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Guest Blog, Sharon James: 5 ways to improve workforce management

 800 450 Jack Wynn
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Call centres are a vital and growing part of the UK economy. According to statistics from ContactBabel, there are now 6,200 contact centres across the country with employees making up over 4 per cent of the UK workforce. The call centre industry can be a tough environment to work in with a unique set of pressures. Despite the growing significance of the industry, mistakes made by firms are hitting headlines more than ever. In order to minimise the risk of reputational damage and maximise quality output, organisations should prioritise rising productivity by focusing on positive workforce management. Sharon James, operations director at charity helpline provider, Connect Assist, has compiled five ways to improve workforce management.

 

Maintain workforce motivation

Agents making outbound calls might have challenging sales targets to meet, while those taking inbound calls are often left to deal with difficult customers or service users.

Therefore, one of the main concerns should be keeping your workforce as happy and motivated as possible. There are several methods for achieving this, but essentially your goal should be to create a supporting culture from the top down; with a primary focus on wellbeing at all levels of the business.

Providing regular feedback, encouraging an open dialogue and celebrating when a member of staff or a team does well is all important.

 

Training and access to knowledge base

Be sure to train agents regularly. In order to give the best support to customers, agents must obtain a substantial amount of information, and have this on hand at all times. Agents need to fully understand and communicate everything that is relevant to your organisation’s key messages including products, services or brand philosophy.

It is also a good idea to train agents in communication and how to handle different types of customers, in addition to time management and system training.

Call centre agents are often encouraged to stick to a written script for efficiency, but this isn’t necessarily the most appropriate way to communicate with customers and service users. At Connect Assist, our call centre agents deal with vulnerable callers on a daily basis, and their ability to be flexible and human in their approach is crucial to providing the right level of support.

 

Make it a career

Call centres are great places to gain temporary or stopgap employment, but the industry is often overlooked as a long-term career option. Much of this has to do with the recruitment philosophies of call centre managers rather than the reality of the work.

When possible, promote all opportunities for career development within the contact centre, and make sure staff members understand there is a journey to progression. This is a great way for an organisation to demonstrate that the expertise of its workforce is valued, and will help to boost motivation and better results on a longer-term basis.

Make sure all job descriptions have clearly defined experience and skill requirements, and establish career development plans to help staff climb the ladder.

 

Maintain quality of staff with flexible working hours

The out-of-hours nature of a contact centre makes it the ideal environment for offering flexible working hours.

Although call centre work is considered as a challenging and emotionally-charged career path, more flexibility around working hours can encourage staff members to take more ownership over their working lives and help them to manage daily pressures more effectively.

 

Develop a clear data policy and ensure staff members are properly trained

Paying attention to data security is incredibly important for a call centre company. An increasing number fail to acknowledge this, which can have devastating consequences on both reputation and credibility.

For organisations handling service user information in-house, a clear policy must be created and implemented at all levels. This should always state exactly how information is collected and how it will be used, and provide a clear strategy for protecting it. Staff members handling data of any sort must be fully trained on the importance of keeping that information secure.

As an organisation, this needs to be communicated from the top down, because if a data breach does occur, the responsibility will always fall on those at the top.

 

With a background in service delivery and team management, Sharon has worked at Connect Assist since the company was founded in 2006. In her role as operations director, she is responsible for ensuring quality of output for all the organisation’s multi-channel contact centre contracts. 

italk’s ‘proactive’ approach to workforce management…

 800 450 Jack Wynn
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Staff motivation and retention seem to be recurring challenges that a majority of call centres are faced with. This is why, at telecommunications company, italk, we have invested considerable time and energy in perfecting our sales technique and ensuring our managers really get the most out of their workforce.

 

What does getting the most out of employees mean to us?

We train our staff to focus on the right kind of sales, rather than stress over impossible targets. We incentivise and support the team and, crucially, show how instrumental they are to the success of the company. As a result, we have high retention rates and a rapidly growing business model; this was highlighted earlier in the year when we were named Vodafone’s Fixed Partner of the Year.

Based on our successful and long-standing methodology, we share our top tips for getting the most out of your workforce:

 

Focus on training

We put a lot of impetus on creating a bespoke training programme for all new hires, primarily focusing on the product and the ‘italk sales technique’. Rather than rushing the training process, we spend several days in the classroom environment to ensure all agents feel completely comfortable and confident before they go out onto the sales floor.

We work closely with all new hires to try and eliminate fear, which we have found to be a huge barrier for success when selling over the phone. Once our agents have passed the training process, we then monitor them closely to quickly identify any possible issues; working with each individual on a case-by-case basis and providing more bespoke training when required.

As managers, our role often involves offering moral support, and we encourage a feeling of inclusivity across teams with more experienced members of staff helping to train and mentor new hires from the offset.

 

Promote positivity

The techniques our agents use focuses on value rather than the hard sell approach, and works within a positive framework. We aim to only sell our product to those who really need it, targeting the benefits our clients will gain from switching to our services which are usually cost-led.

We encourage our agents strike up engaging conversations with prospective customers, to spend the time required to understand their needs, as we believe this not only delivers a better service overall, but helps our employees to feel valued; in turn boosting motivation and job satisfaction.

 

Be real

For us, adopting a realistic approach has led to an open dialogue across the workforce, as many of whom have been used to a call centre environment dictated by high sales figures and a lack of genuine communication when it comes to career prospects.

We don’t want to flog or force our products, and our sales targets reflect this expectation. As a result, we have a very high staff retention rate and our agents are actually selling more. Customers tend to respond better to genuine conversations rather than scripted sales spiel.

 

Recruit internally

Furthermore, our high retention rate is also linked to our policy of hiring internally. Giving our employees the opportunity to move up within the company provides a clear vision and a drive to succeed.

Most of our managers — including our managing director — started out on the phones, and this visible progression helps to motivate staff members and showcase how hard work is greatly valued. We have created an environment with almost endless opportunities for progression in the sales team and beyond, and it’s an exciting prospect for everyone involved.

 

Get your employees involved in the brand

The first thing we do with new hires is get them invested in the italk brand. We’ve found that in order for people to do an exceptional job; they really need to believe in the product and the benefit it provides to customers.

A focus on high-quality marketing and our new website — which launched a few months ago — helps to instil pride and continue our passion for creating a brand with real personality.

 

To find out more about italk, click here