Lack of Planning in Offshore Call Center

The business firms that have outsourced their call center services to offshore call centers are thinking again about the poor customer satisfaction they are getting. Many of these firms are considering pulling back their projects to onshore BPO units in the hope of better service. They are missing a vital point here. The projects that are outsourced to these offshore BPO units often lack the planning that is necessary. As a result of the lack of insight, they end up doing poor work on the customer service. The solution lies in the ability of the project planners to make a productive work flow.

Call centers are what they become because of planning and management. Geographical location has little to do with it. Yes, that plays a role in getting quality technology and manpower. But those factors remaining standard, call center services can improve or slide down according to the capability of the top brass to train. If they can motivate and inspire the agents into doing some quality BPO service, just because they are working out of India or Latin America wouldn’t make much of a difference. Every call center needs correct technology, quality manpower and optimum use of resources

Call Center Scheduling: Some Tips

We have reported time and again that call centre scheduling can be a wonderful way of improving performance at the call centers. Here are some tips that you can use for effective scheduling of call center services.

First, make use of a flexible schedule model. Call centre services are flexible and vary from day to day. Some days you may have to put in some extra to make up for lost time. Such days also come in when you are lagging behind on your targets. If you have your call center agents work to predetermined timings, you will find yourself facing challenges on a daily level.

Second, reduce shrinkage by stringent adherence. Call centres often go weak on the question of adhering to time schedules. The best way to get rid of the lackadaisical attitude is to make the agents realize that a mere waste of 10 minutes can change things and have ripple effects all over the call center departments. They have to go out for lunches and comfort breaks on time and get back to the floor punctually.

To make sure that your call center agents are working hard at maintaining the schedule, arrange for incentives. Let the deserving ones be awarded and that will motivate the others to follow schedules diligently.