Operations

Two dominant – and highly visible – problems that hinder a call center’s operation are (1) agent turnover and (2) suboptimal agent productivity. In most cases, the root causes of such challenges result from poor job fit or a lack of skills that are critical success factors for specific agent positions. Selection assessments and screening tools can help address this by providing vital information about applicants that directly relates to employee productivity and retention. These tools typically do so by measuring three different kinds of candidate data:

1. What can they do?
2. What have they done?
3. What do they want to do?

In regard to what applicants can do, assessments are designed to measure stable characteristics associated with job applicants’ personalities and natural abilities. For example, some jobs may be more suitable for individuals who are extroverted and less risk-averse, while others may require that an employee be highly detail-oriented and task-focused. The unique benefit to these types of assessments is that predictions can be made about future behavior in roles in which the applicant has no previous experience.

In regard to what applicants have done, assessments are designed to measure applicants’ previous experiences, past behavior, education or training, and accomplishments. Examples include resume scoring for education, relevant work history and skills training, in addition to the use of behaviorally-oriented interview questions that focus on how an applicant handled a specific situation in the past, and job-specific knowledge or skills tests. These types of assessments are based on the principle that future performance is best predicted by past performance.

Finally, in regard to what applicants want to do, assessments are designed to measure differences in applicants’ motives, aspirations, preferences, and interests. These types of tools are less effective for predicting productivity but are well-suited to predicting job/culture fit, employee satisfaction, and retention. Realistic Job Previews also fall into this category, as candidates can take a ‘sneak peek’ into the actual organization and job and opt out of the selection process if something looks particularly undesirable to or ill-suited with their interests and expectations.

Although a wide body of evidence demonstrates how powerful and accurate well-designed assessments can be, there are, unfortunately, many poorly-crafted, inappropriately-applied assessments on the market. In addition to reviewing relevant job analysis reports and test validation manuals, test administrators need to confirm that assessments are effective within their organization by analytically evaluating the impact on performance outcomes. Because previous experience is less critical in most hourly jobs, a call center selection system should typically focus more on screening for behaviors (“can do”) and motivation levels (“likes to do”) and less on cognitive abilities and technical skills (“has done”).

No single, “perfect” solution exists for every selection challenge, but a well-thought out, well-designed process that leverages selection science and incorporates multiple components can dramatically improve the quality of hiring decisions. As a result, organizations that choose to invest the time and resources into evolving their selection processes will see a significant improvement in productivity and retention, while reducing the burden on their hiring professionals.

David Ostberg, Ph.D., is an Industrial and Organizational Psychologist with 10+ years experience designing and evaluating selection systems for companies in service industries. A member of the American Psychological Association and Society for Industrial & Organizational Psychology, Dr. Ostberg is currently the Vice President of Selection Science for Evolv On-Demand. For more information go to: www.evolvondemand.com.

Your web strategy may be to drive calls into the call center so that you can serve the customer or ultimately upsell the customer. Your web strategy may also be driving call volume that you do not want. In a recent experience, we encountered an organization where the web was driving unwanted call volume into the call center. How did we know? The moment the call center representative understood the reason for the call, she directed us back to the web site and walked us through the self-serve process we could not find which was the reason for the call. The reason we called the toll free number in the first place, was that the web transaction type we were looking for could not be found anywhere on the site. In fact, the transaction function was there but buried three clicks deep in a sub-menu that bore no resemblance to our need.

Key Message 1: Assess what call volume is being created from your web site that is contrary to your web strategy? Key action - gather 6 reps and do a session with them that assesses if this is happening.

Key Message 2: Review your web site from the perspective of the customer not the organization. We are sure that there was logic in listing the transaction type as it was. Good logic for the organization. Lousy logic if you are the customer.

If the company we had called talked to the rep the way we did, the company would learn:

• How to reduce costs (i.e. reduce call volume)
• Satisfy the customer because the web would have provided a once-and-done transaction capability
• Improve the rep’s job satisfaction because reps would not have to repeat these instructions umpteen times a day with customers
  

A story in Headliners outlined Minnesota’s interest in legislating choice for customers calling an offshore call center. The legislation would force the call center to transfer the call to a call center located in the U.S. for service if requested by the customer. As with any type of legislative effort like this, there are numerous dimensions to it. We will comment on only one of the dimensions - poor customer experience.

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You have just been appointed the manager of a call center with a unionized staff. One of the first things you learn is that the call center has a large number of union grievances and a buildup of management/union conflict. Where do you start? Or better yet what steps can you take to help prevent it from getting to this point?

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Staff boredom can be a leading reason for high turnover in a call center. Our experience is that this is one of the most difficult issues to solve. The difficulty is driven by two key factors:

• Serving the customer - the work of a call center is primarily about answering the phones
• Time - the longer the process in handling the customer’s call the more expensive the call becomes therefore processes are designed to be straight forward

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We come to the end of another year of call center operations. How has it been for you this year? Depending what industry your call center serves it may have been the best year ever or a year of adjusting to a new set of realities. Regardless of the realities of your call center this year, we recommend that you look for every opportunity to recognize the accomplishments of your CSRs and other call center staff. Recognition is a very powerful means of having a healthy call center operation. It is important to recognize success even if it isn�t a normal part of what your company does. Break the mold.

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Those of you in the non-profit sector have lots to teach those of us in the for-profit sector. One important lesson is the value of volunteers - without them a non-profit can’t survive. Here is a customer service story that teaches all of us to value our customers as ‘volunteers’.

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The growth in the number of call centers world-wide has been remarkable. Depending on the source, the estimates range from an annual growth rate of 15% - 20+%. There does not appear to be an end in site as more companies recognize the strategic value of call centers in an e-commerce world and as the focal point for web-based customer transactions, email management and the traditional phone call!

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Call centers respond to customer needs in real-time. The need that any given customer may present when contacting the call center vary in proportion to the complexity of the function of a call center. Regardless of the complexity of your call center, you need to have processes in place to respond to complex customer needs. The complex customer call may happen infrequently. Inevitably a customer with a complex or unique need does call. How do you respond? Do you have a process to respond to that customer in a timely way even though they present a unusual need?

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CallCenterOps.com uses a web hosting company to provide this site to you. The growth in the site has resulted in us having to sign-up for a new service with the current web hosting company we use or find something else. This weeks article focuses on missed opportunity and the role the call centers of two companies played in breaking it and making it for CallCenterOps.com.

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