Hi all!

I am a frontline agent and a freelance writer. I have been trying to formulate my thoughts on the call centre industry into some lovely articles, but I find the whole works keep falling apart when I get to the middle. I thought I'd post some of my works-in-progress and see what sort of comments I get. Feel free to be harsh.

Jeff

P.S. all statistics cited have reputable sources, not included for the sake of brevity.

The soldiers of Julis Caesar built a 300 foot bridge across the Rhine in just ten days. Caligula was executed by his own bodyguards. There’s lessons to be learned here: good leaders can inspire people to do extrodinary things; bad leaders cannot command even their most loyal people. The other lesson is that the tone of the troops is set by the leader.

To have a successful organization, one needs to conquer three things: morale, logistics, and communications. Under morale: rewards and recognition, firm and fair punnishment, clear tasks and strong unit cohesion. Logistics is how you accomplish supporting your group. Communication is the way you ensure everyone knows what they are supposed to do and gets the info they need as soon as possible.

Unfortunately, many orginizations fall down in all three areas: morale, communication AND logistics. This lowers the competive edge, as staff is likely to quit early for greener pastures. If you want to succeed, you need to be better at keeping your people present and happy.

Most organizational charts are pyrmidal: at the top is the leader, then a layer of sub leaders, then middle management, and so on, until you get to the bootom layer – the general staff. This chart shows that managers are above, staff below, and gives the impression that staff are only present to support the leaders and their salaries. This is a very bad way to look at your company.

Try flipping that pyramid over. Now what do you see? You see layers of management trying to hold up the staff. The person on the bottom has the hardest job of all; supporting the entire group. The staff are so far above the ground that the loss of a single person means catastrophe for them – they fall to their death. The failure of a middle manger can bring down an entire section of the group. This is a more accurate representation of reality.

The tone of any organization is set by the leaders; it is surprizing how many companies fail to understand this fact. It is equally suprizing how many companies fail to appreciate their frontline staff. Ask yourself this: what is my company selling? What is the real product? For call centres, the product is people: the skills and abilities of the frontline staff. You want the best staff, the most skilled people, so you can say to potential clients “We are the best at what we do!”

But are you? How do your staff feel about that? How do your staff feel period? Take a walk around the production floor, visit the break room and smoking area, eavesdrop on agent conversations. Are they complaining about the company? The job? Do they sound frustrated? Demoralized? Angry? Are they making comments about quiting? Or are they expressing pride in their skills, happiness with their job? If you have a problem with attrition, then you are likely to hear more of the former than the latter.

To address morale, first you need to recognize it’s importance. People do not work merely for a paycheck. If that were the case, everyone would be fighting for top salary positions and no one would be content to work at lower incomes. The truth is that salary is a small part of employment. The larger motivators are social and emotional. People like to associate in groups. After all, humans are social creatures. A happy group of people can tackle even the most arduous tasks. A miserable collection of individuals with struggle with the simplest jobs.

Jeff,

I've briefly scanned all of your posts, while there does seem to be some decent information in there most of it seems very redundant from article to article.

If I can toss out a bit of advice it would be also to try to take a slightly larger view of the entire organization. Right now there are many points that seem very "Bitter agent". I understand you are writing from an agents perspective but with some small adjustments you could make the article more universal.

No reason to consistenly point out that agents are the most important resource, work the hardest, aren't consulted for changes, thrown to the wolves, no one cares about them, etc.

As a further piece of advice I think you would have found more replies to your posts if you have done them one at a time, and perhaps took the feedback from one and incorporated it into the next. You've provided a tremendous amount of information in a short period of time, I doubt many/most of us have time to take a look through them and provide concise feedback.

I appreciate you taking the time Justin.

I get what you are saying about the bitter agent aspect. Spead across 5 articles, it does seem to be that way. That's one of the problems I am running in to. The agent aspect I intentd to distill down to 1 article, but I keep getting off track. My current To-Do list by subject break down looks something like this:

-Improving Communications Throughout the Industry
-Improving Operations Through Effective Organizational Structure
-Retaining Staff Through Respect & Support
-Building effective Recognition Programs

... and about a dozen others. My overall target audience is centre operations and management and I know (from experience) that I can make each article both enjoyable and thought-provoking, provided I can finish one of them.

thanks again!

Jeff, You are raising a really valuable point in your morale article (turn the pyramid upside down and really work that way). However I did find that I had to read the article a few times to take in the points that you were making.

Perhaps changing the balance of the article and removing some of the info that can distract from the main points would help?

For example, I like you opening sentences as it made me stop and think and want to read on a bit more. You could introduce the importance of morale (lose the bit about logistics etc), quickly get to the traditional pyramid and its appearance on turning it upside down. Perhaps you could then question if it is really happening in practice and highlight that doing this would have an extremely positive impact on morale for all. The majority of your article could be focussed on a few thought provoking questions (like 'if your team members could change something, would you know what they would want to change?') and advice like your tip about taking the time to truly look around and listen to be aware of what is really happpening (such a valuable source of information!).

My reasoning is that I think that your target audience are more likely to find your article 'lovely' if it gives them something that they need. Most of us would recognise the problems that you highlight (the 'bitter agent' etc) but the main body of and true value in the article would be in helping managers to know what to do about it. Even if it inspires just one team manager in a business to actually turn their own pyramid upside down, it is worthwhile.

I fully support the approach that you are recommending. Morale rockets if people feel that they matter and are involved. Noticed, asked questions and listened to. Able to make a positive difference and influence action. Managers can feel a weight removed when they realise that their team members are willing and able to help. Being a great manager is not having to know it all and decide it all! And, as you say, what we are paid is important but the last thing on our minds when we experience problems is "oh well, at least I'm being paid £x!"

Good luck with your writing!

I appreciate you taking the time, Jane, and I am glad that there are managers out there who understand the importance of agent support.

Your comments are just the sort of advice I am looking for. I am a very skilled writer, published and awarded, but my brain seems to short out every time I approach call centre issues. It is very infuriating. I think your advice may help me get past the fizzle-out point. thanks again!