The Contact Center Express – A Call Center Today Magazine

“The more opinions you have, the less you see.”

- Wim Wenders

All call center managers will agree that the challenges of new-hire training are daunting. New agents see dozens of faces, become acclimated into a fresh company structure, learn a unique program, and are trained on strange computer equipment. They are asked to understand the culture of the organization, and to immerse themselves in the daily gossip and routines of the office, as they get to know others in the office and choose new friends.

A new agent must learn the policies and procedures of his company, grapple with sales and communications training pertinent to the program, and become comfortable with the work hours of the job. It all can be very challenging, and if the agent fails to execute even one or two aspects of the job extremely well, the agent will be set back in his objective to earn money and find success and comfort long term.

Recently, a new challenge has developed for agents going through initial training…

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Here are a few steps call center supervisors must take to ensure their new agents become acclimated to their new environment.

1.                 Pair each new agent with a veteran agent.

2.                 Encourage new agents to monitor veteran agents before starting their jobs, and periodically during the shift.

3.                 Stay away from the new agent in the beginning so they can find comfort without being concerned about their supervisor’s responses.

4.                 Provide feedback and monitoring updates frequently.

5.                 Teach presentation stances.

6.                 Keep new agents positive.

7.                 Explain failure.

8.                 Don’t assume the new agent knows what you know.

9.                 Appoint veteran agents as team captains.

“It is so tiring managing those needy, needy people that suck the life out of you every day”

- Anonymous

When it comes to assimilating new agents to an existing team, it is safe to assume that call center supervisors will almost always face the same challenges that our school teachers face.  Or, more tellingly, new agents entering a new work environment almost always face the same challenges that new students entering a new school environment face. Managing call center agents can be as vexing as managing elementary school students.

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To give your call center a Disney-like atmosphere, make it fun. Cast members love working for Disney not because their hours, their pay, or every little aspect of their jobs is perfect — but rather, because it’s fun. The costumes, the cheery atmosphere, the song and dance are all in a day’s work. Fun is contagious, so be sure to spread enthusiasm across your call center floor by creating ongoing activities that your agents will enjoy.

This might mean installing games and improved snack machines in the break-room. It might mean giving employees a few extra perks. It might mean running internal contests with themes, costumes, goals and prizes. It might mean recognizing your top employees in a quirky awards ceremony. Call centers need not be places of drudgery. You will stand out among your competitors, get more revenue, and retain more workers when you promote an atmosphere of fun.

Pillars such as creativity, originality, service and performance on behalf of the supervisor take the basic business of managing a call center and step it up to a higher level.  Your call center can be a Disneyland when you take a moment to think creatively about:

Desire + Concept + Initiative  =       Success

Desire + Concept + Initiative can work grandly for call center management, when management wants the call center to emphasize a philosophy that extends far beyond just a normal business department.

I know there are hundreds of amusement parks all across the world, but I believe there is only one that captures the creativity, leadership and vision for its employees.  That’s Disneyland.  When management wants to take fun ideas and transfer them to the call center, management and agents alike will believe that “THEIR CALL CENTER CAN BE A DISNEYLAND”

Another example of turning your call center into a Disneyland, and hence a communication stage, involves being seen and not heard. I do promote the concept that to motivate their agents, supervisors should be seen and not heard.

That is what Disneyland employees do.  They are always walking around, doing their jobs, always seen by guests.  They never interrupt a conversation or communicate their points unless required to do so.  They exist to assist, not to manipulate.

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Here are some general guidelines for making costumes an effective motivational tool in the call center:

1. Don’t wear costumes all of the time, or agents will become too accustomed to it.
2. Invite your agents to join you in wearing costumes.
3. Wear costumes for a purpose.  Perhaps there is a team contest.
4. Perhaps it’s humorous motivation to keep agents compelled to perform.  Have a purpose around your costumes.
5. Present prizes and awards based on the various themes of costumes.
6. Use costumes to increase spirit.
7. Do not be afraid to become the character that matches your costume.

Call Center managers should not be afraid to wear costumes in the call center, and to use the guise of costumes to create an organizational culture that introduces passion to its employees. If management takes this concept and runs with it, the call center becomes a world of opportunity.

Costumes define “performance” in nearly every setting.  Actors in a play wear costumes to bring the play more credibility. Costumes represent fantasy by taking the actors and audience to a different place in time.  The performance becomes authenticated.  The same goes for sports (football and soccer players), politics (legislators), business (janitorial crews, CEO’s, IT), education (teachers, principles, students), etc.  Costumes distinguish roles, and help the players, and the people around the players, to better validate their production.

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Disneyland is most certainly an environment encompassing communication. Verbal communication from everybody in the park exists constantly from opening to closing.  If one could capture every word spoken in the park during only one day, one would list millions and millions and millions of different words.  The whole dictionary might be used.  The same analogy exists with your call center.

Disneyland is a visual communication environment too.  On any day there could be as many as 75,000 visitors.  That’s quite a bit to look at!  Imagine taking a piece of paper and writing a note about every person you come in contact with.  Thousands and thousands of people cross your path every hour in Disneyland.  If only someone would give you $10 for each person who walked by, you probably wouldn’t have to worry about work again!  The same analogy exists with your call center.

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Call centers are perfectly suited to become the Disneyland of your company. First, everybody who plays a part in making a call center successful should strive at all times to be professional and carry themselves with professional dignity.  Second, everybody in a call center is likely to be a little bit off the wall and crazy anyhow, as they have chosen the call center environment as their place of employment.

The accounting department cannot become a Disneyland.  It just doesn’t work.  There isn’t enough accent on communication and teamwork and personalities.  Neither can outside field departments.  They don’t spend enough time in one place, together, like call center employees do. Outside employees sometimes see their office only once a week.  In the call center, nobody ever goes anywhere.  It’s all confined.

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