Managing a High Performance Call Center

Managing a High Performance Call Center : An Overview

Is your call center's service quality low even though your costs are high? If so, there are reasons why, and you can do something about it.
Even if your requests to management for more staffing result in a resounding "No!," don't despair. A productivity increase of only twenty percent could completely offset your needs for additional manpower! I will share with you on how to make it happen.
In Managing a High Performance Call Center, we have :
-to Understand human performance factors and how they are influenced;
-to Identify opportunities for increased productivity
-to Implement productivity improvements using proven step-by-step techniques
-to Monitor the ongoing performance of your call center using one of today's most effective measurement tools: the Automatic Call Distributor (ACD)

The skills and knowledge in service level management and call center cost management we need to diagnose our call center's performance weaknesses and implement productivity improvements. It explores the human resource component of call center operations and demonstrates how to identify and correct productivity problems to improve agent and supervisor performance. We will also review the most important features of an ACD system and learn how system features can be set up and programmed for optimal benefits.

1-Human Resource Performance Management
-Why 70% of hard working call center agents are still far beneath their performance potential
-Using call center statistics to estimate reasonable targets for your call center's performance improvement.
-Measuring the quality of each individual agent's performance and service delivery
The critical balance between quality and productivity and how to achieve it Supervisory coaching in practice
-Applying "variation analysis" techniques to productivity and quality data
-How to improve the performance of struggling agents
-Knowledge and skills gap analysis

Service Level Management
-Forecasting call loads
-Translating call loads into staffing needs
-"Hitting the target" with real-time service level management
-Improving agents' adherence to schedules
-Preparing staff increase estimates
-How to justify staff increases to upper management

Cost Per Call Management
-Calculating cost per call
-Aligning the cost per call with service level
-The high cost of poor service

Getting the Most Out of Your Automatic Call Distributor (ACD)
-How to determine if you are fully utilizing your current ACD system before purchasing a new one
-ACD functionality for business people

The telecom /call center knowledge gap
-Communicating ACD programming features to your telecom department

Actual ACD reports from our call centers will:
i-Determine how much additional performance is "on the table" in our call center
ii-Learn how to transform our ACD data into powerful and focused charts for agent coaching
iii-Learn from our own data and compare our results with others


2-Essential Skills and Knowledge for Effective Incoming Call Center Management
This dynamic course was the industry's first seminar created specifically to meet the unique needs of incoming call center managers. Since its inception in 1986, the course content has been further developed and refined to provide attendees with some of the most valuable information on call center management skills available today.
-Plan and manage call center resources
-Handle a growing variety of customer contacts
-Effectively use reports and measurements
-Establish and meet performance objectives
-Win top management's support

An Inside Look at the Call Center Profession
-How skills and knowledge are developing
-How the best call centers operate

Understanding the Driving Forces of Incoming Call Centers
-How random and peaked call arrival effects staffing decisions
-How callers feel about waiting in the queue
-How callers react to waiting, busy signals, and IVR's
-Abandonment

Establishing an Effective Planning Process
-The 7 inter-related planning steps
1-Forecasting call load
2-Calculating base staff
3-Calculating trunks and system resources
4-Calculating shrinkage
5-Organizing schedules
6-Calculating costs
7-Developing a proven planning process

Understanding Service Level
-Service level: tying the resources we need to the results we want
-How quality and service level are inter-related
-Choosing a service level objective that is right for us

Acquiring the Data We Need
-Sources of call center management data
-Avoiding "info-glut": determining what's relevant

Forecasting the Calling Load
-The difference between call volume and call load
-Long and short-term forecasting methods
-Blending in judgment: how politics, personalities, and organizational realities influence forecasting
-Avoiding the ten common forecasting mistakes
-How call center size effects your tolerance for inaccuracies

Staffing the Right Way
-Defining answer groups
-The capabilities of Erlang C and computer simulation
-Staffing for e-mail, networks, skill-based routing, long calls, and blended environments

Indispensable Calculations and Projections
-Base staff and trunks required
-Occupancy and adherence to schedule
-What you can expect with the staff we have
-Anticipating growth
-Factoring in non-phone activities
-The impact of skills-based routing

The Implications of The "Immutable Laws"
-Service level versus occupancy
-The powerful pooling principle
-Staff versus trunks and network costs
-The dynamics of group size
-The law of diminishing returns

Organizing Effective Schedules
-The alternatives available
-Preparing for exceptions
-Getting buy-in from staff
-Schedule adherence - without autocracy

Cultivating Collaboration and Buy-In Throughout
-Why and how agents should be involved in the planning process
-Making a case to senior management
-Coordinating with other departments

Real-Time Management
-The information to watch
-The "where is everybody?" issue
-Understanding caller behavior
-Identifying feasible real-time actions
-Utilizing real-time strategies appropriately

Performance Measurements
-Why this is such a "hot topic"
-How your "actions" may be conflicting with our objectives
-What to measure - individuals
-What to measure - the call center as a whole
-Getting the information we need
-Effective monitoring and coaching

Improving Quality and Efficiency
-Service level with quality
-Beyond platitudes - improving the process
-Ten assignments that will yield proven results
-The structure of our call center

Leading Practices and our Professional Development
-Characteristics of leading call centers
-Our professional career path and development
-Action Plan


3-Help Desk Professional
Help Desk Professionals who provides front line support represent the entire organization. That means it's essential that Help Desk Professionals offer the highest quality customer care to every caller.
Providing excellent support and customer care, as well as an established and highly marketable skill set that will be valued by management in performance and salary evaluation.
· Enhance the skills and characteristics that make you a successful help desk professional
· Understand the elements of a service level agreement
· Strengthen your customer care techniques
· Manage customer expectations during a call
· Improve your active listening and problem solving skills
· Negotiate wins for the customer and the help desk
· Make high-impact follow-up calls
· Professionally escalate while retaining call ownership
· Handle difficult customers and effectively deal with stress.

The Help Desk and the Business
The traditional help desk
The help desk of the new millennium
The help desk evolution
Determining the help desk's role in the organization

The Mission of a World-Class Help Desk
The structure of the Help Desk
Why have a mission statement?

Meeting the Needs of the Customer
Service Level Agreements
Business priorities vs. technical importance
Severity and priority levels

Help Desk Best Practices
Standard operating procedures
Customer greetings
Placing a customer on hold
Three methods of handling a call
How to make follow-up calls
How to close a call

Troubleshooting
Recording accurate information
How to ask questions
Open-ended questions
Close-ended questions
How to solve problems
IMPACT method

Communicating
Skills and characteristics of a world-class help desk professional
Vocal elements
Listening Skills
Active listening

Managing Difficult Customers
Identifying customer behaviors
Strategies to diffuse challenging situations
How to handle difficult customers
How to say "no"
How to manage and avoid stress
Stress-reduction techniques


4-Essential Customer Service Skills for Help Desk Analysts
When customers call our help desk, most of them want just three things: courteous treatment, answers to their questions, and solutions to their problems. It's that easy. And that hard.
More than 96% of unhappy customers stop using a support center without ever saying why. And, because customers rate the quality of their personal experience every time they come into contact with your organization, each interaction - no matter how brief or seemingly routine - is an opportunity to enhance the relationship.
In two information-packed days, you'll learn how effective communication builds customer satisfaction. You'll cover attitudes, behaviors, and consequences that impact your customers, our organization, and we have to:
-Create positive interactions with customers and co-workers
-Foster a service attitude through effective listening and questioning techniques
-Pinpoint customers' needs, motivations and reactions, and build rapport quickly
-Solicit agreement from customers and manage interactions effectively
-Maximize assertiveness while minimizing extremes in behavior
-Handle irate or angry customers, manage customers' unrealistic expectations, and control ramblers
-Appreciate the difference between providing solutions and satisfying a customer's psychological needs
-Recognize stress symptoms and manage counterproductive stress levels
-Understanding our Customer's Needs
-The importance of help desk job components
-How to gain rapport with your customers by understanding their needs
-Factors That Influence Customer Service
-Why our behaviours affect customer service
-How to remain positive when managing customer moods
-Strengthening your service attitude
-Effective Techniques for Satisfying Customers
-How to handle different types of communications (face-to-face and over the phone)
-Seven key steps to effective communication
-Communication Skills
-Steps for handling a call
-Greeting the customer
-Ways to improve your listening skills
-Factors influencing your ability to listen
-Effective listening steps
-Active listening skills
-Asking questions
-Problem identification through the use of open- and closed-ended questions
-Pros and cons of open- and closed-ended questions
-When to use open- or closed-ended questions
-Understanding actual and psychological needs of the customer
-Effective steps for responding to a customer's need
-Showing empathy
-How to reach agreement with our customer
-Explaining the plan of action
-Concluding the call
-How to Work With Challenging Situations and Difficult Customers
-Effective communication behaviors
-The rights everyone has
-Learning to say "no"
-When and how to use the limited yes
-How to achieve results with assertive communication
-Getting results with the angry or irate customer
-How to focus the customer with unrealistic expectations on realistic options
-How to gather information from the "mumbler"
-Learning to Manage Stress
-Different types of stress and how they effect us
-Strategies for minimizing time-linked stress
-Methods for managing stress
-Relaxation techniques
-Common causes of stress
-How our body reacts under stress
-Key Factors in Achieving Results
-Focusing on the key points
-Improving each component of your customer service skills

(I've collected and condensed them from many places, over much time, and don't always know.)