Call Center Agents and Supervisors

Call Center Agents and Supervisors
Call Centers, A Tough Place to Work
Employees represent 50% - 70% of a call center’s operating costs. Finding and retaining the right people to provide service and sales is the most critical and challenging aspect of running a successful call center. All the technology in the world won’t do you any good without qualified, friendly, intelligent, hard working, and reliable agents that are managed by competent and dedicated supervisors.
Different call center functions will require different types of skill sets, but all call center agents have some common characteristics including: communication and courtesy skills, the ability to learn, common sense and good judgment, resiliency and stress tolerance.
Call centers are tough places to work because everything is done in real-time and working with customers is not only demanding, but sometimes unpredictable too.
Agents must remain calm, courteous, and focused while solving problems that are generally created by others
Agents have their time and activities tightly measured and are expected to be highly productive at all times
Agents have little privacy in their work environment and are tethered to their workstation
All of these factors create stress on the agent who must stay focused and motivated to do a good job.
Supervisors (Super Heroes)
Supervisors are the unsung heroes in the call center. Successful call centers must have supervisors that:
Translate decisions and see that they are carried out
Stay in touch with what is happening with customers and the agents
Watch for, listen to, and help resolve agent problems
Hear without being personal, and advise without bullying
Motivates and gets the most out of people
Your customer’s experience is directly impacted by their interaction with your agents and your supervisory staff’s ability to provide effective leadership.