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Call centers do more then answer calls Importance of call centers to business

Written by: JP Pawliw Fry

Article Overview: Learn how call centers are more important to a business then most think. Call centers effect sales and repeat business and more.

Call centers do more then answer calls Importance of call centers to business

Call Centers: Simply a Cost?

In one decade, 46% of companies identified as Fortune 500 firms dropped from the prestigious list - nearly half of these top-producers - because they didn't change with the times. Many are now on the endangered list. Also heading to extinction are call centers that cling to an archaic business model that sees customer service as a cost, and not as a key sales driver. The constant pressure to do more with less, to answer more calls with fewer people, and to decrease cost at any cost is hurting businesses big time.

WRONGHEADED THINKING

Example 1: In 1995, according to Niels Kjellerup, Pacific Bell claimed that if directory assistance reps said "hi" and "bye" rather than "good morning" and "good-bye," they could expect productivity gains of $22 million a year. Hello? Does anyone believe this makes sense? If statistics, and this wretched rationale, are the only raison d'etre of call centers, then let's pack them up.

Example two: While some call centers use decent psychometric tools to assess candidates, many don't. Why? Some believe that no such tools exist or can be validated. That's an ignorant view. Others (a majority?) think the tools are an "extra" not worth paying for. Ridiculous! If we don't properly assess a candidate for competencies that drive performance, then we deserve the turnover we get. High on the list of critical competencies is agent resiliency. Agents who handle rejection well, research tells us, won't give up. And they will stay positive and enthusiastic. Any business would like these qualities in their employees. In call centers, they're everything. What's more, motivated employees will stay with the business longer.

We at the Institute for Health & Human Potential (IHHP) use SASQ, a Web-enabled application that tests a prospective agent's ability to handle rejection. We've used the software with over 400,000 people worldwide in numerous industries. We have 500 studies from more than 100 universities that validate the predictive validity of the instrument. Among the studies' conclusions: the software cuts turnover by up to 50%. (More on this topic in a future column.) In today's business environment, your call center is at the hub of customers' experiences. If callers believe that you're trying to get them off the phone to save money, or that the agent isn't motivated, you've lost them. Sales and marketing is not a discrete event, nor just a department.

Everyone in your organization - starting and ending with the call center agent – is responsible for selling and marketing. When you can tap into, and intelligently manage, customers' emotions – their feelings, concerns, needs and wants - you've established a rapport.

Our brain is hardwired this way. Think of the brain in two parts: (1) the emotional center
(amygdala); and (2) the rest (neocortex), where the IQ resides.

GETTING CONNECTED

Profound new research has conclusively determined that all information coming into our nervous system first goes to the amygdala, where it is checked for emotional content before being sent to the neocortex. Upshot: We feel before we think. This is important, because people make decisions based on this hardwiring. If they feel put off by someone in your call center, the impression will be embedded in their emotional center forever. "The key to customer satisfaction and repeat business is not quality, competition, pricing, competitive pricing and a service department," says Alex Broer, vice chancellor of Cambridge University and a former director of research at IBM. "They are requirements just to stay in the game. The key is an emotional link - a feeling of connection -
not just to you but to the customer and everyone he/she comes in contact with at your company."

Without that feeling of connection, customers will look elsewhere to do business. And agents will search for more stimulating opportunities. Research by Bain and Co. found that major companies lose, and have to replace, half their customers in five years, half their employees in four years, and half their investors in less than one. Finding and replacing these people is much more difficult than retaining them. Among those hemorrhaging are call centers. Too many centers view sales as a discrete event and their operations as a cost to be contained. That flies in the face of the latest research in human behavior. Such archaic thinking will diminish or destroy the loyalty of two groups you can't do without: your customers and your employees.

Related Articles
  Call Centers Can Help Struggling Businesses
  What Is A Call Center And Other Questions Answered In This Overview
  How to Start a Call Center
  What Makes the Top Call Centers
  Call Centers in Mumbai

Article Tags: big time, business model, critical competencies, customer service, decade, directory assistance, drive performance, endangered list, extinction, fortune 500, niels kjellerup, pacific bell, productivity gains, prospective agent, rationale, rejection, resiliency, top producers, turnover, universities
Referred by: http://www.ihhp.com



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We need a call center or individual to perform B2B / B2C ope - We need a call center or individual to perform B2B / B2C operations. Telemarketing and Closing for the following services, VOIP and international calls, We related project, CRM and tele communication hardware and softwares. Only experience centers need apply! Contact –admin@eshreya.com
Re: need advice - I'm sure Africa needs call centers too. Give us more information on the specifics. Why are you skeptical?
Hiring A Short Term Employee - VERY INTERESTING Deborah - do you have any more information on these short term placement centers? It could be a great resource for small business owners needing a boost!
Re: PageRank Update - did your site change? - Hi GT - I used to use a variety of tools that check all the different data centers. Now I just wait for the toolbar in firefox to update.
Disaster Planning - [quote="jvprosperity":3o70alwf]In my previous job the company had a manual that listed all the backup procedures so that business go go on as usual without much disruption. e.g. if something were to happen to the call center what steps needed to be taken so that agents can go t a new location to continue taking calls. Also, once a quarter or so the organization would practice the Call Tree notification. e.g. the VP would call their directs and advise that this is a test and those directs would then call their people and so on till it hit the front lines.[/quote:3o70alwf] THose are the kind of things I would think should be done in businesses to prepare for the unexpected. I used to be a department supervisor at a local hospital and we did quarterly disaster drills -- every supervisor was involved and we had to report back to our departments about what was expected of others. Made very good sense that hospitals would do this and there were repercussions for problems in the drills - if there is a disaster, the hospital has to be ready. It made for a tense couple of days for everyone in the building. Shri


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