Call centres all over North America employ some of the hardest workers in the continent. As we’ve pointed out in many past blogs, call centre phone agents have incredibly hard jobs. Many are required to make north of a hundred calls per day! That’s a lot of different phone calls with a lot of different personalities. On many of their calls, they will be embroiled in difficult conversations that require the overcoming of numerous objections.
The most productive call centres are the ones with the most charismatic and endearing managers. These individuals allow for open communication between themselves and their employees. As a result, reps feel free to express their grievances, request feedback and better their performances based on the advice they’re given.
What else can you do to better the phone agent experience in your call centre?
Be a hands-on manager.
Don’t wait for your reps to come to you. Go to your reps. Make sure they each know that you’re there for them. Ask questions, inquire about their days and communicate your appreciation for their efforts. When managers take the hands-off approach, it makes phone agents feel as if their contributions don’t matter. It breeds slacking off and overall poor performances.
On MyCustomer.com, Abhishek Jain advocates for managers to be hands on. “It is important for the team morale and productivity that the managers lead by an example,” he writes, “For example, ensuring that your managers are all set and prepared to jump on calls helping out with any peaks or surges in call volumes. This could help in building the team spirit which is a major key for the long-term productivity of a call centre.”
Inspire friendly competitiveness.
With both the NHL and NBA regular seasons and the MLB postseason starting this month, it’s an excellent time of year to introduce game play in your call centre. To be specific, set up teams within your team and create standings that reflect the performances of each group. Be sure to offer weekly and monthly incentives to the best performers. Friendly competition is a great way to both create an energetic and joyous work atmosphere and boost productivity.
“Competition with co-workers is considered to be a natural incentive in order to motivate your call agents and boosting up their activities,” says Jain, “Having a healthy competition would give the agents a level of playing field, rewarding those who do well and support those who might need it.”
Allow for remote work.
Are you set up with a phone system that enables your employees to take calls when they’re outside of your office? According to Rieva Lesonsky on Nextiva.com, allowing flex time and remote work “will go a long way toward improving employee satisfaction. With the right call centre technology, you can set up teams of mobile, remote or virtual agents anywhere in the world, and let them log into the system wherever they are.”
At MeloTel, we’re proud to offer the right call centre technology! Contact us today to learn about how our cloud-hosted Commercial Phone Services can help to better the phone agent experience in your call centre. Please don’t hesitate to call us at 1-888-MELOTEL or use the Live Chat feature on our website!
