You Are Not Alone on Your Call

One Sunday evening, while I was busy doing the timely reports thatwe are sending out to the clients, our “special phone” rang and I immediately answer it. Special because only clients can call that phone and you know that when it is ringing, there is a client on the other side.

It was from one of our client barging in on one of our agent’s call. Our client stated to us of what happened during the call and how unhelpful and rude the agent was to the customer.

For you who are already working in a call center, this is not new anymore. But for others who are just starting, call monitoring does not starts and ends with your QA Anayst / Specialists. Clients will also do a surprise “barge in” and God help you if you’re doing something out of the ordinary that time.

I remember years ago that the client visited our site. It’s a common thing that they visit the site but little did we know that their main goal in going to the office is to listen randomly to some of the calls. Unfortunately, there were a lot of agents who got caught mistreating the customer, releasing the call, belittling the customer’s knowledge on the subject and so many other things.

The main key here is being properly informed on the account that you are working at. Be always on the lookout on the updates for your product [what you have been doing yesterday to troubleshoot an issue might not be the same procedure today], always be nice to your customer [easy to say but hey, you've got to do your part of the job since you chose to stick with it --- hahaha], always remind yourself that there’s nothing personal — one hidden job description as a call center agent is for you to be every customer’s shock absorber . I have accepted this sad fact for a long time already mind you.

And of course, always show a positive attitude, not just to your work, but to all of your colleagues and bosses. They are the one who can help you the most during your most critical “crisis”

Give Me a Break !!!

Give Me a Break

After having irate customers since you started your shift, don’t you wish you’re just the automated IVR stating this one? Hahahahaha

Reliability Counts

Our company acquired a new account — of course another technical support stuff. And since there has been a lot of resignations and recession in our department, we are already short of staff for them to put some of us in the new account while still waiting for some people who will fill in the post of WMS.

Our boss will also be transferred in that new account — we will miss her!!! Since there is only little time left to recruit people, our former boss thought of something great — if we have friends that we know will qualify for the position, we’ll just need to give the resume to our boss and he will do the interview right after!

Unfortunately, all the ones I know already resigned and went to work for a different company. The ones that are left, they said that WMS is not their cup of tea. So be it!

One time, our boss is holding a resume and he got to ask one of our colleague if she knew the applicant. Well, she knows the applicant but not that much. Our boss said he might consider it if she will be getting a good feedback. But none of us knew the applicant, just got referred from the other department.

Our boss looked at the reliability of the agent Meaning, if she is always at work and minimal absents. Coz that’s the only thing that he will have to consider before he will interview. But upon seeing the attendance of the agent, he folded the paper into three and said … “this is hopeless.”

Reliability or having a good attendance is one of the most important asset you will have when you want to level up on your current post. Build that credibility and know the right people and the right place at the right time and you’ll get what you want

It’s Been One Year

The day that I have been on this post was like — really?!? I already got in to this department? I rock!!!

Now, it’s been one hell of a year! I can’t imagine it. I escalated two agents from being a fraud, because they are, to the management, and unfortunately for them, they got fired. We’ve handled one new successful account and they just renewed the contract for another year yippee [it means we'll still have another year for this job]. And my body clock is rumbled because every two months we’re changing our schedules. How’s that?

However, this one year is very fruitful. New experiences. New friends to connect with on my Facebook and Friendster, new acquiantances, new kind of escalations to me compared to when I was still an agent, new enemies [it's a common life when you are in the management side -- you are versus with the Operations ], new drinking buddies, new shopping mates but old friends still remains [I make sure of that], and most importantly, learning to balance my relationship with the management and the Operations.

So far, I got a nice feedback from the Operations. The friendly and nice WMS. And recently I just received a kudos from one of our managers hoorays!!! Yoohoo to me!!!

So for me and for the rest of us — Happy 1st year anniversary. We survived one rocking year hahaha

I am a Workforce Management Specialist !

Well .. I belong to the first level. In case you are interested to level up with just being a call center agent, here are my duties/responsibilities for this kind of job:

• Support the management of call center staffing by planning based on historical data and relevant assumptions, employing strong analytical skills.

• Actively monitor the progress of programs on a real time basis using the Avaya CMS Supervisor, TCS and RTA.

• Report any anomalies to the appropriate Operations Management and analyze data to identify any trends that may exist and offer solutions.

• Create, modify and delete employee and program information as requested.

• Create and modify both User and Agent information within the application, ensuring appropriate security restrictions are enforced.

• Maintain a good understanding of call routing and vectoring, assisting in decision making of routing requirements and suggest improvements to maximize performance of the program.

• Generate schedules that closely match the workload of program.

• Liaise with Team Leaders to ensure all program requirements are met.

• Maintain a good understanding of all factors that must be considered in the forecasting process and comprehensively explain these to our internal and external customers.

• Liaise with Operational and Client Solutions departments as well as the client to determine forecasted call volume and required staffing levels for each program.

As a call center agent, you might wonder why you are getting a lot more calls than your colleagues, why your team is scheduled in this very odd hour, why your team has been transferred to a different shift, why your days off need to be in split off, and among others..

Well .. it is US.  It is what we [I] do in our seat whenever we look at our two monitor stations. We make sure that the service level of the center is met always, always see to it that the agents are not just seeing idle / not doing anything because this is not profitable to the center you are currently working for, be vigilant on the agents that are just avoiding calls or releasing chat transcripts to be on AVAIL mode and among others — It’s US

So wanna be part of US?

Recalling Employees

Due to the recession wave, three supervisors were booted out of our company. So, we in the Workforce Management group thought this might have scared our other supervisors because some of them started applying for either the same job or higher position in a different company.

And our guess was right. Two supervisors resigned. One gave a notice and the other filed for an immediate resignation. These two supervisors were already tenured in our company so our management find it so hard to replace them with more deserving employee.

And what was the master plan after?

Recall the two employees they booted out of our company. And the two just happily accepted their comeback to the office.

Resignation Day

I am not going to resign — at least not yet. Not for now. I still have some things to attend to before I tender my resignation.

Just like any other companies, tendering resignations in a call center is just the same. But what makes the difference is being informed on how to formally resign from your company.

Rule #1: Don’t go on AWOL.  Don’t go on “Absence without leave” just because you decided to resigned. What if you decided you still want to go back? Others just felt the heat, just got drained, felt bored but when all of these are over, they felt like coming back. You already have a bad record. This company would not “recall” you anymore. So why not try to apply for an “indefinite leave” while you are still thinking things over or trying to recharge your life?

Rule #2: Choose your “plan” of exit. Either immediate, 15 days or 30 days notice. Any of these three, back it up with a formal letter of resignation. Reasons can be personal, personal growth, career growth, undisclosed, migrating to a new location — be plain and simple in explaining. What’s important is that your exit to the company is formal and the company is informed on the details why you are leaving. We document every reasons why an employee resigned in our company. This helps us analyze how we can grow as a company and makes us understand better how we can keep our employees stay for years.

Rule #3: Be clear with your compensations/last pay. Before leaving the company, ask them what comes next after my last day in the office. These includes when are you going to get your last pay, computation of your backpay / separation pay [if there is], clearance, things you need to surrender before finally leaving the office, etc. When you are already out of the office, it’s already difficult to ask for these information as most of the time, the company is very busy for people who are no longer supplying them money hahahahaha

Rule #4: Keep your friends closer. Your friends are your access to the company if you need info. If you can’t get through your HR department because the line is always busy or the person you are looking is always not in the office, at least have some of your friends asked for the info you need.

If you need resources in writing resignation letters, check out this site:

http://jobsearch.about.com/od/sampleresignationletters/Resignation_Letter_Samples_Examples_of_Resignation_Letters.htm

Skill vs. Will

One of the hidden metrics in a call center is the skill and will. However, sometimes, it is referred to as category of an agent. There are actually four of these:

• High skill with High Will
• High Skill with Low Will
• Low Skill with High Will
• Low Skill with Low Skill

High Skill with High Will

In a technical support environment, you are forced to learn all the jargons most of all if you are not really tech savvy. As a result of this. some can easily follow because it is really their field of expertise and others cant. Because surprisingly, there are a lot of call center agents who became agents eventhough their skill does not match / suit what they are trying to support.

And when an agent who has a high will and still continues to improve his/her capabilities by adapting the new information that aught to him, they are now categorized as the first category: high skill agents with high will

These agents are the most likely to stay around for long in a call center industry

Lateral Transfer

You can’t say that a lateral transfer is a promotion. Why?

- Different post but same salary

- Additional workload but same salary

- Maybe a new center site, same post and still the same salary

- They will set your expectation that there will a salary increase but on a week before your much awaited day, they will say that there won’t be

- New learning experience but same salary

- A lot of wisdom words for you not to be demotivated but same salary

- Additional set of gimmicks [a.k.a expenses] but same salary

- Additional developmental trainings but same salary

- Longer hours of devoted working but still same salary

Recession: More To Come

I just came from a 4 days rest and as soon as I opened my emails, there I have seen it — a new batch of employees that was kicked out from our company. What is really so surprising is the fact that these persons are the “performers” [welll-except for one i hate her!) but they were still kicked out.

So, now, everyone is asking — what is really the reason behind the company’s decision to terminate an employee? Because we can’t see any pattern on these employees why they should be released. They don’t have an reliability issue or no any serious issue that was done to the company, etc …

And from what I’ve heard — there will be another wave of employees that will be ditched!!

Ohhhh recession !!!!