How to Manage a Call Center

Directing a call center requires people management skills and organizational acumen. You must keep employees motivated in a repetitive job while maintaining customer service quality and staffing levels. Follow these steps to get the job done.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Things You’ll Need:

• Call monitoring equipment
• Computer
• Performance reports

1. Concentrate on keeping your employees happy. Always treat them with respect and listen to their ideas, even the more harebrained schemes. Never discourage creativity.
2. Sit with your associates periodically and listen to calls. Discover what transpires in conversations, not just what managers think should be said.
3. Monitor service levels and abandon rates. Know what service level is appropriate for your business and ensure that it can be met. Correct staffing levels are vital.
4. Provide an incentive package for your employees that rewards performance. Ensure that you balance speed with quality to manage an effective call center.
5. Put an effective quality program in place. A call center should have a program large enough to adequately cover all associates and their functions. The quality program must be consistent, even among different quality reviewers.
6. Manage your employees' schedule adherence. Ensure their breaks and meetings are staggered, especially in a small call center. Keep your employees ready for incoming calls. They must be in their seats, logged into their phones and not in a wrap up mode that blocks incoming calls.
7. Prepare for staffing needs. Turnover is a problem in call centers. Work with your employees on their career development in order to keep them, but be prepared to hire when needed.

Tips & Warnings

• Ensure that potential employees understand they will be on the phone all day.
• Know how much of your employees' work time is spent in meetings, in training, on calls and in wrap-up work.
• Reward good work and hold employees accountable for poor production.
• Do not forget to factor in sick and vacation time when figuring out how many associates you need to cover your call volume.