Archive for May, 2010

Weird idea… what about changing the ACD coding?

Wednesday, May 12th, 2010

I was talking with a Call Centre Manager about his TSF target.  The Call Centre is a public Call Centre following Federal laws around TSF target.  They need to achieve a TSF of 80/20/80.  80% of the calls answered in 20 seconds 80% of the time, which means in 80% of the intervals of the day.  They are having a hard time achieving their TSF target.

Then I had a weird idea.  This Federal TSF target, on what type of ACD coding is this in relation with?  We all know the core ACD is programmed to route the oldest waiting call to the next available agent, unless another priority is coming in the mix.  What about an ACD code where, depending on the TSF of the interval, the oldest waiting call is not routed to an available agent?  The oldest waiting call is already lost (for the 80/20), so let’s route a call that waited 19 seconds to the agent?

I know, this is not good Customer Service for the oldest call waiting customer, but we have to agree that the oldest call waiting customer wouldn’t know.  Not even the agents or the Team Leaders.  This “solution” wouldn’t work if there are many calls waiting, for many minutes.  But here and there, this might work.

I wonder if there are some Call Centres with such ACD coding…

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How to select your Call Centre Team Leaders?

Thursday, May 6th, 2010

In the Call Centre agents’ world, a new Team Leader position posting is something rare and wanted.  Also, on most of the postings I have seen in my career, I read the note: “Strong internal candidate”.

I agree, promoting individuals from within your company is a great idea to keep the employees happy and reduce attrition.  Often I have seen the best agent on the floor become the next Team Leader.    Then, the best Team Leader become the next Manager.

At the same time, I have seen this process fail.  Especially in Call Centres where the Call Centre content was very specific.  To work in this type of Call Centre, for example deep IT support, you need to have specific training.  In this case, the best agent might not have the skills and knowledge to manage a team.  Their core training was on IT, not management.

This knowledge gap can often be seen when new corporate goals are broadcast to the Call Centre.  For example, how can we transform a high level goal into a day-to-day agent target?  Also, how to motivate, evaluate and adjust the day-to-day plan based on current results? etc.

Managing a team is not an easy task.  This is why, we often see a new Team Leader from another company joining the Call Centre, with management experience.

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