Hi folks.

I received by way of a private email a request from a shy lurker (go on, don't be afraid to post!) a question as to how to promote a positive and un-forced approach to ensuring that his junior call centre staff adopt good customer service behaviour and avoid the bad.

Of course, so as to expand the question a bit, I thought I'd poll and see if anyone has had any positive or negative experiences in dealing with junior staff (who may not realise the implications of the negative customer experience).

Also, how do we "promote the carrot, rather than the absence of stick" - i.e. encourage the good customer service tactics rather than discouraging the bad (by negative means)? Not that I'm implying that the 'stick' approach is wrong, just that in my experience people respond far more readily to the 'carrot' approach.

John

Hi John,

"This is a very interesting topic"

As we all know that the most important workforce of a call centre are its junior staff (CSR's or Executives) who are the frontline of the organisation. Any mistake on their side will have a direct impact on the reputation of the organisation. But it is a tragedy that this crucial part of the organisation is treated not more than objects in most of the organisations.

According to my experience, when a CSR joins an organisation, he is highly motivated but as time passes he starts feeling that his job is getting "monotonous" and his quality falls. The only way to maintain his quality is to promate an excellent team-focused working environment.

All call Centres should offer an excellent team-focused working environment. Agents should enjoy a social atmosphere in and out of work, and companies should often offer incentives (meals, prizes, cash etc) for the top performers. As call centres are heavily team-orientated, if they work together and perform well, everyone benefits. The place should'nt have too many rules, because more restrictions will only increase the frustration of the CSR's. More and more cultural events should be held, and everyone including the managers should be encouraged to participate in the events, this will help in breaking the walls between the individuals.

One more remedy I think should work is "Shuffling of teams". The "Carrot and stick" approch should be implied, but with the "stick" appearing only as the final remedy.

Imran Shariff

Morning,

I would say that one of the best ways is for the staff to have a mentor within the department and shuffle the teams on a monthly / bi-annual basis so as to learn from others.

I have also introduced a day a month for each memberof my staff to sit with other members of staff for an hour or so, as to hear how others handle calls and so that they all can learn from one and other.

So three things:

1. Mentor (also encourages others to improve their service skills to that they can also become a mentor)
2. Shuffle teams
3. Listen to other team members calls
4. ........also..... when we have team sales meetings I read out any letters that have arrived praising the staff for their service. It does not cost anything extra in monetary terms to the organisation - it just means alot to the individuals concerned.

Kind Regards

RW

Having worked as a Team Leader for nearly 3 years I would agree with an earlier assertion that staff begin highly motivated. There are very few people I have met who didn't want to do a decent job. However what eventually stops them and frustrates themis a lack of power toactually do anything worthwhile.

You can talk to them about saying sorry to customers, even if the company has done no wrong, as the customer obviously has a perception of a problem, etc etc.

Ultimately it's what you can do to solve the problems and this is where the problems begin. Too much emphasis on calls per hour or ACD time, reduce your after call work at all costs, no credits on a customer account over £5 unless you speak to a supervisor, hard and fast policies that you cannot bend as we haven't given you the ability on our systems. This all leads to a feeling of not wanting to help the customer but more likely your goal is to what it takes to avoid problems at work. People spend more time using their initiative to find ways of beating the system than they do in using it to help the customers.

If people are given the tools to do the job to the best of their ability then they will probably want to do it.

So in essence their needs to be a big fat field of carrots in place. I would also back up that if this is in place and it fails then a stick may weel still be needed, but I'd bet it would be less often and the office a far happier place. Might also find that over time you even end up improving "productivity" and reducing the need for customers to call you in any event.

I shall now depart from my soapbox.

Does "junior" here refer to the lowest grades, the people who have spent least time in their job or is there an age thing going on?

If it's an age thing then training more mature behaviour / communication skills may be an uphill task.

It may be better for the "shy lurker" to redploy the staff in questions to more suitable roles and recruit people who may look more like their parents (but I'm just guessing here - they may look more like the grandparents!!!).

Is it possible that some of the junior staff have very good "customer service behaviour" - just not for these customers.

I'd be very interested to analyse the profile of the customer base and compare to the characteristics of the staff.

Alan ............

Sorry, Alan, I should have replied to this at the time. By 'junior', I don't necessarily mean 'younger' staff. I should really have described them as 'inexperienced', but that's not to say that some 'experienced' staff are necessarily any better.

John

Start by hiring only those people who are predisposed to behave in a manner consistent with the job's demands.