A Quality Call Center begins with Quality People
The main focus of a quality call center is to provide excellent customer care to retain clients.From people to equipment, there are many things to think about.
Call centers may have the same type of structure, but by no means are they run the same way.
Some low quality call centers may focus more on simply getting the calls answered, leaving little focus on good customer service (ugh!), while others spend hundreds of hours training their agents to provide the highest quality customer service available.
Starting with the top, and working our way down I will show you the important roles the different call center people plays.
So who are these folks?
It
all begins with the operations manager, sometimes
also known as a call center manager. They are responsible for all
departments within the call center, as well as relations with all
outside contacts such as maintenance, vending, payroll, human
resources, or any other company the call center works with.
There
is
usually someone else responsible for a particular department, however
it is the operations manager’s responsibility to work with
them and ensure the department is run efficiently and effectively.
The
operations manager will usually decide how much time is spent to train
customer service agents and management teams which will set the tone
for the quality of customer service offered to customers.
The shift supervisor is the person that
communicates between the operations manager and the team managers,
ensuring everyone is on the same page. They will produce reports that
are needed and make sure all team managers report directly to them in
regards to problems with things such as attendance, call times, and
customer satisfaction rates.
A shift supervisor will
also oversee the
adherence to policies and procedures set in place. They may also deal
with clients and take the role of the operations manager when needed.
Of course, a shift supervisor should never be to busy to take customer
calls when escalated for both positive and negative reasons.
Team managers spend their time on the call floor,
coaching the customer service agents in a positive manner when it comes
to attendance, quality, policy adherence, and following procedure.
Customer service agents would report directly to the team manager in
all aspects of their work including calling them when they will miss a
day, or coming to them when they have an issue they cannot correct or
handle on their own.
Team managers will also ensure
that agents are
comfortable and in a positive frame of mind while at work. Essentially,
a big part of a team manager’s job is to be a cheerleader of
sorts. As a shift supervisor completes reports for a shift, a team
manager will complete reports for their team on a daily basis to be
sent to the shift supervisor.
This position is one
that you will have
to stand out as a positive role model, knowing that what is said and
done by a team manager is what sets the tone for everyone else.
Training is an important aspect of running a quality
call center, as customer service agents will not appropriately
represent a company without it. Within a training department, there is
usually a training manager that oversees trainers on a daily basis and
reports daily achievements and problems to the operations manager.
Trainers
will participate in training new hires on how the job is done,
the policies and procedures, expectations of the company, and how to
successfully provide excellent customer service. A trainer has a very
important role to play because they are the first interaction a newly
hired customer service agent will have with the company.
Their
style of
training and the way they interact with people will determine how
agents feel about the job in itself. Trainers will also be responsible
for ongoing training when procedures or products change, and also
ensure that everyone is up to date on things they may have forgotten.
Quality assurance is monitored within a call center,
to ensure customers are receiving the best possible experience when
calling in. Quality teams will consist of a manager within the
department who reports to the shift supervisor, and a team of agents
who listen to customer calls and score them on a number of things.
The
quality department is there to make sure customers are receiving the
correct information, and treated with respect. Quality reports are used
to help coach a customer service agent on issues they may be having
when taking phone calls, and will help determine the overall
proficiency of the entire call center.
One of the
most important things
a quality department does to keep themselves on the same page is to
calibrate calls with each other. Meeting once a week or so, they will
listen to the same call together and score it to ensure they are all
scoring at the same rate and for the same reasons.
Without an IT team, the call center simply cannot
run. They are the ones to keep the equipment including phones and
computers running smoothly so calls can be answered in a timely
fashion. The IT department will usually report to the operations
manager, but all departments will report to the IT team with problems
that need to be addressed.
IT teams are housed
within the call center
so things can be fixed pretty quickly, so this team has a lot on their
shoulders. The size of an IT department is subject to the equipment
used by a call center, but will usually consist of at least 2 people.
Last but certainly not least is the bread and butter of the call
center. A customer service agent is what makes a
company. Without them, there is nothing to operate, as they are the
ones whom are relied on to represent the company and take care of any
customer contacting the company.
There is a lot of
responsibility for
an agent to deal with on a daily basis as far as keeping within policy
and procedure guidelines while sometimes dealing with irate customers
and still keeping a smile on their face.
In all honesty, of all different aspects of a call center, customer service agents are known to have the highest turnover for many different reasons. To lessen the turnover in a company all departments must operate effectively with each other to provide the agent with essential needs such as support and ongoing training.
Without it, the agent simply cannot deliver great service to the customer!
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More on Quality Call Centers
The Co-Worker's Blues...
Call Centers: Go for Business Casual Dress Code
Call Center Books
The Good and the Bad of Offshore Outsourcing
The importance of training in the Call Center
Benefits and Negatives of a Call Center Career
Customer Service Call Center
