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Aug29
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There have been studies claiming of the several health risks working in a call center. I will list some of the basic concerns, not to discourage people from starting a career in this industry, but to educate and know that there are ways to avoid it.
RSI (Repetitive Strain Injury)
A condition that is caused by doing an action over and over again. An example would be typing for hours, without any adjustments to your position. This can lead to aches in the hands, wrists, arms, shoulders and the back. It is also caused by having to work fast and under pressure, for long periods of time.
To avoid this, make sure you get enough breaks in between. Do ergonomic exercises or stand up to stretch while waiting for a call. Your chair should be comfortable enough, so as not to strain your back. Stretch with your seat mate.
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Aug29
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I’ve seen it so many times. Agents either get sick or leave because they complain they don’t get to take their breaks. Usually management starts to panic when they see there are a lot of calls waiting, get pressured by...
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Aug28
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Thanks to Joether, he has dedicated a portion of his blog, referred to as “Call Center Arena” to links and blogs to the call center industry. One link pointed to a list of bloopers from a technical support agent (while...
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Aug27
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Using a different name as an agent is pretty standard for outsourced centers. The most common would be using an American name. Some people don’t appreciate this. I understand this completely. For one, if you happen to get bad customer...
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We’ve discussed about IVRs and hold music, being a critical factor to customer satisfaction. But, this technology is something I would put on top of my list. An exciting product and I say, “Bring it into inbound centers NOW!" Waiting...
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Aug26
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Thanks to Samurai-ko for letting me tell her story here. It’s a simple one but very true. I remember exchanging stories with my colleagues, similar to this one. It’s a good one to tell during a smoke break while you...
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Telemarketers often get a lot of voicemails, most especially if they start calling consumers during business hours. This is frustrating because the stress is tremendous on the floor just to meet the quota. But, do companies ask the agents to...
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Here is Part 2 on how to handle abusive customers. It's important you've gone through the first part before you continue to read. Be Firm and ReassureHere is the hard part. Try to find some dead air within the conversation. ...
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As agents, we interact with different personalities over the phone everyday. Some are easy and uneventful, but there will always be that day when you just have an abusive customer screaming and very uncooperative. Lee sent this question through email:...
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Aug25
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I thought I’ve seen everything but this is a first. Though call centers can spring up from any industry, this has never occurred to me. Lea Alissa posted her story and an excerpt reads: "I picked up the receiver and...
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I read an article by Ka Edong at his Technobiography blog, discussing about a company who set up a model for call center training. In a nutshell, it is online based and a lot of internet cafes can benefit from...
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I’ve been reading a lot of posts from call center employees and noticed a lot are dissatisfied with their job. Whether it was just a one liner or a story about their day, it ended up negative. What do they...
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Aug24
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When you walk into an outbound call center, you feel the energy instantly. You hear applause, constant chatter (but louder), team leaders announcing sales, team meetings in a corner, whiteboards showing tallies of sales and hear music being played in...
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Aug22
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VOIP has entered into the market and is a good solution for call centers. It’s very cost effective. I just found a service called SKY-click, developed by ADS-click, providing businesses to have their own call center by using Skype services....
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Aug21
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This is a personal post than anything else. I thought long and hard whether I should publish this. Here goes... In any organization, there are unsung heroes. These are people who work behind the scenes while front liners are given...
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Previously, we talked on how to start your own QA form from scratch. Once you have your items in place, the job isn’t over yet. Here is where the meat comes from and could make or break your QA form....
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Aug19
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I remember starting out as one of the first QA professionals in a call center in my early years. It was nerve racking because I didn’t know a thing about how to monitor calls. To top it all off, I...
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Aug16
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I found a great resource for all NICE users out there. Our administrator led me to check this out when I needed to find more educational sites to learn more about the new additions to the NICE recording platform on...
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Aug15
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When I started in the industry, the Quality or Audit form was the only tool to measure call quality. Compliance and soft skills were the two main categories you can find in this checklist. It focused more of what the...
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When I was in charge of training, attrition was one of my metrics. It is part of a trainer’s metric as well since we were all accountable for ensuring all, if not a major part of the students passed with...
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Aug14
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Tons of metrics but, oh, so little time. Here is a simple formula you can use when you plan your coaching sessions for your agents to cope up with the list of metrics that an agent is expected to do....
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There are many coaching styles we can use. Some use a more structured approach and some are dependent more on how words are used based on the personality of the agent. I’m a person who loves balance and one would...
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Aug11
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I’ve looked high and low for a specific forum that would focus on what goes on in the world of call center quality. It’s either I’m not looking hard enough, but there are very few forums out there that is...
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This was a term that was coined by my QA manager recently, when we were both brainstorming on including a process improvement division in the department. It just sounded right to me. So how did we get to this point?...
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Aug10
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In order to prevent, or at least reduce, repetitive motion injuries, call center managers will try almost any ergonomic solution. In call centers you will find all types of contraptions that may look very unusual, but that quite effective at...
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Aug 7
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One of our readers asked, “What qualities or skills does one need to be a quality assessor?” Here is a list of the basic stuff that you need to have if you’re interested in being part of the QA team....
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Aug 5
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How do you teach and explain data and root cause analysis to a newbie? Some say it’s difficult if your student has no interest whatsoever in analytical work. True but it can be done. I’m sure most of you have...
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Aug 4
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This is the first time I’ve worked on customer satisfaction surveys for telemarketers. It is something you see that is common in an inbound program, but not in outbound. When we first received the report, we all thought it was...
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