Performance Management

Comic courtesy: callcentercomics.com

When an agent shows his performance consistently over a period of time and of course shows leadership ability, he’ll eventually get promoted to a Call Center Supervisor or a Team Lead BUT this is not always a guaranteed Career Path. However this describe how many Supervisors moved up the corporate ladder to their current positions. *sigh*  

Once an agent moves from being mere call center agent to being a source of support then it is up to the higher management to ensure a smooth transition is made through training. Oh well, skills required to a be good *ahem* great supervisor is entirely different than those being a great agent. The question is “How long should the management wait for the newly promoted supervisor be held the same yardsticks as all other supervisors?” The answer - I don’t know! LOL. Seriously, it would depend on many factors, it could be weeks or even months! Again, it all depends on the Higher Management.

Oh well, if Supervisors require training in order to build value to their team, then such training should be made accessible. . However, not all great agents will become greaat supervisors without the proper training and support.

“To allow supervisors to fumble through their duties without any corrective action is detrimental to the morale and performance levels of the agents under them.  Yet, some call center managers may consider this situation as good enough, as long as some basic things get done. In reality, the situation is not good enough because every bad supervisor is an example of what is acceptable to the company.” - callcentercomics.com

Unless supervisors are transformed into competent superiors their teams wouldn’t have much of a chance to reach their full potential.

Oh well, these are just my thoughts…Hehe!

Conscience: Have you ever been in a situation, say at work, where a voice was saying “You deserve better than this.”?

Beejing: Yeah, I have been. A lot of times.

Conscience: Have you been promised at something so seriously?

Beejing: Yes. In fact, I was left in rubble when it vanished into thin air.

Conscience: Have you been treated as inferior?

Beejing: Yes.

Conscience: Are you fed up?

Beejing: I couldn’t say that I am. I’m not sure though.

Motivation: Intrinsic and Extrinsic

Booboo. When you’re working in a callcenter an important factor to help drive a center’s success is motivation. When we say motivation, it could either be intrinsic or extrinsic.

Intrinsically motivated persons are those who are eager to succeed, enthusiastic, and drive their own motivation to the job where as Extrinsically motivated persons are those who have less enthusiasm towards work - they’re the one who needs more push in order to perform.

Which one are you?

I’m lovin’ this cartoon…

LOL-ing @ work.

Cartoon courtesy: callcentercomics.com

Coaching and Feedback

As I’ve mentioned on my Callcenter Booboo #1- my account’s under heavy stress and now it is getting heavier and stressful. Lately, it is hard for me to give feedback and coaching to my team as we need hit our account’s SLA (Service Level Agreement) first. All off the phone activities are cut down to nearly 90% (just a wild guess. lol. ). Realtime feedback wouldn’t be as feasible like before. So, the geek that I am searched the web to find a way to provide feedback and coaching without affecting our SLA.

Lol-ing.

Well, a good one-on-one allow agents to gauge their performance in a way that would enable them to improve. Sad to say, not all Team leaders and or Team Supervisors or even Managers have made such a system. Coaching and Feedback is essential so as to make sure our frontliners - the agents know where they stand and what they need improve on. Feedback also helps train managers/supervisors on how to communicate well with their subordinates.

So, having said that I need to find ways, fast, to provide effective coaching and feedback.

Cartoon Courtesy: callcentercomics.com

AHT (Average Handle Time)

For the past few weeks our account’s been put into a lot stress - heavy stress. We’ve just recently launched a new LOB (Line of Business) and the clients are always on site to monitor our center’s performance. Oh well, being under the umbrella of a performance-based company we really need to meet or even exceed expectations so as to keep our job. lol.

Lately, our center’s AHT is sky-rocketing and we really had to put extra effort to lower it down. Hmph.

As I was researching the web on how to lower down my team’s AHT, I stumbled into this cartoon…

(more…)

AUGUST RUSH!

Last night I watched the movie August Rush - just in time for August. I thought it would be another feel good movie but I was wrong - I was moved. There were scenes that I had to summon the courage not to cry. The plot is really great,  the actors and actresses were stunning, and the music - it’s amazing. Never have I been moved by such a movie for months now. All I can say is Miracles do happen.

Moving on, I never thought it’s already August and yeah it came in a rush. There are a lot of changes I’d be expecting this August. One of which is moving to a new apartment and it’s beautiful. Haha! Also, I’m already on the morning shift and with a new team. :-). Well, so much for blogging - I’m at work! lol.

There’s more to August than just a rush!

After a week of being back to reality I suddenly felt that there’s gotta be something wrong. I’m not so sure what seems to be wrong but I’m quite confused on what to do. Well, I guess being away from reality for just a mere week really makes a difference. It’s been a rough week for me starting last Saturday where I had to endure numerous delays going to Cebu City. It all started me waking up almost 2 hours from my scheduled wake up time. Consequently, I had to take a ride on a different Bus going to Cagayan de Oro City and halfway through the trip, we were flat-tired so that was another 20 minute delay. By noon, Cagayan de Oro was at its peak temperature which I kinda despised because my temper was getting hotter by the minute. We had to take a fast-food lunch which was, again, unplanned due to “the unforeseen circumstances.” I had to cancel shopping for “pasalubong” because I’m already late. By the time I checked-in for my flight, I was already an hour before the scheduled take off - whew! I thought that was the end of it but I was wrong - My flight’s gonna be delayed until further notice; It’s supposed to take off 3:10pm and worse I have work shift by 5pm. My  temperature’s now boiling. Finally, after almost 2 hours of waiting I’m on my way back to Cebu City. I’m late so I had to go straight from the airport to the office and carry all my luggage. Good thing it was a Saturday so there were less ordeal in the office. Whew! On Sunday I had to work again to cover my interim rest day. I only had Monday for my rest day and I spent it sleeping the whole day and on the evening watched The Dark Knight with my high-school friends.

Tuesday, I came in a good 30 minutes before my shift starts. Well, it took me 2 hours to sift through hundreds of e-mails and another 2 hours replying. lol :D I thought Tuesday would be just any ordinary day at work but it turned out to be extraordinary. It was my first time to accompany and sit beside an agent being delivered her release papers. It’s saddening but we had to release the agent from the program. Well, there’s always a first to everything.

Wednesday, another hectic day and it was literally a bad day because sleep never came up to me. Blame it to the 6 cups of coffee I drank the day before.

Thursday was chaos. I’ve been monitoring the team’s week to date performance and we are not even near the Satisfactory mark. I’m beginning to get sour. My Patience is being put into the test.

Friday, I thought I’d be my usual self but I was wrong - again. I’ve noticed our team this week had most number of absences. I’m just hoping all of them turns out to be a medical leave. That way I’d be saved.

Saturday, my patience comes to an end. I have been very lenient the past few weeks and I’ve decided to be tougher this week - I mean it!

I’ll have a lot of explaining to do next week…

And… I’m about to break.