This is the time for Get out the Vote campaigns in call centers around the country as election day approaches.
This weekend, I put on the old headset, login to a predictive dialer, and pounded away in the trenches.
Our local community is trying to pass a small tax to help support the Arts and Parks programs in the city. It is a tax of 1 penny for every $10 retail. Some good friends of mine, John Porter and Kris Cottrell, who run a call center, Focus Services, donated the seats and the systems, and the long distance to help the cause. Super great guys.
We had about 15 volunteers get on the phones. Most had a really good time and enjoyed talking with people. Some were really apprehensive and I could tell that they weren't enthuased about calling, because they were doing all the advoidance behaviors that you see on a call center floor.
Ways you can tell that you have an agent trying to get out of talking to people:
Gets up all the time - bathroom, drink, other issues
Long wait times
Long wrap times
Short talk times
Significantly lower contacts per hour
Putting on the headsets and working for several hours reminded me that how nerve-racking it is to get the courage up to face that rejection. It also reminded me how important it is for the floor supervisor to help keep the energy up and help motivate the team. We took a break after an hour and talked about what was working and what wasn't working. This allowed everyone to improve and get better.
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