Contact Center Mistakes You Cannot Afford to Neglect

Apac CIO Outlook | Tuesday, March 30, 2021

Quality leadership may be the beating heart of your call center, but they couldn’t be successful without their agents. One common call center mistake is not giving your agents credit for their hard work and dedication.

Fremont, CA: Life is a continuous process of learning. We're never at the end of the journey, and we always have some way of getting better. For your contact center, the same applies. Even if you have a well-developed training program and agents working to the rigorous quality, that doesn't mean you don't need to improve. There might also be some typical call center mistakes made by your management team and agents that could have a significant impact on your business's credibility and bottom line.

Not all call center errors are noticeable, but they all have implications that could lead to poor customer service, legal liability, and lost ROI.

Common Call Center Mistakes

The management team is the nucleus of your call center. How they interact and behave will filter down to those below and around them, which will considerably affect your contact center's success. They have to be outstanding leaders.

Unfortunately, your management has committed several typical call center mistakes in the past that you need to prevent from happening again. This will boost the customer service and the performance of your call center agents.

Inconsistency

Good leaders are consistent in their attitudes and responsibilities. Management should continue to demonstrate the right attitude and hold to their values and principles no matter the situation. And when it comes to responsibilities, management needs to be predictable regarding what they accomplish and when.

To increase the consistency of your call center management team, concentrate on three main areas:

1. Ensure there is plenty of time for management to interact and coordinate with agents. Create space for calendars and have daily team meetings.

2. Help the management follow-up on their terms. Your management wants to clarify what they think and what they say.

3. Stick to action plans until completion. Do not switch goals or emphasis halfway through a project.

Lack of Self-Awareness

One big call center flaw that occurs too frequently is the belief that they are beyond reproach. No one in the call center is fine, however. One way to boost self-awareness is to incorporate confidential feedback for supervisors in the same way that you collect feedback for agents. Then, on a monthly or quarterly basis, initiate a systematic management assessment process where they can hear from their staff about what they are doing well and areas for improvement.

Lack of transparent goals and KPIs.

Management may know where the company is headed and how they want to get there, but if these priorities and KPIs are not shared with their agents, they're not worth much. All goals and KPIs should be shared with the whole team so that they will have a fair idea regarding the firm's cherished goals. A hidden goal is an unfulfilled goal.