Professionalism

Click here to see the video that explains the six traits of a true professional.

Attitude

Customer service is a critical factor for success in a contact centre. The main job of a call centre agent is to receive calls from customers and provide an answer to their queries. As an agent, if you fail to attend to your customers or provide service, you will only be left with frustrated customers, who will walk away from you. The staff selection and training processes at most call centres concentrate on the knowledge, experience, efficiency and professionalism of the call centre agents. However, there is one thing that matters most when it comes to providing a good customer experience, which is a positive attitude.

Most customers who contact call centres get driven away to competitors because of the negative attitude of the agents who receive their calls. Willingness to help, lots of patience and a friendly and positive attitude are very much necessary when it comes to calling centre agents. A positive attitude, especially, helps contact centre agents not only in attending to customers but also in cooperating with co-workers to achieve the goals of the centre. Implementing a game plan for agent engagement is a powerful approach to inculcating a positive attitude among agents. The advantages of a positive attitude are many, some of which are:

Better response by customers: The positive attitude of a call centre agent, while talking to customers, will help in bringing out the positivity in the customers too. This will help them respond better and it becomes a whole lot easier to work with them. A smile on your face, a warm and friendly greeting and a willingness to serve is the kind of attitude every agent needs to have.

Co-operative customers: Positive attitude in call centre agents raises the confidence in customers and makes them feel that their problems will be solved soon. Even if you do have to transfer the customer’s call, the customer will refrain from cribbing about it. He/she will patiently wait till the concerned person attends to his/her call.

Customers will be ready to accept alternative solutions: A positive attitude can save you even if you cannot provide a solution to the customer’s problems. Many times, you may have to offer alternative solutions, which may be unacceptable to customers. However, an alternative provided with a good attitude might just do the trick.

Positive attitude Increases loyalty in customers: If you display a good attitude while talking to customers, they will feel like coming back to you again and again. This will help in increasing their loyalty to your company.

The right attitude creates a better impression of your company in the minds of your customers: When repeated calls by customers are attended by call centre agents who display positive attitudes, it impresses the customers remarkably. This will create a good image of your company in their minds.

The positive attitude of a call centre agent definitely gives rise to a good customer experience. This brings them the utmost satisfaction. One satisfied customer leads to many new customers and thus more sales and revenue for the company. It not only helps call centre agents provide better customer service, but it also improves their efficiency and adds up to their success.

Appearance

Customers have no way of knowing what a contact centre employee is wearing as they provide service over the telephone. So, does it matter what call centre staff wear to work every day?

Setting your business apart from your competitors comes down to more than a great product and excellent customer service. Businesses today also need to set themselves apart with a professional outward appearance.

As the competition among companies becomes ever tougher, they need to use all available methods to strengthen their position, win a new audience and stand out of the crowd. One such method is to create a good corporate image.

The positive image of the company increases its competitiveness in the market. It is proven to attract new business and accelerate sales through a successfully implemented corporate image policy.

Clothes describe a person without words. From the way, we dress conclusions are drawn about our personal characteristics, social status and attitude toward work.

“Do not judge a book by its cover”, unfortunately, in the corporate world of today, is exactly what happens, so it is important to convey the right message through our image. Personality, social status, and attitude towards work are a few of the dimensions that our image portrays of us, it is the same for a corporate identity. The employee’s attitude, dress code and corporate culture determine how clients see us.

For example, seeing a man in an expensive, well-fitted suit, we assimilate him with greater competencies and positive qualities, rather than one dressed in faded jeans and a t-shirt. This is one of the laws of the psychology of perception. It certainly should be considered, especially in a business where success depends on the ability to properly present oneself. Clothing, as a tool for business development, is reflected in this concept as a “dress code”.

The dress code is a component of the corporate culture and corporate image of the company. A fundamental feature here is the need to maintain the professional image and reputation of the firm. In this context, the dress code is THE way to stand out among competitors, express a professional business approach and just plain and simple good taste. The second feature is the proven ability of the corporate dress code to positively impact employee working mood and focus. “If people come to work in casual clothes, their mood will be casual too, and in our office, it is not acceptable. What we do, in any case, should not be casual – we should try to be the best in everything, - “ says one top director of a large multinational company.

Another important function of the dress code is its ability to unite employees and foster a cohesive team. When the appearance of employees is governed by the same set of rules, they feel part of a whole and gain a sense of ownership. This kind of transformation is very important when a team is working to achieve a common goal. In many companies (including large multinationals) dress code guidelines exist either as unwritten rules in the minds of employees or as oral explanations by the leadership about what colours, shapes, silhouettes and accessories employees should wear.

Unfortunately, not all employees have a clear vision about how they should look in the workplace which creates a risk that the appearance of such an employee may distort the perception a customer has of the company. In order to prevent such incidents, it is essential for a company to create a code, which clearly sets out the appearance guidelines an employee should respect.

Attendance

Call centres can only achieve their goals and properly service their customers if every employee adheres to his or her schedule. And yet, many centres struggle to achieve schedule adherence among their teams.

Here are some of the reasons why centres struggle with attendance and strategies you can use to improve your team’s performance:

• Traditionally, there is a quality assurance person who is listening and rating the quality of a call and factors in the satisfaction of the customer. Net promoter scores apply to your call centre, and having a quick survey at the end of every call will help you stay on top of a quantitative and qualitative summary of your department’s satisfaction.
• Bonuses can be tied to requiring a 25-percent survey response to increase the response rate from the caller. Quality should always trump quantity, even though you must push for efficiency within the department and have a minimum number of calls benchmarked as acceptable.
• Managers often attempt to deal with absenteeism and shift adherence issues in one of three ways. They either avoid dealing with the problem altogether or attempt to manage employees through punitive measures. Avoiding the problem ensures that it will continue, but discipline rarely motivates people who are just plain unmotivated, to begin with.

The third most common approach is to reward those who have a perfect attendance record. Employees who show up every day as excepted and work their entire shift are rewarded with simple, but valuable prizes like extra paid time off, gift cards or bonuses in their paychecks.

However, some companies are reticent to reward employees for something they should be doing every day like showing up to work on time and not calling off. This is a basic expectation, and rewards should be reserved for people who go above and beyond. These programmes also do not account for performance. If someone shows up to work every day and does the minimum amount of work possible, should they really be rewarded?

Perfect attendance programmes also incentive people to come to work sick – which is never a good idea. If someone is ill, you want them to stay home rather than jeopardise attendance across the board. Managers have also noted that if an employee misses a day of work and is therefore out of the running for the bonus, they tend to start calling off a lot more.

Rather than rewarding perfect attendance, call centres should focus on developing a strong, mandatory attendance policy and enforcing it. Such policies should ensure that slackers can’t abuse the system, and that hard-working employees feel empowered to take time off when necessary, without fear of penalty.

However, attendance should only be one piece of the puzzle. Measuring critical KPIs across the board and using those indicators as the criteria for bonuses is much more critical. A solid evaluation structure will weed out poor performers naturally.

Working as a Team

Team spirit also motivates employees to pursue continuous improvement. Increasing teamwork and its effects require some effort. A few guidelines can help keep group interactions positive and productive and provide long-term boosts to key performance metrics.

Build a sense of purpose. Setting longer-term goals bind co-workers and unite them around a shared cause. In the call centre, this may mean focusing on seasonal or campaign-based goals, rather than daily or weekly metrics.

Empower your agents. Teams only function when everyone participates. Employees who feel that their ideas or individual scheduling needs don't matter have little motivation to work hard. Allow for feedback in individual and team meetings and encourage feedback from the front lines during busy periods. Self-scheduling also demonstrates trust and respect for your employees.

Improve communication. Employees will only support one another if they have a way to do so. A chat feature or knowledgebase platform can answer questions and help each other through tough calls and new projects.

Allow for healthy competition. While pushing cut-throat competition may seem effective at first, it's sure to backfire in the long run. Instead, engage teams with measures such as average handle time, customer reviews and first-call resolution.

Recognize individual successes. Build up team goals to encourage employees to support one another, but don't forget to acknowledge individual top performers to keep everyone on their toes.

In the ever-changing world of contact centres, the importance of teamwork remains constant. It's a simple idea that can have a big impact on both employee quality of life and organizational success. Rather than managing a group of employees, turn them into a true team: one that is focused, engaged, and collaborative.

Click here to see a video that explains the characteristics of high-performance teams.

Click on the link/s below to open a document that contains information about the characteristics of high-performance teams.

Characteristics of High-Performance Teams

Code of Conduct

Each call centre has its own set of rules and procedures, but the generic ones include:

Dress code - Appropriate dress code is required as dictated by the organisation. Often, staff working the ‘graveyard shift’ tend to dress casually, but must ensure that this is still within the organisation’s expectations.

Coaching and training - Each call centre has its own internal methods used for training and inducting new recruits. Some of the larger call centres have their own internal coach who will offer support and regular training/feedback sessions to all staff.

Rostering - Staff in a call centre environment need to take note of their different shifts and start/end times. This is often rotated, as this allows all staff to alternate between day and night shifts. The roster or schedule displays each call centre agent:

• Start time – (morning, afternoon or night shift)
• Tea breaks
• Lunch break
• End time

Punctuality - The call centre environment demands punctuality. Failure to adhere to this results in re-arranging the roster to cater to high call volumes during peak times. Poor attendance will lead to many ‘dropped calls’ or calls not being answered timeously. This will ultimately result in poor customer service and will definitely affect the productivity level.

Sick leave - Open communication between team leaders and staff is important to avoid abuse of sick leave privileges.

Use of internal systems - Most call centre staff have access to:

• Fax
• E-mail
• Internet
• Telephone facilities include local, trunk and international dialling.

Many organisations have stipulated rules pertaining to the private usage of any of the above facilities.