Call Center Training Solutions Blog

Service and support centers are unique when it comes to sales. Many centers have introduced sales and sales quotas long after the service element has been cemented into the minds of the telephone associates (customer service reps). “I wasn’t hired to sell,” or, “Pushing products on callers isn’t providing excellent service,” are common complaints.

To exacerbate the problem, many supervisors do not reinforce sales. Rather, they spend their floor time solving associates’ problems, taking escalated calls, approving credit requests and more. Although these are important issues, center management has to make sales a top priority. Coaching sales is where it begins. Try the following tips to improve your center’s sales. Read More »

Contact centers can measure virtually everything. There are the obvious measurements, like average call lengths, sales, and customer satisfaction ratings. Some centers have vast Quality Assurance groups that observe each telephone agent a minimum number of times each month and create reports for management. Workforce management software systems are now the rage, offering great ways to save money and new ways to measure performance. No matter what your center focuses on, though, the supervisor or floor manager is the key to success.

The standard job of the supervisor is to be on the floor, handing out answers, offering encouragement and distributing information that telephone agents need to perform their jobs. Many call centers have also realized just how important the supervisor can be in terms of driving performance. On-the-floor coaching is the single most important activity a supervisor can perform to insure telephone agents do their jobs effectively and employ best practices. This means supervisors need to be on the floor in an observing and coaching capacity – not just out there solving problems. Read More »