Call centers are some of the high-intensity workplaces where a lot is going on. One little mismanagement can cause a lot of trouble. As a manager, you’re going to face several challenges while running a center. Long queues, calls coming in much more than expected, and even employees taking sick leave.
These issues can be handled by performing proper call center management. It allows you to handle all the aspects of the center smoothly and efficiently. In this article, I am going to discuss some best practices and strategies that you can use to manage your call properly in order to make it successful.
What is Call Center Management?
Call center management is the process of monitoring and handling different aspects of a call center. It involves overviewing the call operations and making sure everything is going on the right track.
If you take a look at the overall functionality of these centers, you will understand how intensely they work. Hundreds of calls are received and managed every day, and managers have to focus on other factors as well, such as agent management.
In this chaos, call center management provides order. It helps managers have a complete overview of the workplace and make sure everyone is doing their assigned job the right way.
10 Best Practices and Strategies for Call Center Management
Proper call center management demands focusing on the best practices and strategies. They help with agent productivity and keep customers satisfied. I’ve discussed them in detail below:
1. Provide Useful Training
The first and foremost point that you need to focus on is providing the agents with useful training. If your agents aren’t aware of what they need to do, they won’t be able to perform at the highest level.
Besides helping with operations, a proper training program also helps with keeping the workplace well-managed. It allows employees to understand the company’s values and the policies it follows.
Understanding these things helps agents with receiving and answering calls the right way so that no inconvenience occurs. A good training program also enables employees to act properly in different scenarios. For example, if the call queue is high, employees would be able to work under pressure and deal with their jobs appropriately.
Training the Agents:
Training your agents mainly includes providing instructions and guidelines during the onboarding process. You can also provide training to the hired employees every now and then. The following guidelines can be helpful for this:
- Use a well-structured program with things like an introduction to the company, policies, etc. for new employees during the onboarding process.
- Provide detailed knowledge of the product or service the business provides to clients.
- Enable them to communicate in a proper way in order to deal with calls the right way.
2. Focus on Proper Scheduling
Proper scheduling is another important factor that your call center management process should include. Without having a proper schedule, you won’t be able to provide the best results. It is an important point for places where the staff is short and they have to deal with a lot of customers.
A well-planned schedule helps with balancing the workload on agents and reduces any type of time waste. These types of points not only help with effective management but also save agents from burnout. So, try to create a proper schedule that can easily handle the calls without burdening the agents.
Creating a Schedule:
The schedule-making process can vary from center to center. However, there are some common points that you can follow to make a proper schedule:
- Use previous data to forecast peak call hours and allocate agents accordingly.
- Use flexible shifts in order to allow agents to work on their preferred schedules.
- Create a proper timetable for things like working hours, breaks, lunch, etc.
- Keep on monitoring the schedule and make changes to it whenever required.
3. Utilize Technology
If you want to streamline the overall operations of the call center while improving agent productivity, utilizing technology would be the best thing for it. It helps with automation and gets the most out of your working efforts. There are several tools and software solutions available that can be utilized in this regard.
They range from project management tools to AI-powered CRM systems. However, the type of technology a call center uses depends on its needs and requirements. For example, if it is struggling with managing projects, it will utilize project management tools.
How to Pick the Right Technology?
As I mentioned above, picking the right technology depends on the center’s needs and requirements. Still, the following guidelines can be helpful for you in this regard:
- Understand and analyze the needs of all the departments of your center.
- Pick a solution that fulfills these needs.
- Focus on picking a user-friendly and secure software solution.
- Don’t ignore the budget factor when subscribing to software.
4. Regularly Communicate With Employees
Staying in touch with the employees is one of the most underrated factors that is useful for call center management. Your agents are everything, and the company depends on them. It is important to listen to their needs and requirements in order to streamline the whole operation system.
When you regularly communicate with the employees, you also receive opinions that can help run the place in a better way. Also, it creates a positive environment in the workplace and keeps the employee morale high. As a result, you get both a well-managed workplace and productive and loyal employees.
The Best Way to Communicate With Employees:
There’s no definite formula when it comes to communicating with employees on a regular basis. Still, the following guidelines can be of use:
- Hold regular team meetings and discuss specific topics to take employees’ points of view.
- Encourage giving feedback in order to understand the ins and outs of the workplace better.
- Recognize the people who are working hard publicly in order to elevate employee morale.
5. Conduct a Quality Assurance Check Regularly
Quality Assurance check, also known as a QA check, is an important factor to manage the call center. It works like a performance review where you analyze which agents are working fine and which agents are struggling with their work.
Running this check every now and then is useful for providing quality services to the customers. It also helps analyze the strong points of agents so that you can amplify them for more benefits. More importantly, it helps understand why some agents are unable to work properly. After this evaluation, you can provide guidance to these agents so that they can work appropriately.
How to Conduct a QA Check?
- First, set clear standards of quality so that employees know what quality goals they need to achieve.
- Record the calls to analyze the interactions and guide the agents accordingly.
- Provide clear feedback so that the agents can learn.
- Encourage employees who are bringing in the right results.
6. Give Agents Proper Self-Service Resources
If you want to keep the operations of the center streamlined, providing agents with self-service resources can be useful. No matter how talented the employees are, they always need help in order to handle their work properly. This help could be related to dealing with customers or troubleshooting a technical issue.
These types of issues can waste a lot of time, and you can fix them with the help of self-service resources. These resources are in the form of quick FAQs, helpful articles, guides, etc. Agents can simply access this data whenever they need help and keep on working smoothly.
Things to Include in the Self-service Resources:
- Informative article guides containing step-by-step guidelines about tasks.
- Frequently asked questions by customers.
- Detailed and simplified company policies and rules.
- Tips and tricks to get the work done quickly.
7. Have a Proper Career Progression Path
One thing that people are most concerned about in call centers is the lack of clarity in career progression. People join centers to show their talents and grow in the field properly (just like every other field out there). However, if they do not have a clear career progression path in front of them, things can get confusing.
Creating and sharing a proper career progression path can be helpful in this case. It provides a clear vision to employees about the opportunities that lie in front of them. It explains that if they keep on doing the right thing, they’ll end up at the right position in the company and keep making their career more and more successful.
Creating a Proper Career Progression Path:
- Have clear promotion criteria.
- Provide skill development programs in order to enable employees to handle different roles.
- Have multiple career paths to provide flexibility to employees.
- Keep the progression path based on merit.
8. Invest in Employee Well-Being
Your agents won’t be at their most productive if they aren’t physically fit. It is wise to invest in employee well-being in order to get the best results possible. Keeping agents physically fit also helps with management. You get to deal with less sick leaves, which can prevent you from being under-staffed.
Better physical states also help with uplifting employee morale and job satisfaction. When people are at their best, they perform well and collaborate with each other properly. This all leads to a well-managed and successful workplace.
How to Improve Employee Well-being?
- Encourage proper and regular break times during working hours.
- Provide comfortable furniture so that agents can work with maximum ease.
- Provide fitness programs such as gym memberships and mental health support.
- Include physical activities and games in break time every now and then.
9. Use Advanced IVR Systems
The working operations of a call center mainly depend on how efficient it is when it comes to routing calls. That’s why using advanced IVR (Interactive Voice Response) systems can be of use here.
Unlike traditional IVR systems, advanced systems route calls to the intended department in a more precise way. They use technologies like AI in order to understand the caller’s intent and then connect them with the right agent. It is a great way of keeping the operations and workflow streamlined.
How an Advanced IVR System is Helpful?
- It automates common queries, saving time for the agents.
- Since calls are routed the right way, there’s a much lower chance of errors.
- Agent workload is decreased, and they can manage important tasks more efficiently.
- It improves customer experience as well.
10. Take Client Feedback
Last but not least, taking client feedback is another important factor to focus on. Clients are your main goal, and if they’re not happy, your company won’t become successful. Taking feedback from clients gives you a clearer picture of how efficiently the center is working.
Getting client feedback isn’t just about gathering opinions to make them happy. It’s about making improvements in the center by understanding the things that aren’t working well. Clients will tell you the issues they’re having with the service as well as the positive things about it. You can use this data in order to make improvements in the service easily.
The Best Way to Take Client Feedback:
Taking client feedback isn’t difficult at all. Here are some useful guidelines about it:
- Use different channels to collect feedback.
- Ask clear and straightforward questions instead of vague ones.
- Encourage clients to give honest feedback without any bias.
Final Verdict
Call center management is very important for its success and is a complete skill in itself. It involves maintaining different aspects of the center in order to make it work smoothly and more efficiently.
There are several strategies and best practices that one can focus on in order to make things work. These strategies are related to employee training, scheduling, using technology, etc. You need to assess the current situation of your center and then start using these practices in order to make the business successful.
FAQs
What do call center managers do?
Call center managers overview and monitor the operations taking place in the center. They manage staff and monitor performance in order to view whether or not the workplace is working finely.
How to effectively manage a call center?
There are different ways to manage a call center effectively to monitor the staff and make sure the workload is balanced evenly.
What does QA mean in a call center?
The QA in call center stands for Quality Assurance. It is a process that helps ensure that the service standards are according to the quality standards.
What is the 80/20 rule in a call center?
The 80/20 rule is usually considered a benchmark for call center service quality. According to this rule, 80% of incoming calls should be answered within 20 seconds.
