Call Center Management: Driving Business and Best Practices

We've all been there. You call a company to ask a question or place an order. The automatic call distribution (ACD) system routes your call with several instructions, press 1 for this, press 3 for that, etc. If your request cannot be handled via the system and you want to speak to a customer service representative, you know what happens next. In most cases you wait much too long for a rep to answer - feeling like you're not on hold but on "forget."

By Lora Meisner, Thingamajob Staff Writer

Call Centers Driving Business

Because of competition and a demanding public, companies now more than ever have to be responsive to their customer's needs. Even the definition of a call center is changing due to e-business but the core fundamentals will remain the same because the customer views the call as an important or pivotal activity.

Most management experts agree that Jack Welch, former Chairman and CEO of General Electric (GE), not only brought things to life but also rewrote the book on management. Welch's philosophy was simple, "The implication that satisfying customers is anything other than the number-one mission of any business is crazy." Because of this GE, has been the leader and world-class benchmarker in establishing call centers across the U.S.

Research has shown that 70% of customers will buy products or services from companies with excellent customer service reputations.

Best Practices

Today, best practices in a call center are measured by fewer abandoned calls due to busy signals, speed of answer, and the ustomer getting the information they need in fewer transfers and in less time. The bottom line needs to be more calls from more customers are getting through and therefore more orders are placed or more service is rendered. Research has shown that 70% of customers will buy products or services from companies with excellent customer service reputations.

A study, which compiled the best practices from 11 world-class call centers, found that companies need systems that acquire information on:

• Performance statistics, including abandoned call rates, answer rates, handling time, hold time and save rates,]
• Call center organizational structures and staffing levels,
• Employee reward and recognition systems, including salary ranges and incentive programs,
• Call center rep evaluation and management practices, including performance scorecards and coaching techniques.

Call Center and Management

What are the characteristics of a good call center? According to Colleen Walsh, a 9-year veteran, "A call center needs a good and knowledgeable staff who receive adequate training. The center needs an accurate forecasting system and analysis, reps with good customer service skills with access to information for cross-selling and up-selling." Walsh continues, "The public's first impression of a company is through the call center."

When asked what a person needs to be a good manager of a call center, Walsh answered, "You have to really want to help people and have great customer service skills." She continued," A good manager will develop and train their staff as well as motivate them?you need to be a coach. Some of the other qualities include, being organized, flexible, and have the ability to deliver improvement advice positively."

In order for companies to maintain a competitive advantage, they need to develop best practices and see what and how they're meeting their service levels. Service or lack of can make or break a company. There's an interesting correlation between a company's greatest assets-its employees and its service-if companies give both their best, they get it in return.