Call Center Managers: A Call to Be Left and Right Brained
Call center managers to be both left brained and right brained. A quick refresher: left-brain is the logical side – the technology-processes-procedures and budget side. The right brain is the imaginative and emotional side. We will illistrate this point using a “cut the call center budget: scenerio.
Financial crunches in the call center highlight the need to be balanced between the left-brain and right brain activity. If the left-brain totally dominates at a time when financial pressures on the call center are paramount, it will often translate into significant right brain problems – people problems. The bean counters are tough left brained folks who make a good living at being left brained. The numbers, in their opinion, are the only things that are important. Reduce staff. Reduce training. Reduce. Reduce. In times of financial pressure, the left brained voices often win out over the right-brained folks.
So what should you consider? Be a right brain advocate. Call centers are about people. In many ways if call centers didn’t involve so many people (customers and staff) they would be simple to run and everyone would be doing it! As someone recently said (and we can’t find the source), it’s about the people, stupid! We are not insulting you. You fully know the value of people but there are just a few out there who are still pondering the value of people in the call center!
How do we know that a few are still struggling with the concept of people and the call center? A host of recent articles have appeared in Headliner recently that indicate that a small majority of call center operations are too focused on the left-brain side of operations. Here is the moral — during a time of financial pressure, rally fellow right brainers and provide a balanced approach to dealing with staff when the dollars are scarce.
Posted: January 27th, 2007 under Leadership.
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