Are you a Professional?

[mikael]

Would you describe yourself as a Customer Contact Center Professional?

If so, what makes you a professional? What qualifications do you have that suggest that you consider your work to be a profession and you worthy of consideration as a member of that profession?

The origin of the term "professional" was the root "profession." What is it that you profess?

In another thread, I suggested that a Director of a contact center, a member of the management team, who did not know what an Erlang calculator was, is unworthy of being considered a professional. I would make the same assertion about a contact center manager, perhaps even down to the supervisory level.

Do you know what it costs your company to operate your contact center on a daily basis? How can you make solid operational decisions without this most basic information?

If contact center staff are seldom accorded any real respect by their companies, might that situation in part be their own fault? If you want to be respected as a professional, isn't it necessary to have first earned that standing? To have demonstrated your commitment to the profession? How are others to distinguish you as a professional from a mere job-holder?

I'm being deliberately provocative here, trying to push the buttons of the community -- but are my arguments and challenges without merit?

[djdaley]

Mikael,

Some simple answers.

1. Yes. Some of your comments are without merit.

2. Is cost "basic" information? I would say that this comment requires some more thought - cost is far from the basics of managaing a centre.

3. Not being accorded respect - and "earning" that standing of a professional. Interseting comment. All you need do here is add some thought to it. The fish stinks from the head Mikael. The "affording" portion of "earning respect" is done through management practices, and often limits staff potential (or self promotion which enables such "according").

4. Link to your other thread - to suggest that a "role" would be considered or not considered as professional is again lacking thorough thought. Come on Mikael - I have read many of your comments - I thought you were smarter than that! Without understanding the key elements of that role, such justification is unfounded. Lets say the director of a centre has a "strategic" responsibility, rather than an operational one. What benefit is Erlang, or even the basic concepts of WFM?

5. Love it that you are stirring the pot - it is healthy to have such postings.

[mikael]

1. "Some of your comments are without merit."

Which ones? Why?

2. "cost is far from the basics of managing a centre."

If I go to Senior Management to ask for a budget allocation for the purchase of a knowledgebase tool or phone switch -- and I don't have verifiable cost data, how can I present a valid business case with ROI? Use the vendor's data? If I want to add additional staff so that I can bring the AWT down and provide better service to the customers -- and cannot show how this will bring in more revenue -- is it any wonder that my request will probably be denied?

The basics of a business are about money. If you don't make money, you won't stay in business.

3. "Not being accorded respect - and "earning" that standing of a professional. "

Ezra Pound had an interesting observation which I think has some relevance. "A slave is one who waits for someone else to free him." If you wait for "Management" to recognize you as a professional before you consider yourself to be one, your wait will probably be very long indeed.

Some years ago, I asked Scott Cook, the founder of Intuit (and a serious customer support quality fanatic), what a support manager should do if he/she couldn't practice their profession to their own standards because of a lack of Sr. Mgmt support. His reply was succinct. "Put their resume on the street."

No one can make you a professional - that's a status you can only give to yourself. If you commit yourself to that goal, in time you will find that others start to recognize that commitment and treat you accordingly. You begin by choosing to be a professional. You then do the things that professionals do, beginning with acquiring and polishing your skills. The end result is that you come to have the things that professionals have, among them being recognition in the community as such.

4. "Lets say the director of a centre has a "strategic" responsibility, rather than an operational one. What benefit is Erlang, or even the basic concepts of WFM? "

-smile- Yes, let's. What you get out of that scenario is a senior executive who tells the center manager to reduce the AWT by 50% with no increase in headcount. Or one who decrees that henceforth there shall be no more than 5% abandons -- with no additional staff allocation. Or even better -- one who makes unrealistic promises to the other members of the senior management team and/or to the customerbase, and *then* tries to dictate to the manager.

How can you hope to be effective strategically if you have no clue about costs and basic operational realities?

I realize that this may be uncomfortable for some. It would have been very uncomfortable for me back when I ran a center, because I didn't know anything about costs or WFM or process optimization then myself. But I wouldn't have called myself a professional back then -- that choice came later, and with it the commitment to development.

[djdaley]

Mikael, you have seemed to mis interpreted my thoughts, or deviated from your original comments.

I agree that understanding the metrics, operational aspects and their impacts, as well as being able to communicate these to the executive strategically is a critical factor in operating your own centre.

Understanding cost, relating this as bottom line results, and aligning to any form of investment strategy is a critical function of the centre manager.

What I AM saying, is that this process is not a "basic" function. To look at it as such undermines the intricacies of budgetting, cost analysis and the level of detail (and precedence for financial / accounting skills) required. I was not commenting on the value this process adds. I agree that it is critical.

Understanding of WFM principles. - A contact centre manager needs good communication skills. It is not the responsibility of senior executives to be fully versed in the technical aspects of call centre operations. It is up to the centre manager to ensure the communication strategy meets the audience. In the instance you described, I would expect the centre manager to have the competence to explain why AWT could not (or could) be reduced without reducing headcount, in terms the executive would understand. I would further expect that the centre manager use his/her skills to "get a seat at the table" whereby these decisions are made.

Is it not this type of behaviour that supports your argument for becoming a proffesional (or gaining that recognition??)

The scenario you describe tells me that the centre manager is not a "proffesional", and is not treated like one from the director.

Being a professional is not about what you "Know". It is about what you "do".

I concur that without a strong knowledge in operational aspects (including, but not limited to) WFM and financial analysis strategic success is not likely.

Importantly - even with this understanding, it is not likely unless these skills and knowledge are utilisied. Sounds obvious, but I have seen too many centres whereby the CM takes the "easy road"....you know what I mean.