Do you feel that your call center lacks an introductory game plan each day? If you or your supervisors don’t have a solid plan to keep your agents motivated and focused, then you are probably failing to do all you can do to affect performance and retention.
The call center game begins when the supervisor starts the process correctly. When supervisors fail to start day right, agents fail to respond. The first 30 minutes of any call center shift should be controlled entirely by the supervisor, not the agents. The good news is that it really doesn’t matter how large your call center is. The communication presented to agents in the first 30 minutes sets the stage for the rest of the day. If you as the supervisor feel good about what the agents are doing, they’ll feel good about it too.
Here are five winning ways to make the first 30 minutes work for you and your team:
1. Condition your agents to expect something when they come in – Let your agents know that every morning you will present a message in one part of your call center. Each morning have your supervisors guide the agents to that main spot to display a valuable message that your employees either want to read every shift, or need to read every shift. By doing so, you condition your agents to gather at the beginning of their shift at one location. This gets everyone in the right frame of mind to tackle the day.
2. Train agents to accept your objectives - Your agents will believe everything you say when they see that what you say matters and is valuable. Therefore, when you forget to put up a message one day, you set a precedent that will endanger other decisions. When you present a message every day and you put up valuable messages that inform and educate, anything you do from then on will be looked at more closely.
3. Consistently penalize agents who fail to meet initial company objectives (carefully) – I once worked at a boiler room that made me control agents this way: at 7:15am, the doors were closed and locked. If the agent wasn’t there, the agent went home. If was worse on Fridays – the latecomer was taken to a dark room for 30 minutes, and allowed back to work so everyone could gawk. These Draconian measures repulsed all of us, BUT, there was a lesson buried that I learned, and so should you. Consequences count.
4. Make it a point of communicating with each agent in the same way each time - No matter how large a call center you supervise, you still many communicate with each agent every day. Note: Agents want to have an opportunity to communicate with management in non-telephone communication! Agents need to see and communicate in settings that don’t involve penalty. Some ideas include: a) say, “Hello” to each agent and ask how he/she is doing, b) send a voice mail, c) send an email, d) leave a message on the chair, e) leave a personal note on the workstation. Remember a little non-essential communication is always welcome and it will payoff!
5. Be prepared to motivate early. It pays dividends - Have you ever been motivated by the boss when you’re about to leave the company? It never works. You have to become the kind of boss who motivates agents when they are pleased with the company! That always works. Motivate constantly and simplistically, right from the beginning. If agents know you have a vested interest in them you will have a partnership not a dictatorship. And in that partnership anything can happen!