Marketing student question

[Kiva]

hi,
i'm a student from Belgium that has a few questions about
call centers and how they work.

I found some real usefull info already on this forum,
and i was wondering if anyone could help me with the following:

are there much technological problems and HR-problems in call centers?

more specifick,
what technologies are most used and what problems do they give?
(and what do you do to solve these problems?)

and what kinds of HR-problems do you encounter most and how do you solve them?

any input would be very much appreciated,
i hope my questions are clear, english isn't my primary language.

[Les Hyde]

Welcome to the forum and a great question.

"more specifick, what technologies are most used and what problems do they give? (and what do you do to solve these problems?)

Telecom – circuits down
ACD - system outages
Call Routing - mis-routed calls,
IVR – opening and closing times of queues, outdated messages
VRU – outdated responses, incorrect responses
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) – system outages, data accuracy
Knowledge base – accuracy, right resolution
Systems uptime – all of the associated support systems

Solving the problems would vary by business, however industry best practices are to have structured support focused on keeping these critical systems monitored and proactively maintain. When there are issues, the support teams typically manage through resolution.

"and what kinds of HR-problems do you encounter most and how do you solve them?"

Attendance and behavior are in my opinion the two biggest drivers of HR issues. The goal is to try and avoid the problems so you create and maintain an environment where your people want to come to work, and do their best once they are there. Coaching, feedback and constant communication with your staff is key. Another key is addressing attendance and behavior problems fairly, consistently and immediately.

I hope this helps you, and I'm glad to see a marketing student learning the value of a contact center.