes for CRM. With such a wide variety of functions and tools available in CRM software programs, companies often waste money paying for features that they don’t actually use. As a company, having the ability to turn individual features on and off depending on the changing business environment ultimately provides the control that can increase efficiency and reduce costs.
Did you know, that regardless of the CRM you use, KOVA can integrate our solution to capture data like account number, call type, and ticket number as well as target certain areas of the call to not record for PCI compliance? Please contact us to find out more.
As a relatively new development in technology, many companies are beginning to adopt the cloud in their everyday business functions. The cloud is the Internet, meaning a series of servers that communicate to one another, enabling the user to check email, collaborate with other users and store files. This information is completely online, meaning that it can be accessed from any web browser, whether it be on a desktop, laptop or smartphone, essentially making it accessible from anywhere.
Since the cloud is making it easier than ever to access information, it also makes it more difficult to ensure that all of the information remains secure and within the company. For this reason, any contact center utilizing the cloud should adhere to a few, simple guidelines about security and the cloud.
One of the largest risks when using the cloud is the risk that someone will remove the data from its rightful location. This is critically important, especially for contact centers that can have a large amount of customer information stored as well. When a new person is given access to the information, take your time ensuring that they can be trusted with such valuable property. Ask questions; verify their credentials and double-check the references they provided. If someone accessing the information is not transparent and willing to answer questions about how it will be used, it is ok to be weary of them.
Encryption is a general Internet safety tip that companies have been doing for years to protect both their own information and that of their customers. When information is stored in a “file” as open as the Internet, installing extra security measures becomes even more important. Encryption can be done on any type of data, including voice recordings, blocking potential thieves from stealing any confidential information.
Reputable cloud vendors have several back-up measures in place to ensure the physical security of your company’s data through a variety of power supplies and by working with a number of Internet service providers. Along the same lines, vendors can offer a disaster recovery solution, which ensures that all information is protected and backed-up in the case of some type of emergency.
Many people are still nervous about putting all of their information into the cloud. The truth is, however, if your company applies the same due diligence in a cloud solution as it does with a premise-based solution, then the information will remain safe. Take the time to locate a reputable, established and proven vendor before making the investment. Locating a vendor with these characteristics, and one that is equipped with essentials security features like two-stage authentication, password required entry and authenticated security certificates indicate a responsible investment.
KOVA can offer cloud based WFO for your VOIP enabled Contact Center. No servers at your site, just a monthly fee per agent. Contact KOVA to find out more.
