A Practical Guide to Call Center Technology
A handy, comprehensive guide for those setting up technology-based phone systems to manage customer matters.
TABLE OF CONTENTS A Practical Guide to Call Center Technology
Chapter 5: Staffing Issues
OVERVIEW
This chapter touches on staffing, in general, and the importance of adequate labor pools in the location you have chosen to operate your customer contact center. We will examine some of the newer staff management and motivation issues, including management strategies when we reach Chapter 14, where we will discuss not only strategy, but also the use of management reports that are available from customer contact center systems.
When there are over 150 agent positions in a customer contact center the center management become unwieldy. It s harder to maintain a full complement of staff and the center is more vulnerable to adverse weather conditions, utility problems and natural disasters. Further, with this many pink collar employees in a single location, you become an ideal candidate for union organization attention.
One of the best staffing and motivation consultants in the customer call center business is George Walther who has a great interviewing idea: don t run a help wanted ad in the local paper, look at resumes and set personal appointments you ll only hire people with a great interview face.
If what you are after is a great phone presence, use your answering machine as the interview tool. Set up a separate telephone number and equip it with an answering machine. Tell the job candidate to call for more information. Tell them they will encounter a machine and be prepared to leave an audio resume. By using this approach you hear people with great phone...
Copyright Andrew Waite 2001 under license agreement with Books24x7
