The Call Center Model:
Module 6 of 8
Call Center
-
Human
Resources
Call Center Model Tutorial Series
This eight part series
is from Centerserve's
Planning and Design toolkit.
Centerserve is happy to offer our
Planning
and Design toolkit
at
10% off
the list price during the Call Center Model
Tutorial Series,
click here to take advantage of
the discounted price. |
The first step towards
delivering world-class customer service in today’s
environment is to separate the different components that
contribute to a successful call center.
Module 1
introduced the Contact Center Model, which breaks the
call center into its five key components –
Strategy,
Processes,
Technology, Human Resources and Facilities.
Modules 2-8 will examine each of these components
separately. The final module, Module 8, will address the
project planning and change management needed to make
the most of your contact centers. Each component comes
from Centerserve's
Planning and Design Toolkit. The Call Center Model
acts as a basis for ensuring cost effective,
strategically aligned, world-class customer service.
Click here to reexamine
Module 1,
Module 2,
Module 3,
Module
4 and Module 5. |
|
Human Resources overview
|
This tutorial will examine some
of the key areas of human
resources including:
-
Organizational design
-
Recruitment and hiring
-
Training
For
in-depth
information on how to plan and
design the human resource facet
of your call center see the
Planning and
Design Toolkit |
 |
|
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Organizational Design
Successful organizational
design must be tied to your business
processes and is driven by the
accountability model. Your call center will
need an accountability model in place to
ensure successful performance of the contact
center. To begin, consider the following
operational and support roles that are
typical for a contact center.
|
Operational Roles:
Manager
– The Contact Center Manager has
overall responsibility for running
the center on a day-to-day basis and
for ensuring that the center meets
its strategic goals. Additionally,
this person is the liaison between
the contact center and the rest of
the organization.
Team
Leaders/Supervisors
– Team Leaders/Supervisors are
responsible for a small group of
CSRs within the call center (the
size depends on the number and
complexity of contacts handled,
usually between 5 and 20). They
offer CSRs ongoing mentoring,
coaching and other feedback for
professional development.
CSRs
– CSRs are your organization’s front
line to your customers. They handle
inbound and outbound contacts through phone calls, email, postal
mail, text chat and/or faxes. |
|
Support Roles:
-
Workforce Scheduler
-
Technology Coordinator
-
Process Designers
-
Trainers
-
Systems Support Staff
-
Business Analyst
*see a full description
of these roles in the
Planning and Design
toolkit |
Job
descriptions:
Next consider
the job description for the roles above.
A well-written job description allows you to
attract the right candidates. An ideal job
description should contain the following
information:
-
Organizational
overview and job context
What are the call center’s
goals/objectives?
-
Description of
position
Why does the role exist and what are the
key responsibilities?
-
Relationships
How does this role relate to other roles
in contact center? Where and to whom
does this position report? Are there any
reports to this position?
-
Skills
What are the skills and experience
required?
-
Level
What is the salary range/grade of
the position?
Recruiting and Hiring
To recruit and
select candidates who will enjoy their jobs,
do it well and stay on the job long enough
to recoup the training expense, you must:
-
use
tailored and targeted recruitment
strategies
-
screen the
candidates carefully to make sure they
are suited to the job
-
make sure
candidates fully aware of all the
aspects of the job
In this tutorial, we will
only focus on the first two aspects of
recruitment and hiring: tailored and
targeted recruitment strategies and
candidate screening.
Tailoring the
recruitment process
The skills and qualities to
be tested in the recruitment process need to
be carefully tailored to the job for which
the candidate is being considered. The chart
below illustrates sample ‘skill-to-job’
correlations. Creating a 'skill-to-job'
correlation for your call center will
provide you a roadmap for tailoring the
recruitment process.
|
Skill
to test |
CSR on
Phones |
CSR in
Text Chat or email Group |
Team
Leader |
Customer Service Manager |
|
Voice quality |
Ö |
|
Ö |
Ö |
|
Spoken communication
skills |
Ö |
|
Ö |
Ö |
|
Writing skills |
|
Ö |
Ö |
Ö |
|
Leadership |
|
|
Ö |
Ö |
|
Desktop application
knowledge |
Ö |
Ö |
Ö |
Ö |
|
Problem solving |
Ö |
Ö |
Ö |
Ö |
|
Keyboard skills |
Ö |
Ö |
Ö |
Ö |
|
Customer focus |
Ö |
Ö |
Ö |
Ö |
|
Organizational skills |
Ö |
Ö |
Ö |
Ö |
|
Call Center best
practices |
|
|
Ö |
Ö |
|
Screening
techniques
To
determine whether candidates are
suited for the job, conduct:
|
 |
Important tip for retention
As part
of the screening process, you must
make sure the candidates are
fully aware of the job
responsibilities and the
administrative procedures. Have a
candidate sit with a CSR for two
hours or more to see the job role in
action if at all possible. This will
ensure that there are no surprises
once they start training. For more
on CSR retention, see
Centerserve's Motivating Agents
toolkit.
To avoid potential discrimination
issues, HR and your legal department
should review any screening tests.
|
|
|
Training -
Key Skills
Agent training is essential to top
performance in your call center. For more on
agent training, see Centerserve's
Call Center Training toolkit.
While designing
training, keep in mind the two aspects of
the job that your training should cover:
hard skills and soft skills.
Hard skills are specific to your
organization and the job itself:
-
product/service information
-
business processes
-
escalation procedures
-
systems
-
media type:
-incoming and/or outgoing phone
contacts
-email requests and text chat
-web calls
-mail, fax
|
Soft skills
are interpersonal "people"
skills:
Soft skills cover the manner in which you
want customer contacts to be handled and how
you want your CSRs to manage their work.
-
customer handling skills
-
listening skills
-
étiquette and “netiquette”
-
contact control techniques
-
sales skills
-
corporate ‘message’
-
time and work management
|
Training
sequence
Equally as
important as what to teach or train is
how to train. Each module
of training should contain some classroom
and computer time, followed by role-play
and a
test. If
the candidate does not pass the test,
provide more instruction in weak areas.
After an opportunity to handle real
customers with the help of a coach, there
should be a
final exam.
If students fail the final exam the
first time, they should be given the
opportunity to receive additional training
before a second attempt at the test. Your
organization may establish different
guidelines for your CSRs.
|
|
There
is more to the human resource
aspects of your call center than the
topics we discussed in this weeks
tutorial. Ensuring your call
center's manpower is as healthy as
your strategy, process and
technology, check out the
Planning
and Design toolkit.
The
Planning and Design toolkit is
packed with much more
about the human resource aspects of
your call center such as:
-ongoing performance management
-benefits
-short term goal -staff performance
-long term goal- professional development
Centerserve is happy to offer our
Planning
and Design toolkit at
10% off
the list price during the Call Center Model
Tutorial Series,
click here to take advantage of
the discounted price |
Coming next week
- Module 7: Call Center Facilities
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Related Resources
Call Center Measurement Toolkit
- Centerserve's Call Center Measurement Toolkit is an indispensable tool that will teach
you how to assess and improve the performance of your call center. By providing common
definitions of terms and a complete overview of performance measures for contact centers,
the toolkit will promote your understanding of the functions and procedures that will
enhance your call center performance and boost its efficiency.
2007 Call Center Best
Practices Report -
Find out what's working and what is not working
from contact center managers world-wide.
Managers and consultants share best practices
and solutions for operations and management of
call centers.
Call
Center Planning and Design Toolkit - A comprehensive guide to call
center strategy, planning and design; an
excellent resource for new contact center
start-ups, existing call center improvement and
future planning with detailed templates and
planning roadmaps. Centerserve is happy to offer our
Planning
and Design toolkit at
10% off
the list price during the Call Center Model
Tutorial Series,
click here to take advantage of
the discounted price
Other Call Center Management Resources
Bookstore
Tutorials
Benchmarking
Measurement
Strategy and planning
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