What Makes a Contact Center Agent Unique

Would your hiring requirements be the same for an agent in a sales queue, versus a customer care queue? No, and it doesn’t make sense to have the same criteria for an agent who will be in a call center answering phones, as one that will be engaging customers in online chat.

Beyond the obvious requirements of a contact center (chat) agent to have a certain typing speed and superior knowledge of the written word. There is a need for these agents to have a particular acumen for reading between the lines in a chat conversation in order to determine the tone, demeanor, and current disposition of the person being engaged in the chat.

For example, the ever-prominent ellipsis in online conversations... what does it mean? As I just used it, the ellipsis is a textual means into a further point or question. But more often than not in an online chat, it means an uncertainty by the person using it. If a customer, for example says “okay….” It most likely means he/she requires a little more reassurance or guidance in making their purchase or trouble-shooting their problem, and it is the agent’s responsibility to recognize this in order to meet that customer’s needs.

Then there’s endless short-forms used in chat, and while an agent shouldn’t be employing the use of these short forms, he/she must possess a secure knowledge of their meanings, at risk of otherwise being unable to understand the customer’s meaning. IDK why so many ppl need short forms, but FYI many do use them, AKA as acronyms. B4 you LOL at me for pointing this out, plz visit any chat room for proof and an “OIC” moment. Did you get that?

These are just a couple things that new chat agents should be trained for before going live. What are others that are trained in your contact center? What do you train your contact center agents for?

Promoting Productivity in the Call Center Environment

How do you promote productivity amongst agents? As much as we’d like to believe that doing the job, doing it well, and knowing that by doing so you’re helping people is enough incentive, the reality is that agents want more.

In a large contact center, it’s easy for individual agents to get lost in the masses – which is why step number one to ensure agent contentment, continued productivity and retention is creating a boutique atmosphere with a limited number of seats. For example, having 2 locations with less than 200 seats is better than one location with 400+.

Do you hold contests in your center? What about community activity days? These simple things will allow agents to interact with others in the contact center including floor managers, human resources, marketing and business development. In short, it will help them see the larger picture that this is a business, it is a business of serving people, and that other employees in the company recognize the hard work agents put in to their jobs in order for the rest of the company to thrive.

Another favorite way to promote productivity is to recognize a job well done. What does your contact center do when it receives a thank-you for a job well done by an agent, from either the customer who called in, or the client who was represented on the call? Hopefully, you forward that message on to the entire team! “Hey everyone, look at the amazing job Sue did today and the thanks we received. Well done Sue – keep up the good work!” Wouldn’t you like it if every time your boss thought you did something well, he/she emailed the entire company telling them of your achievement? Thought so.

These are just a few of my favorite ways of promoting agent productivity. If you have any others, I’d love to hear them!

Why Outsource to India?

With company budgets facing a major squeeze in these tough economic times, global companies are focusing on reducing costs, cutting IT investments and outsourcing certain processes that allow them to concentrate on their core competencies.

In such an environment, where outsourcing by overseas companies is becoming the need of the hour, India's prospects in this emerging opportunity segment are getting brighter. India is the preferred choice of the top 500 companies of the world, not just for its geography but also for its technological agility, quality, flexibility, cost control, time-to-market and competitive advantage. The country's unmatched value proposition for customers - based on the factors such as cost savings, productivity gains and quality improvements have given India an edge in the global ITES-BPO marketplace.

India is taking the lead in this environment on account of the following factors:

1. Abundant, skilled, English-speaking manpower, which is being harnessed even by remote ITES hubs such as Singapore and Ireland.
2. Improving telecom and other infrastructure which is matching global standards.
3. Strong quality orientation among players and their focus on measuring and monitoring quality targets.
4. Fast turnaround times and the ability to offer 24x7 call centre services based on the country's unique geographic location that allows for leveraging time zone differences.
5. Proactive and positive policy environment which encourages ITES-BPO investments and simplifies rules and procedures.
6. A friendly income tax structure, which places the ITES-BPO industry on par with IT services companies.