The Customer Authority

As some of you already know, I worked at a Call Center with Coca-Cola for well over ten years, both working directly with customers and as management. I saw many new technologies come and go while there, all hyped to be the “next, best thing!” and help move us towards the future of call center success.

Unfortunately, more often than not, most of the new system enhancements and what-not were a bust, or just didn’t make the improvements they were meant to. I was even involved in a few of the initial test phases of these new technologies, and saw first-hand how they WEREN’T ever going to work.

And when I and others pointed out all the defects these new systems had, our advice went largely unheeded – not because they didn’t believe us – but because they had no choice. The company had invested so much money into some of these systems, they didn’t want to admit defeat and find an alternate solution.

So instead of giving up, we were told to make the square fit into the round hole. Unfortunately we weren’t NASA, and while the test team was able to make some changes that helped, quite a few of these systems were adapted; to the great frustration of the employees using them. Instead of making things “better, faster, more efficient”, things were worse, slower, and inconvenient. And I witnessed this over and over again up until the day I left.

Which brings me to the article I wanted to share today. It happens to be about five least successful call center technologies. I’ve probably witnessed about three of these technologies flop at my previous work.

If you manage or work at a call center, you may want to review this piece and see if you are currently utilizing any of these systems. Are they working for you, or are they giving you ever-increasing headaches? If they work fine and you’ve been successful, good for you. You’re one of the lucky ones. If not, you might want to consider upgrading to something else.

But before you go spend tons of money on it, make sure that “new technology” has been proven first!

I was reading an article today on Call Centers in the Virginia area. The article itself was a little scattered, but the main point of it was that call center are finding value in locating themselves in rural and semi-rural locations. On top of that, the call centers are actually hiring despite the poor economy.

Having worked in a call center for twelve years, I have some opinion on them. Granted, my experience was probably better than others due to the fact I handled accounts directly, instead of just taking random calls every thirty seconds. Having more control of your day definitely has it’s perks.

The good things I see about call centers is the convenience for the customer. Everything is routed through one location. You can easily be transferred to different departments as needed. It’s also cost effective to the company to have one central location.

But the same positives of a call center are also it’s negatives. While it’s a one-stop shop for customer service, it can also be frustrating for a customer calling and not knowing exactly who to talk to. They may call the wrong department number, or get routed to fifteen different people before connecting with the right one. I know this happened several times at my old company and customers were not happy about it.

And being “cost effective” has a disadvantage to the employees working there. Call Centers traditionally have lower wages for front-line jobs that are the most stressful and time-consuming. Turn-around at call centers is high. It doesn’t surprise me when employees are required to answer the phone within 2 seconds and get off within 30 seconds or less, regardless of what the customer needs.

Working at a call centers can be a thankless job with not-so-great pay. Why stay somewhere where the majority of your calls are from someone with a problem? Usually irate to boot. Most companies are more interested in keeping costs low, they don’t focus on the needs of employees, which is a big mistake.

One way to change this is to better understand the value your employees can have to your business. Focus should be on training employees on how best to deal with customer calls through customer service excellence.

Screening of employees should be carefully done to weed out those people who most likely don’t really care about the customer, or who will end up most likely hating their job within six months and become unproductive.

Wages at call centers should, in my opinion, start at a minimum of $15/hr and go up from there. Most call centers minimum start at $9-$11/hr. There should also be more incentives created and even simple things that make the workplace a more fun and appealing place to go to.

In other words – invest in your employees as much as you invest in your customers.

I recently spoke about the 25 Things You SHOULD Do in Customer Service in a previous post. Since that was just a basic list, I thought over the next few days I’d go over everything in a little more detail so not only will you understand why these things are important, but how they can effect your business. Some of them are obviously common sense and speak for themselves, but it’s amazing how even the simplest things are overlooked or neglected in the customer service industry. For example; take the basic power of the smile.

“We shall never know all the good that a simple smile can do”

Mother Teresa of Calcutta

A smile is a reflex as well as a conscious effort. And in customer service it can make the difference between a sale and a customer walking out the door. As an owner, manager, or employee, a smile given to your customers is a warm greeting; an invitation to come in, look around, and buy! It puts your customers at ease, makes them feel comfortable being in your store, and even want to stay awhile.

If your work with customers is on the phone, it’s still important to smile. A customer can “hear” a smile over the phone through your tone of voice. Call Center trainers even teach their employees to smile while on the phone because it elevates the voice and it’s difficult to sound unpleasant when you’re genuinely smiling.

Now that’s not to say you have to go through you’re entire day grinning from ear to ear. If you did that, you’d probably start to creep people out. But do make an effort when there are customers around.

Greet them warmly when they come in. Smile at them when you offer your assistance. If they come to you first, don’t frown as if they’re bothering you. Give them a smile and help them. Make sure your smile is genuine, even if you’re having a lousy day. A customer will know in a heartbeat if you’re faking it.

People simply respond well to friendly people. The best salespeople aren’t the ones that are smooth and slick. They’re the ones who emulate natural kindness, enthusiasm, and honesty. They gain trust and confidence. And they can do it all with a smile.

People want to like your products and your business. What they want even more is to be treated well. So give them one more reason to make buying from you a fantastic experience. And don’t forget to smile!