Anyone on this forum have a Call Center? Need some help!

RCCARDR

Hello-

I'm with a telecommunications company (not a huge one), and I’m writing today to ask for your help.  Over the past several years we’ve closed or outsourced most of our call center function, and at this point only a core group of 75 or so highly trained customer service reps remain.  We want to make sure that our call center management team is using the most advantageous management techniques and policies when dealing with this remaining group of reps.

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That’s why we’re asking for copies of call center attendance and performance management policies and procedures from a few of you folks out there.  We’ll keep all submissions confidential and will share our findings with those who have helped us after we’ve had a chance to review the submissions.

 

We appreciate your time and hope that you’ll be able to lend us a hand.  My e-mail address is doug.mertes@usamobility.com, desk phone is 800-611-8488 x6179, and e-fax number is 877-844-6872.

 

Thanks

Doug Mertes

TXHRGuy

Hi Doug,

I've sent our attendance policy to you as we discussed on the phone.  What I forgot to talk about what the performance management issue and I'll send you some material on that as well.

 

In short, we use a no-fault, occurrence-based attendance policy and stipulate maximums for the length of an occurrence and the maximum length of an absence in general.  If it's not vacation/PTO or FMLA, an absence falls under the attendance policy.

On the performance side, we have a sales performance requirement cumulative over a rolling 3-week period.  As your call center is inbound, that criterion is not particularly helpful although the other mechanics of the policy may be helpful.  There are a variety of inbound performance criteria that people use and they all have their issues.  For example, one commonly used criterion is called by any of a few names such as talk time, call length, or problem resolution time.  It's a good measuring stick to see how proficient your staff are at figuring out what the problem is and addressing the problem to the satisfaction of the customer.  Unfortunately, this measurement can also make anxious CSRs cut people short in their effort to get off the phone to avoid discipline, which is not the behavior you want to see.  Total calls processed or calls per hour reduce those issues but can allow a rep to hide goofing-off or engaging in excessive and unproductive chit-chat with clients.  Not that you don't want your CSRs to be personable, but that can stack up fast both in terms of direct labor costs and indirect costs that come from the generated perceived need for additional staffing to cover traffic.