Call Center Skills - Five Tips For Better Huddles and Meetings

One of the keys to providing better customer service is to keep your Call Center Agents up to date.

The best way to do this is run daily team huddles and monthly team meetings. Here are five tips that will help you make your meeting time more effective:

1) How is a call center team huddle different from a formal meeting?

A team huddle is usually an informal 10-15 minute long meeting held just before a shift takes the floor. They are typically held daily. Or, several times a day for call centers with multiple shifts. They usually take place on the call center floor. They are meant to give urgent information to Agents such as that day's hot issues, equipment problems, etc.

In comparison, a formal team meeting occurs once or twice a month. They take place in a regular meeting room and involve a set, pre-announced agenda. The topics include upcoming product or policy changes, and refresher training.

2) What is the recommended location for a team huddle?

You can hold a team huddle in a breakout room or meeting room (if you have the space.) However most call centres hold their team huddles in an open space on the call center floor. Since a huddle is very brief - just 10-15 minutes long - there's no point in booking a dedicated meeting room for it. Just make sure the noise from your huddle does not disturb any nearby Agents who are on a call.

3) How often should you do a team huddle? What time of day should it be held?
 

Informal huddles are usually done daily. The best time for a huddle is just before the start of a particular shift. For example, all the people who start their shift at 9:00 AM meet at 8:45 AM. During the huddle, the Team Manager outlines any urgent issues, gives updates about the day's potential challenges, and asks for any feedback or questions from the Agents.

4) Who should provide the topics for a team huddle: Managers or Agents?

Usually Managers provide the topics for a team huddle. A huddle is meant to rapidly update Agents who are starting their shift, on urgent issues for the day. So normally the Manager sets the agenda.

5) Those are great tips on how to run a team huddle. Now, what are some techniques for effective call center meetings?
 

There are a number of activities you can do during a formal team meeting. Because team meetings are longer than huddles, you can build in more interactivity. So, you can ask your Agents to provide feedback. Or, do a skills building exercise. Or, an interactive team building exercise to build rapport.

Another common technique is to focus on a specific product or service, and ask your Agents to share their best ideas for how to sell that product or service. If you are in a service environment, you can ask your Agents to share their best practices for how to deal with a particular service issues.

By allowing your Agents to share, they can learn from each other and build their skill level. This will lead to better call quality scores and improved customer satisfaction.

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Call Center Outsourcing Can Improve Profits

Many businesses turn to call center outsourcing services to free up company resources from handling customer support activities. While these benefits can help to improve a company’s image and focus more on their core business, there are other long term benefits that not only make outsourcing a favorable option, but help to improve profit potential as well.

Five Ways Outsourcing a Call Center Saves Businesses Money:

1.      Labor Hours. Each employee a company hires to work the phones is one less employee that could be assigned to market research and development, two primary profit-making initiatives that are often underrepresented.

2.     Server Space. An in-house call center often requires a dedicated server and expensive software to operate. Outsourcing these operations offers web-based interactions with a third party that hosts most of the software on their site. This can translate into thousands of dollars saved annually in hardware and maintenance fees--monetary resources better spent elsewhere.

3.     Training Time. A Harris Interactive survey of 2,048 adults indicated that 96 percent of Americans have had a bad customer service experience. 80 percent of them stopped doing business with that company. Third-party call center services have highly-trained employees, saving their clients time, money, and often face.

4.     Compliance Issues.  Third-party call center services make it their business to stay up-to-the-minute on the rules and regulations. Severe penalties exist for companies that aren’t--and ignorance is no defense.

5.     Quality Assurance. Again, if outsourcing call center services is executed correctly, the representative operates with the hiring company’s strategic goals in mind. The third-party call centers literally serve as "consultants" to businesses, enhancing the relationship through free communication and insightful advice on maximizing project success.

Outsourcing call center services can streamline business processes in these key areas and beyond. From lean-and-hungry start-ups to mid-sized businesses at the precipice of expansion, the outsourced call center can help with the reallocation of scarce resources to catalyze growth and drive profit.

One key improvement to call center outsourcing is saving in-house space by eliminating the need for dedicated servers. Aside from space savings, businesses will also reduce costs associated with ongoing maintenance and other fees at their site.

To ensure customers are always receiving the best quality care from agents, choosing a call center outsourcing provider also means only experienced and highly trained agents will be in touch with customers.

Finally, quality and compliance issues are no longer an issue for businesses as the outsourced call center provider will ensure all rules and regulations are always met.

Call center outsourcing can become the extension of a company’s business and help to not only improve customer satisfaction rates, but chosen correctly, can even help the company to grow and drive profits.

CALL CENTER: Take the Extra Step for Customer Service

Imagine that every single person in your business feels like they are personally accountable for the satisfaction of every customer. Imagine how hard every employee would work in that case. Now visualize that there is a way that you can track not only the service calls but the service tech that handled the call, right to the last detail.

Monitoring Your Calls in the Call Center

Envision a system of monitoring customer satisfaction via the call center. What aspect of the call that was not handled properly? Or at what point did the call take a turn for the worse? Maybe the service call was fine, but the customer service rep did not follow up or follow company protocol. Where did it all go wrong to end in an unsatisfied customer, or loss of a sale. Maybe the service technician was knowledgeable and polite but unable to complete the service as planned? Having the ability to monitor calls allows companies to perfect their strategies for improved customer retention and satisfaction. There are several steps to improving customer service from your call center’s standpoint. Each aspect should be fully realized and integrated with the other steps.

Post Service Call Center Contact

No matter why a customer has initiated contact with your business, you should make sure that there is a follow-up call, thanking them for their patronage. From order, to reorder, complaint, question or concern, every call in, should equal a return call out.

Outbound Call Center Messages

The post-service call can come with the use of automated messages that not only thank the customer for their patronage but directly offer follow-up steps and suggestions for their continued satisfaction. For instance, an automated message directed toward a recent complaint should:

Thank the customer for their continued loyalty

Apologize for the complaint/dissatisfaction

Provide steps to take if the problem was not properly resolved with initial contact

This message should be brief and to the point while remaining cordial and congenial, a daunting task for an automated voice, but doable and necessary.

Request Customer Feedback in Your Call Center

Every call should be monitored for satisfaction, not only of that particular contact but of the business in general. This includes asking customers to participate in a survey. To be fully effective, a survey of any kind must be:

Ø   Confirmable

o    It should be based on the truth or facts that your company tells you to state to the customer regarding to their queries and other concerns. You should make sure that the information you are given is true or real.

Ø  Randomly generated

o    Any information that you will give to the customer must be arrange in a way that the customer will understand easily.

Ø  Brief in duration

o    It should be short and simple. But easy to understand.

Ø  Direct and to the point

o    Direct to the point.

Each customer who agrees to the survey should be told exactly what the data is being used for, for the sake of informed consent and no one should feel obligated to do so. Opting in or out of the survey should only be at the very end of the phone call itself and not before the matter at hand is completely taken care of. At no point should a survey be commenced before service has been performed.

Tracking Service Calls

Every service call has a mission: to satisfy the customer. If the customers are complaining about service or the surveys and other statistics are showing unsatisfactory marks, an improvement in the way service calls are handled may be necessary. Customer feedback is quite possibly the single most valuable information received during its existence. Any ability to capture this feedback should not be overlooked.

Tracking Service Techs

Lousy techs give lousy service, no matter how proficient they actually are. Rude, surly or disinterested service techs can cost a business thousands of dollars and a reputation that is not easily forgotten. Tracking the individual service calls and getting a handle on how well your customer service team handles your most valuable assets – customers, is essential to the growth and sustainment of your business. 

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Authentic Service - the Key to Winning Customer Service

Why allowing your customer service teams to be themselves are keys to great service.

Providing great customer service is tough. Customers are becoming increasingly demanding and have a huge amount of information available to them at the click of a mouse. They complain more. Many companies have responded by introducing sophisticated and detailed processes that leave little room for the customer service representative to use their own words, let alone their commonsense, in efficiently handling a customer’s issue. While these systems are designed to mitigate disaster, they are not the foundation of successful, authentic customer service. 

Authentic customer service occurs when there is a real culture of ‘how can we solve this customer’s problem’ rather than ‘how quickly can I get them off the phone’.

Customers are best served when they talk to a representative who works in an environment that allows them to be themselves, to use language they are comfortable with and have the confidence to find ways to answer the customers’ request or solve their problem.

In short, to have empathy with the customer, provide excellent service and, in turn, build trust in the organization, its products and services.
Now I’m not advocating that all customer service managers throw away their scripts and allow a free-for-all on the phones or email.

While that maybe the gold standard in the training room it isn’t really practical for most customer service operations. But there are two things that customer service managers can do to move towards providing authentic customer service.

Start by listening to the frontline. The employees on the frontline of the business – the ‘outside’ – are the best placed to identify where customer service is succeeding or failing. By reviewing existing systems and processes with those who can have most impact on customer experience – your frontline staff – you can rapidly identify what does and doesn’t work, and what can be improved.

This ‘outside-in’ approach turns traditional ‘inside-out’ strategy (management writes the script, customer service delivers it) on its head and recognizes that frontline staff is intrinsic to successful business improvement.

Second, use more than metrics to judge success. Too often metrics and mystery shopper scores are the only measure of success for customer service. This tells you ‘what’, but not ‘why’. To find out why a process is not working requires an understanding of what is happening at the point of interaction between the customer and frontline staff.

Authentic customer service keeps consumers happy and builds trust in your brand and organization. It’s not easy to deliver but the rewards are high.

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What are Technical Support Centers?

A Technical support Center or IT Helpdesk is a system designed to help and support an end-user of a particular product, system or application. The Technical Support Center/ IT Helpdesk provides offshore technical support services to customers of products and services through multiple channels like email, chat, voice and the web.
The Technical Support Center is alternatively referred to as the Helpdesk or customer support center. Terms such as IT response center, customer interaction center, contact center, resource center, service desk and IT solutions center are also widely prevalent in the field to refer to dedicated teams that systematically handle the entire spectrum of technical support services.

Application Support or Technical support (also tech support) is a range of services providing assistance with technology products such as mobile phones, televisions, computers, software products or other electronic or mechanical goods. In general, technical support services attempt to help the user solve specific problems with a product—rather than providing training, customization, or other support services. Most companies offer technical support for the products they sell, either freely available or for a fee. Technical support may be delivered over the telephone or online by e-mail or a web site or a tool where users can log a call/incident. Larger organizations frequently have internal technical support available to their staff for computer related problems. The internet is also a good source for freely available tech support, where experienced users may provide advice and assistance with problems. In addition, some fee-based service companies charge for premium technical support services.
Technical support may be delivered by different technologies depending on the situation. For example, direct questions can be addressed using SMS, Online chat, E-mail or Fax; basic software problems can be addressed over the telephone or, increasingly, by using remote access repair services; while more complicated problems with hardware may need to be dealt with in person.

Types of Technical Support

Time and Material

This type of technical support has been very common in the services industry. It is also known as "Break-Fix" IT Support. The concept behind this type of support is that the customer pays for the materials (Hard Drive, Memory, Computer, etc.) as well as pays the technician based on their pre-negotiated rate when they have a problem.

Block Hours

Block Hours is basically a way to purchase a bunch of hours upfront to pay a reduced hourly rate. The premise behind this type of support is that the customer has negotiated a discounted rate and a fixed number of hours to use either per month or year. This allows them the flexibility to use the hours as they please without doing the paperwork and the hassle of paying multiple bills.

Managed Services

Managed Services means a company will receive a list of well-defined services on an ongoing basis, with well-defined "response and resolution times" for a fixed rate or a flat fee. This can include things like 24/7 Monitoring of Servers, 24/7 Help desk for your daily computer issues and On-site visits by a technician when issues cannot be resolved remotely. Some companies also offer additional services like Project Management and Vendor management in the monthly price.
With the increasing use of technology in modern times, there is a growing requirement to provide technical support. Many organizations locate their technical support departments or call centers in countries with lower costs. There has also been a growth in companies specializing in providing technical support to other organizations. These are often referred to as MSP's (Managed Service Providers)
For businesses needing to provide technical support, outsourcing allows them to maintain a high availability of service. Such need may result from peaks in call volumes during the day, periods of high activity due to introduction of new products or maintenance service packs, or the requirement to provide customers with a high level of service at a low cost to the business. For businesses needing technical support assets, outsourcing enables their core employees to focus more on their work in order to maintain productivity. It also enables them to utilize specialized personnel whose technical knowledge base and experience may exceed the scope of the business, thus providing a higher level of technical support to their employees.
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Core Values of a Customer Center Representative

How does a service professional summon genuine, confident and consistent delivery of excellent customer service time after time, call after call, email after email?

Self Talk. What a professional service provider says to him- or herself over and over is self talk. The ability to identify negative self talk and replace it with positive alternatives is foundational for all else. It can be useful to envision intrapersonal communication occurring in the mind of the individual in a model which contains a sender, receiver, and feedback loop. Some studies suggest we say 20,000 to 24,000 words to ourselves every day. And 90% of those words are the same we said yesterday--and the day before, and the day before. Such are the ruts we can get ourselves into. We have learned it is possible to take control!

Mindset.  a set of assumptions, methods or notations held by one or more people or groups of people which is so established that it creates a powerful incentive within these people or groups to continue to adopt or accept prior behaviors, choices, or tools. This phenomenon of cognitive bias is also sometimes described as mental inertia, group think, or a paradigm, and it is often difficult to counteract its effects upon analysis and decision making processes. A person's mindset under boring or adverse conditions as well as amidst normal interactions drives on-the-spot behavior. Mindset becomes a reflex. A positive, can do mindset makes all the difference.

Empathy. Is the capacity to recognize and, to some extent, share feelings (such as sadness or happiness) that are being experienced by another semi-sentient being. Does a professional know how to demonstrate genuine concern behaviorally on the phone, in person or in written media? It is no mystery how to sincerely care. There are specific behavioral habits, which demonstrate to others that a person sincerely cares.

Balance. Readiness to stay balanced when he or she is the target of an irate or out-of-control customer. How a person behaves in stressful 
circumstances is a window into the core of their professional disposition.

Self Image. The picture he or she holds of him- or herself as a person and professional; as well as the pictures they have of their customers and their organization itself. I've always remembered what my eighth grade biology teacher said: To belittle is to be little.

There is no way to fake genuine, balanced professionalism time after time, call after call, email after email at each customer perception point. Such consistency requires a solid core. In some cases this can be learned -- most cases; not all.



This understanding has become the foundation of our We Care Customer Service program. Successful customer service begins with important core attitudes, which will be reflected daily in on-the-job behavior.

Call Center Marketing Strategies

Word of mouth is now the name of the customer service game..

One of the fundamental building blocks of a successful business is repeat business and referrals. In order for our business to not only survive but thrive, we have to ensure that our clients and customers are totally 'in love' with what we do for them, so much so that they tell everyone they know!

People are big mouths, and I don’t mean that in a derogatory sense. Think about it: if a regular business frequently does something over-the-top for us and we’re tickled pink about it, we’re going to brag about it to everyone we know.

Conversely, if a business does something that makes us feel wronged or taken advantage of, well, we’re going to do the same thing, aren’t we? 
We’re going to tell everyone we know.

These scenarios are potentially going to affect that business either in a beneficial or a detrimental way - because what we say to others is going to be shared. The people we tell are surely at some point going to relay the information (good or bad) to other people whenever that particular business name comes up.

Furthermore, it’s not like it will dwindle out in a week or two. Oh, no. Five years from now someone is going to relay the same story… albeit altered by time (and let’s not forget how stories morph as they get 'whispered down the lane').

So in the call center business we’re in, we absolutely want to provide exceptional customer service so the stories that are being told by our 'big mouth' clients are the good ones!

And since these customers already adore us, why not get their endorsements in writing? Ask them to write a letter, in their own words, about how our business has helped them or why they enjoy working with us. Then utilize this letter (and all others like it) in our promotional efforts - our website, blog, Facebook page, brochures, etc.

It’s proven that prospects find this type of information to be more valuable in decision-making than any marketing material we may write ourselves - so capitalize on it!

On the flip side to this coin, we also have to figure out which are those folks who left… and ask them why. People leave because of bad service or indifference - these things can (and better) be fixed! Yes, it may be uncomfortable to call up Mr. Jones for example to inquire why he no longer uses us and horrifying having to hear his reasoning.

However, whatever the cause given by the customer, it’s an opportunity for us to remedy it! It’s a spectacular chance to make improvements we didn’t even know we had to make, to raise the bar, and to help our business stand out from the crowd. So we need to embrace this constructive criticism and then thank our customer and tell him the steps we’re going to take to fix the problem.

Even if we have to call him back in a week to share the solutions we came up with, won’t Mr. Jones be thrilled? And then won’t he 'big mouth' about it to his buddies? You bet ‘cha!

We need to go forward with our business endeavors believing that every single thing we do has the potential to reach a multitude of people and be talked about for years to come.

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