Let’s be honest. A phone agent’s day consists of monotonous work. In many cases, call centre workers take more than a hundred calls a day. The job requires a lot of patience and dedication to providing stellar customer service for hours on end. In order for your phone agents to make your customers happy, you must take steps to making your phone agents happy.
Here are three keys to running a call centre with happy phone agents:
1. Throw parties. No, seriously!
You know that monotony we just spoke of? What could be a better way to break it up than to have special events at your place of business strictly for the purpose of making your company a much more exciting place to work? Your parties don’t have to last all day long, of course. Perhaps, you could host special lunches every other week or have a monthly after-work get together at a local pub or restaurant. Making it exciting to work for you can pay dividends.
“Host events for your office once every month or two,” suggests Shauna Geraghty on TalkDesk.com, “Maybe this means a quick happy hour after work or maybe it means hosting a full-blown event on less of a regular basis. Events give call center employees something to look forward to and help break up the day-to-day schedule. This makes time fly and puts a smile on everyone’s faces.”
2. Allow your agents to build personalized customer bases.
Most consumers appreciate familiarity. They enjoy having the ability to call up a business to speak to the same person they spoke to the last time they called. That way, customers aren’t forced to “start from scratch”, repeating the same old information they provided before. Giving your call centre employees the freedom to make direct connections with your clients vastly improves customer satisfaction. Naturally, it improves employee satisfaction as well.
“The best way to deal with your customer would be to assign a particular representative for them,” believes B. Lyttle on ThatBookkeeper.com, “This way the representative would be well acquainted with the customer’s problem and will be able to help them out quickly, instead of trying to get all the information about previous issues.”
3. Offer regular feedback.
Providing feedback has multiple benefits. First, it opens the lines of communication between you and your team members, making it easier for them to approach you with any concerns. This is integral for a positive work environment. Secondly, it strengthens the performances of your agents when they are regularly given helpful tips and advice. Thirdly, it will give you greater insight into what your employees need in order to perform at their best.
“Feedback is an essential part of any managerial position,” insists Lyttle, “But feedback isn’t only about criticism. It’s also about giving a pat on the back. If you are going to critique, you should always begin with a compliment as it makes the recipient more apt to absorb the suggestions for improvement.”
At MeloTel, we proudly offer the ultimate feedback tool!
With our Monitor/Whisper Control Panel, you can “monitor” phone calls live while staying undetected. You also have the ability to drop in to the calls to “whisper” suggestions that will help your phone agents. For more information, please don’t hesitate to contact us at 1-888-MELOTEL or use the Live Chat feature on our website!
