Operations

Much of the rest of the organization still doesn’t truly understand call centers or contact centers. Customer Service Week is a great opportunity to expand the understanding of your call center in your company.

Many call centers are not appreciated for the strategic contribution they make to the company. Although the call center has increasing visibility because of e-business, the overall contribution of call centers is still not widely understood within many companies. This is proven when you hear phrases such as, “aren’t they the group that just answer the phones”. True, it is the group that “just answer the phones” but call centers, as we all know, ensure that thousands of customers receive the right service in the right way at the right time!

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One of the most significant reasons call centers under perform boils down to one word – distractions – a loss of focus.

Getting Too Comfortable

You can reach a point where you find your call center operation performing well week over week. You get comfortable with the success of that performance. The pressure of managing the real-time environment eases and you can sit back and actually enjoy the success. The boss is happy. Staff are not dealing with Mr. Screaming Customer who is reacting to long wait times and it is all looking pretty fine.

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Call centers and change – they are inseparable terms. Change management is a critical aspect to successful call center operations. If a call center is not constantly changing then it is only a matter of time before the call center becomes less relevant to the customers and the company’s business strategy. Successful operations require that you have excellent change management skills which are necessary to lead staff, support areas and the organization forward.

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It was only a few years ago when call centers were considered to be something of a necessary customer service cost. You rarely considered using the call center as a means to increase company revenues. You considered the call center as a way to handle phone calls. Today this is simply not the case — or should not be the case.

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The Olympics have arrived and a special ‘hello’ to our Australian readers! We are waiting for the pentathlon to begin. This odd combination of events makes for interesting sport.

We think we might have a new event for the next Olympics. The name for the event: “Call Center Tug-o-War”. Not a creative name but we think it is a common event in call centers.

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Beyond real-time seems like a strange phrase but it is actually a key term for call center operations. We’ll explain why in a moment, but here’s a hint: a workforce management tool will get you there!

It is not uncommon to find team leaders/supervisors spending a significant portion of their day doing a balancing act. They have to balance the call volumes between various voice queues (sales, service, etc.) or other channels (email, web chat etc.) to ensure that the service level objective is achieved as stated by the person who has the “boss” sign on the office door.

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“We are good at buying the gear but we aren’t great at using it.” This is a statement that we have heard many times and have said many times ourselves. Buying call center technology is normally done through a reasonably extensive process. Often it includes an RFP (Request for Proposal), which may have been proceeded by a RFI (Request for Information). Technology in the call center is complex because it is a multi-platform – multi-vendor undertaking. You often feel like a premarital counselor making sure there is compatibility before the knot is tied!

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Why do we raise the issue of “audience and call center measures?” Call centers are the most measured modern day business area anywhere. Those who view your call center measures can get carried away with the reams of micro-management data available and that can create an unwanted result.

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