Call Center Hiring and Staffing
June 15, 2008
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By Hani Masgidi
Call centre business has a reputation of being one of the industries that has high hiring and firing turnover and likewise, the mindset of the people available in industry is nurtured on the same philosophy. They are not much concerned about frequent switching like other careers where it goes against you. Finding and retaining right people for the call centre is a well known dilemma, as there are certain shortcomings which are attached with this particular business, so, all the measures can only contribute in reducing them and that's the maximum achievable when it comes to call centre hiring and training.
Retention is highly recommended, go an extra mile to retain an agent who is a part of your call centre, he has prequalified, has got-on with the things and you are also able to evaluate his abilities. Make a correct judgment about the skills of the person and offer all that which the person expects by way of any of your company intelligence. Changing people is a never ending story for call centers; the need of the hour is to change minds of the same people. Recognize their needs and address them instead of preferring aggressive hiring and firing. You have already invested in their training, up gradation and grooming.
If for one reason or another, you are to hire call centre agents, make it a real task for yourself. Do a lot of homework about the interviews and selection strategy. Conduct an in-house meeting with Managers and supervisors to evolve an efficient and effective evaluation procedure that can end-up in picking right people for the job. Look for the accent first of all, that's the biggest selling-point.
Your second priority should be the evaluation of overall personality, find-out the sense of responsibility with the body language and the way of responding to questions. Put some of stupid questions across and detect the patience of the person, if he keeps his nerves cool and come up with respectable reply, go for this person. He/she will sustain.
Through cross questioning, bring-out the internal road map of the person about his pursuits of career. Get an idea about his endeavors and expectations. Ask him about any ideal call centers' pre-exquisites, this way he will give you his picture about the call centre he wants to join and what things will satisfy him in the long run. Never trash the interview assessment, make it most important document in the lifecycle of that particular agent.
Regardless of the facts elaborated in the article, time 7 again, the only short-cut to get good call centre agents is the experience. Nothing else can do it for you as good as this. So behave maturely, improve communication, enhance flexibility in overall decorum, and facilitate your agents to maximum extent, so that they can be at peace of mind to make effective sales or to offer quality customer service. Time has changed for the employee and employer, now both have to understand each other to fall into long-term relationship, so care for your agents and get care in turn and it works.
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Recruitment: Pigeon-holes are For Pigeons
May 9, 2008
By: Paul Dodd
Candidates will sometimes pigeon-hole certain job titles, assigning them negative characteristics that may or may not be true. Don't risk losing good talent to such preconceived notions.
Candidates will sometimes pigeon-hole certain job titles, assigning them negative characteristics that may or may not be true. Call center jobs are boring and repetitive, is just one example of how assumptions can play out in a candidates mind.
Don’t risk losing good talent to such preconceived notions. Do an informal poll amongst your acquaintances and colleagues, asking them what characteristics automatically come to mind when they hear the job titles you are trying to fill. Talk to people who currently hold those positions and see what other assumptions you can uncover.
Then make sure you counteract any negative stereotypes with positive information. Draw out the interesting and compelling elements of each job and communicate these throughout your recruiting process. And don’t be afraid to play up the positive and accurate assumptions.
About the Author
Paul Dodd is the
Management Coaching Tip - Hire Smart or Fire Dumb
May 1, 2008
People buy from people. And people will buy a lot more from other people when they receive authentic and excellent care specific to what they are buying and even more importantly what they are experiencing.
I was watching a video You Can't Send a Duck to Eagle School when once again I realized that a lot of smart business people in management roles truly do not hire smart and that results in them firing dumb.
Hire smart means that you hire for great attitudes, for respect, for the simple acts of being polite and kind. You can teach your products and services, but it is far more difficult to teach how to be nice to people. Management Coaching Tip: Find individuals with the necessary self-leadership skills.
Fire dumb means that firing people who you should not have hired in the first place is costing you a whole heck of a lot of money. You were dumb by hiring them. This stupidity is draining your various banks accounts and not just the one that holds your greenbacks. Your other bank accounts are: productivity, performance, progress, perseverance and potential. Management Coaching Tip: Your banks accounts are also your operating systems or Points of Potential.
One of my mentors, Michael Sleppin, shared this story about visiting one of his clients who was complaining about all the "numbchucks" in his organization. Michael in his very simple and direct manner asked this question: "Who hired all those numbchucks?"
Many companies go to great lengths to find the right person. Personality tests are given, background checks are undertaken and yet there is still a lot of dumb hiring going on. Part of this reason could be the fear of lawsuits and to the shortage of qualified workers.
Of course, the K-16 educational process does not help nor does the disconnect between today's parents and their children. However, organizations can still hire smart. They will need to be just a little more innovative and discerning in their hiring process.
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Leanne Hoagland-Smith, chief customer officer with offices in
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