April 29, 2002
Coaching is touted as a ready-made answer to almost every call center challenge. But for coaching to work, agents must understand how they contribute to their center's success. Here's how measuring performance can help.
April 1, 2002
Anyone who's phoned a call center knows there's a big difference between the best agents and the worst. The best agents solve their customers' problems, sell them the perfect products, and leave customers feeling better off than when they ...
March 18, 2002
Conventional wisdom -- that managing a call center is primarily about managing technology, not people -- is hampering call-centers' effectiveness. But well-rounded strategies could boost productivity, improve pay, and increase employee retention ...
September 15, 2001
Your company hired its call center employees to make pitches, take orders, and provide technical support. While the best call center employees are on the phone creating and retaining loyal customers, in just ten seconds a poorly trained employee ...
September 3, 2001
Customer loyalty scores were dropping. Market share was slipping. The company knew something had to change and called in the cavalry. In a year, customer loyalty measures increased from 40% to 76%. The workforce of CSRs and CSR management was ...
August 6, 2001
Once you understand the best practices used by the most successful call centers, it's time to see how they work together in practice. The most important tool of all is the balanced scorecard, which measures several facets of a great CSR's job. ...
July 23, 2001
Did you know that your best CSR may be driving away business? Unless you're measuring the right things -- customer engagement, customer loyalty, employee engagement -- you aren't getting a true picture of CSR performance. To see the impact on ...
July 2, 2001
Call center managers say their biggest headaches are people related. As the technology grows and the labor pool shrinks, managers devote most of their resources to keeping customers happy and simply keeping CSRs -- often, with limited success. ...
June 18, 2001
A call center agent needs four kinds of managers throughout his career -- a recruiter to hire him, a training manager to train him, a retention manager to keep him, and project manager to lead the way. The most successful centers use these ...
May 28, 2001
Many call centers confuse production and performance, so they pay agents for the wrong thing. Performance determines call value, and three criteria determine performance -- measurement, agent talent and a supportive work environment. Overlooking ...
