Observations-on-Operatons Interactive: Bad Centers. Good Centers.

[Moderator]

Observations-on-Operations Interactive

The Observations-on-Operations Interactive segment is a variation of the regular Observations-on-Operations article found at http://www.callcenterops.com/newsletter.htm.
_________

Periodically, CallCenterOps takes a risk. We post a "community question" on the Forum to act as a discussion catalyst. Here is the question looking for your opinion:

If you assume that running a bad call center requires just as much effort as running a good call center, why isn't every call center a good call center? There are hosts of reasons that make a good call center good and others not so good. Share your opinion about what makes good call centers good and bad ones bad!

_________

Add your opinion by clicking on the "post reply" button. (Remember, you must register first in order to post your opinion.)

Moderator
CallCenterOps.com

[bpastorini]

In a word the core difference is most always - leadership.
Leadership sets the tone, defines the objectives, establishes policies, practices and performance measures, staffs and resources the center. I find it interesting that so many managers view call centers as something different/something other than the rest of the enterprise. Too often the call cente is a sort of fifth wheel to the organization - staffed minimally as overhead rather than as a value creating asset and measure very differently. Where else in the company is performance measured by the time an employee occupies their seat/station. Simply too many simplistic and counter productive quantitative measures and not enough focus on qualitative/value produced measures. As a result the organization gets lots of apparent activity, faster activity and heightened frustration of reps and sups with lowered self-esteem. Need Leadership to establish and focus more on value objectives - value to the organization and customer.

[vinodsankar]

Well this definitely is a catalyst!

Running a call center effectively encompasses a wide spectrum of activities. Some of the key processes are Work force management, Knowledge management and optimum resource utilization amongst others.

Though bad call centers probably spent similar quantum of time, energy and resources; the differentiating factor is the approach one has to a particular issue. Bad centers pretty much have conventional thought flows and are very much sceptical about any change to the process that is already in place.

Good centers convert their weaknesses into learning / development oppurtunities and benchmark the best practices in the industry. Though lot of decissions are based on conventional wisdom, out-of-the-box thinking helps in some cases.

Hence Human resources and the organizational culture plays key role in deciding the fortune of the company.

More threads as the discussion progresses.

[RC43]

There are no bad centers...just narrow focus leaders.

Good centers are sites where the leadership fosters collaboration, drives employee empowerment and shares essential information. Its leaders seek to understand...then to be understood. Leaders within these centers empower teams to seek solutions to issues (e.g. turn-over, staffing and quality....) and improve processes. They value their teamÂ’s input and facilitate open discussions to produce positive results. Sr. Executives act as executive assistants and support their leaders with directions and targets, then authorize them to build the road. Managers review reports in contexts with real time events to gather a global perspective. Issues in these centers are defined as opportunities.

Bad centers leaders manage numbers, dictate direction and have a narrow focus.

[amoore]

So what are good goals? Performance goals? Attrition goals? Please help! I manage a bad call center!

[MGeryPA]

Dear Amore,
Is your center an inbound or outbound center? It will make a difference on what goals I share with you.

Response to Monitor,
There are no good or bad centers, there is leadership or the lack thereof. I travel to centers across the nation and find that where there is a center which is not performing, there is a center leader, manager or director, that does not lead by example.

When a center is well led, it will show poistive results,in the goals, achievements, attendance and team work. When a center is not well led, it will show negatively, in those same areas.

[Terrence]

I think this is a great subject for discussion. In essence, my point of view is that there are no bad call centers, only poorly managed ones. But if you consider the types of call centers that are out there, it appears that some types lend themselves to being poorly managed than other types. For example, a call center that is involved in directory assistance, in this type of call center profitability is based on a very narrow margin. As a result working conditions tend toward an environment with a lot of stress for the csr. Good management can ameliorate the stress somewhat and thus reduce expensive turnover. Poor management will make a bad situation worse, thus the result is a toxic call center. The solution would appear to be an increase in the professionalism and creativity of a manager, but I think that is only a partial solution. A total solution must also include not just the manager, but the manager's manager. In short, everyone in a company that has a vested interest in a smoothly functioning call center needs to give more than lip service to the operation.

[Michcall]

Let's look at the concept of "poor leadership" that everyone has brought up. I agree that "bad" call centers are a result of poor leaders, but I think that's too broad to be really useful. Managers can be 'bad' for a variety of reasons from not being educated on call centers to being rewarded for items contrary to running a successful center (i.e. year-over-year cost reduction when call volume keeps increasing). First leaders need to be educated on running a business when 70% of your expense is directly related to people who are key to your success. Then they need to be integrated with the rest of the organization (not a fifth wheel as someone said) to drive the point that a call center can be a profit center rather than a necessary evil. Study after study has shown how bottom line growth can be directly attributed to the ease and effectiveness of customers being able to interact with the company. Next, agents have to be given some level of empowerment and/or accountability to show that they are not just phone-answerers, but are valuable members of the company. In my opinion, CXO level executives and their staffs need to listen to customer calls at least annually so they can see the impact of the call center on their business. Then, leaders need to realize that no one truly aspires to be a call center agent as a career choice, so if you want to change this mindset, you need to find ways to show the job has value, show a careerpath which allows growth for the individual, and engage the staff in tackling the issues that will make it a better place to work.

[RC43]

There are challenges in our industry and there are opportunities. A broader perspective of performance measures should indicate to a leader to manage events --- then he or she will achieve the numbers. e.g. A high rate of abandonments (for example) are the results of ....in some cases...improper event planning. Does that make a CC manager a bad leader? The goal of all managers' is to succeed. To achieve this managers must broaden his or her view and empower his/her team to bring solutions to the table. There are... to some degree....no bad leaders...just a narrow focus and lack of support of a collaborating work environment.

[mdbabb]

Over my 6 years in working in call centers and 24x7 environments, I've found that there are defintely bad and great leaders out there.

In one occasion, I know of a former call center manager who played a mean game of solitare, but was pretty much worthless in working on any issues that mattered to his customer base and employees, putting millions of revenue at risk.

In other situations, I know of call center managers who were reduced attritition, decreased mean time to resolution, increased service level, but didn't beleive in being yes men so were not considered as successful as those managers who played great solatire games.

Are there bad leaders? Yes.

Are there great leaders who are often unrecognized? Yes.

[Alan Clayton]

Good centers pay attention to the details. Too many people, both domestically and overseas think that running a call center is an easy task. It most definitely is not easy.

Bad Centers focus purely on talk time and productivity. The best ones focus on keeping their staff happy and trained. An experienced trained staff will make your customers happy, which will result in fewer call backs and more customer LOYALTY, which is massively different from customer satisfaction... and I can share with you why...

Anyway, running a bad center is actually very easy. I would dispute the initial notion that it takes the same amount of sweat and effort.

Another sign of a bad center is an egoist for a leader, and one who sets conflicting direction...

I could go on for hours...on both sides

[John Cockerill]

It is interesting to note how the consensus of views in this thread are that the leadership, management, executive is the key factor in determining whether or not a centre is a good or bad centre.

This suggests that either that many in leadership positions are either not doing their jobs, are incompetant or ineffective. While we all know that this may often be the case for bad centres, there exists other factors.

How often have you each heard of centres managed by competant management but starved for the resources to do the job adequately. This then leads centre management to act, behave and decide issues in manners that they themselves know has adversly affect the centre, staff and customers. Often this sets up a self defeating cycle.

For instance my favourite example, service level is often quoted by officers who know little of centre management but they KNOW that the industry standard IS 80/20. Therefore the centre must maintain an 80/20 or better. It is set as a goal to reach without the staff or budget because the company margin is too thin to allow for extra staff. Staff are pushed to do silly things that does little to expect upset customers. ie shorten call, maximum call lengths etc.

A different approach is to acknowledge what the budget can afford. Then engineer the service level to what the budget and margin allow. If that is well below the "industry standard" so be it.

What are your thoughts?

[ranjanik]

Hi!
There arre a lot of intresting responses here. So I thought I must add my bit.

Having worked with a number of good & bad centers I have understood the importance of good culture & smooth processes being put in place.

excellent work culture that percolates top down with well defined processes in place gives employees a comfort level required for optimum performance.Set entity level goals & cascade them down to the lowest level. Convert them into tasks & targets, across the entity.

This combined with "Hire for attitude & train for skills" works wonders. secondly remember in this People centered industry people leave their manager & not the Entity. So give the middle management proper training. that gives them the confidence they need & more importantly makes the agents respect & look up to them.

I feel these are the areas that are not given enough importance. Every one is screaming from the roof tops about Qualit & communication. Theas will come automatically if the basics are in place & make the center sucessful.

Lastly Some one has said that resource is a problem. If adequate resources & BD is not in place nothing can offset that.

Ranjani

[kala]

I definitely think good leadership is the key. We have experienced that first hand in our call center recently with a change in management. As soon as our old manager left, our performance started increasing. Poor leadership results in poor performance. A manager must be open, honest, inspiring, consistent, fair, motivating and must bring out the best in others and see their potential. Once employees feel respected and well represented they will take pride in their jobs and performance will speak for itself.

[Moderator]

Observations-on-Operations Interactive
_________

Last week, Observations-on-Operations asked the question that started this thread. The overwhelming majority of responses indicate that bad call centers exist because of poor leadership.

We are asking a follow-on question related to this thread about good and bad call centers:

If you assume that poor leadership is the primary cause for "bad call centers", how does the problem get resolved? Does poor leadership exist because managers, directors and executive 'just don't care'? If you assume that managers care about leadership, how does one go about becoming a good leader?

_________

Add your opinion by clicking here to "post your opinion" on the new thread. (Remember, you must register first in order to post your opinion.)

Moderator
CallCenterOps.com