Call Center Environment
Get around a call center for any time and the systemic issues or attrition, customer experience and operational integrity will come up in any conversation. After all these years, it’s interesting to note that the same exact issues that plagued the industry decades ago are still with them.
What comes to mind is the definition of crazy…
that is, doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results. This, unfortunately is the life of call centers and that environment. Management continues to spout great speeches about the importance of customer service while lowering the morale and effectiveness of their primary customer service and support organization. This is just plain short sighted but has been going on for years.
The attrition, or loss of experienced employees continues unabated while management continues to be “alarmed.” Alarmed!? Because people don’t want to be treated poorly for lousy wages and few benefits? Oh please! Get your head out of the sand and take a look at the real world. Walk a mile in the typical employees shoes and management would quickly see that the real problem is…. poor management. Go figure!
HUGE turnover rates keep call centers in the dark ages
Contact centers typically have a notoriously high turnover rate, between 25-upwards of 100% per year. With such high turnover, it’s impossible to deliver reliable good customer service even with the weasel words of management claiming “empowerment” of the agents. No amount of training can provide consistent customer-service training, much less additional sales training.
On the agents’ side, the atmosphere of high turnover doesn’t lend itself to a long-term commitment to the company. Without that kind of commitment, it can be difficult for agents to sincerely sell your compan’s products. This is not to demean the dedication of the agents. By nature, they are often short-term employees. They are great at handling customer issues but they may not necessarily be great salespeople. So how do you equip these agents who may have limited experience, limited training, and limited motivation to successfully up-sell and cross-sell?
There are those that could sell anything to anyone and others who sell cookoo clocks to birds as a condo! LOL
More ways Call Centers are Evolving!
Just when you thought the call center juggernaut was at it’s zenith, along comes VOIP and DSL for commercial use.
As we know, call centers are becoming more contact than call centers today. Contact centers are now offering email response, VOIP 2 way communications with customers and the proverbial telephone contacts. Although this may seem a bit intrusive at first, imagine shopping for a new wheelchair and can’t get around. having a way to contact and review potential products using the web and these communication types are wonderful. I personally don’t like some of the contat methods but consider if someone is disabled. Think of the variety of possible ways they an communicate and get the information needed.