Look how rowdy the Managers and Supervisors are.

Lol-ing.

These were taken during our account’s weekly shindig.

Who says handling a team is easy? Well, keeping our direct reports satisfied with their jobs is as important as shortening an agent’s learning curve. As call centers sprout like mushrooms overnight a company should be willing enough to go through troubles in making sure their current pool of agents are happy.

Opportunities from other call center businesses continue to open up all around the world. Now, as our agents get fed up and tired of being UNDER-PAID, UNAPPRECIATED, and OVERWORKED, they’re likely to tender their resignations and move to other opportunities elsewhere. It is difficult to fill the pool of agents because potential employees are getting scarce by the minute. Also, one detrimental effect of loosing agents/employees are felt directly by the agents who’ve been left behind – their morale.

Call center work is very challenging. I admit that. I’ve been there – I am here as a matter of fact.  So as Supervisors or Managers it is right to give our frontliners, the agents, the treatment they need. After all, a call center is not a call center without them.

Hmmm….Get A Life!

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.

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

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

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…

Haha! This cartoon really made my day! Lol.

Cartoon courtesy: callcentercomics.com