Call Center Industry News and Tips
KPI Data Integrity Depends on 5 Rs
You depend on the quality of data and information to provide a stable foundation for your decision making. Decision making often involves responding to something, so you need your data to validly describe what you are responding to so that you choose the right responses.
Whether your data is quantitative (based on numbers) or qualitative (based on perceptions), it's integrity depends on 5 widely recognised qualities.
10 Top Tips to Motivate Your Team
Motivation comes from within an individual and so only the individual themselves can decide if they will be motivated or not. Managers can't do it for them, however hard they try, so this might explain why motivation is still a hot topic.
But what managers and leaders can do is to develop a skill set which will enable them to create the right environment within which an employee will be self-motivated. If that doesn't exist then it is by chance that people will be motivated.
This motivating and empowering environment needs to include at the very least the following:
The Threefold Benefits of IT Consulting Services
Every line of business requires some sort of information technology these days. IT consulting services can be the key to gaining a competitive edge over rival businesses. Particularly for growing companies that no longer fit in a garage or one-bedroom apartment, there comes a time when the company is too small to afford a full-blown IT department, yet too large to operate seamlessly without any professional help from an IT team.
In the long run, a well-structured and efficient network can help control operating expenses, improve productivity and increase the perception of a company's integrity.
Mistakes to Avoid When Looking to Outsource IT Services
The move to outsource IT services can be one way of adapting to the challenge of staying profitable amid the competitive business landscape. This step departs from the conventional practice where businesses maintain a pool of in-house IT staff to address all IT-related issues.
One of the reasons why more and more businesses are turning to IT outsourcing is the lower cost it entails. This, however, has led some companies to make the first common mistake: Choosing an IT services provider that offers the lowest rates. For IT services to add significant business value, companies should enlist the services of a provider not simply based on the price, but on the level of its expertise.
Collision of Training and Employee Performance!
The success of any business or any organization whether it is private or public mainly depends on the quality of its human resource. It is also a source of gaining productivity as well as competitive edge. Through training employee can improve its knowledge, skills, and abilities which ultimately improve its productivity but most importantly its quality of work. Actually employee performance is a blend of employee quantity of work and quality of work.
Training can be done on soft skills and on hard ones. It is depends on the worker condition and its nature of duties that which training program, method and action plan suits him/her. Soft skills include communication skill, interpersonal skill, presentation skill and the most crucial one is analytical skills. Hard skills require the different technical courses and one's related with a specific subject matter and need practical exposure too.
Employee Motivation and Training on the CheapIt doesn't take a Nobel laureate economist to recognize the fact that we're dealing with some very tough times right now. This recession is wide and deep and there's very little reason to think that the economy will suddenly undergo an overnight recovery. Times are tough. There isn't as much money to toss around as there was a few years ago.
When one looks at expenses, a few things tend to pop out at them. These are the line items that aren't absolutely critical to company functioning. You can't get by without paying the light bill. You can, however, stay open without underwriting a company wellness program. You can't stop paying your vendors. You can cut back on training costs. It's not hard to guess which items get circled in red ink as the search for cash pushes forward.
Two Free Ways to Spur Employee Engagement
By now, even the most thick-headed executives have clued into the value of high levels of employee engagement. Dedicated, interested and motivated employees do a great job and produce outstanding results. A staff of disengaged "clock watchers", on the other hand, do only the bare minimum required to stay out of an unemployment line. If you're looking for maximum profitability and success, you're focused on spurring engagement.
Unfortunately, many of the solutions prescribed by experts for disengagement problems come with budgets that would be hard to meet in the best of times. While battling a recession, those costs can seem almost outlandish. In some cases, they're simply more than the company can bear. That's why it's so important to take care of the free and virtually free opportunities to spur engagement that present themselves every single day. Here are two examples.
Honesty and Transparency
The Disengaged Employee – An Invisible Disaster
He shows up every day, five minutes before the workday officially starts and he doesn't leave early. He does his job without any visible deficiencies. He doesn't complain and he appears to be a likable enough person. There's nothing spectacular about him, but you certainly wouldn't call him a problem employee. Not even close.
That's what you know. Here's what you don't know.
Does your Call Center have an employee mentoring program in place?
Employee mentoring programs have been touted as being a major factor in employee retention and increased profitability and productivity within a company. These programs allow long standing employees to have a chance to prove their worth and share their expertise with less experienced employees. Personal relationships are developed and the overall morale of the company will increase.
Begin by determining what kind of mentoring is most needed within your workplace. In some cases, employee peer mentoring programs are the most effective programs, while in others, an employee-management mentoring program is a better choice. This determination can be made by deciding exactly what issues need to be addressed and who will be the best to provide guidance. Approach employees who excel in the problem areas and pair them with those who are weaker.
Have Your Managers Undergone Communication Skills Training?
Run A More Successful Business With The Help Of Conflict Management Training
Do you feel as if your managers need to become more effective in conflict management? If so, it may be time for them to undergo professional communication skills training or conflict management training.
With the help of these types of training programs, your managers will be able to resolve conflicts more quickly and effectively, while also taking the steps necessary to prevent conflicts from occurring in the first place.
Some of the key topics in communication skills and conflict management training programs include:
Meeting Facilitation Skills
If you have any interest in the future of your company, you need to consider formal training for your management staff. These men and women are in the trenches in almost every aspect of your business; managing customer issues, employees, daily operations and thousands of other concerns every day. Your managers must be equipped to handle stress and make decisions based on what will be best for your company overall.
Established management training company's that provides new supervisor training along with many other specific courses that teach everything today's managers need to know; including meeting facilitation skills, diversity training, and project management skills. Your managers will feel much more confident and capable of making decisions during the course of their jobs if they have been prepared with formal training.
Customer Service Training Should Cover Handling Customer Abuse
By Ron Kaufman
Have you ever seen a customer who curses and screams, threatens, bangs the counter and throws things about? I have, and it's not a pretty sight. An upset customer is understandable. An abusive customer is unacceptable. Your customer service training should cover this eventuality.
If you encounter an irate customer who threatens, insults or barks foul language, use this approach to calm them. Start by accentuating your intention to assist: "Sir, I am here to help you. But it's hard for me to help you if you keep speaking to me that way."
