In today’s competitive marketplace it’s important to set yourself apart from the competition. Developing a call centre culture is one way to foster successful, driven customer service agents, offering a vibrant front of house to your business.
What is a call centre culture?
A call centre culture defines what your business is and how you got about it. A call centre culture
seeks to recognise each worker individually whilst still managing to pull the team together towards the common aim. Achieving a positive call centre culture can be the difference between keeping your valuable team members and losing them to a rival.
But how do you go about developing a call centre culture?
- Friendly competition. Coming up with ways to induce healthy competition through objectives that trains and motivates staff can really drive your business forward. The objective might focus on up selling or retain customers who are looking to cancel. Call recording and call logging software are great tools for managing performance objectives and helping employees improve their performance.
- Set team goals. As important as it is to improve individuals, working in a call centre can be a lonely existence. Encouraging collaboration helps to engender a team atmosphere and for employees help each other on the job. Camaraderie is an under-rated quality for your call centre team to possess.
- Develop specialised agents. Rather than alienating people, developing specialist skills amongst your call centre team can be a good thing. Employees can feel empowered by becoming experts within their field, which in turn feeds job satisfaction. It can also heighten interaction within the team too, as agents redirect callers to the subject experts. Have specialised call centre staff should also mean that issues are generally solved on the first call too, which is obviously the aim wherever possible.
- Encourage social interaction within the team. Creating a private Facebook page where your team can interact can be a powerful and positive networking tool. It’s works well for a call centre culture when people look forward to coming to work, cultivating friendships and a spirit of community and co-operation.
- Create a stimulating environment. In the world of football many clubs will paint the away dressing room in a depressing and uninspiring colour to hopefully affect the mood of the opposition. In contrast the home changing areas will be painted in colours that are bright and morale boosting, giving the host team positive vibes before running out on to the field. The same principles can be applied to a work space especially when actual work is carried out in the same area. The call centre office could also incorporate a whiteboard for funny or inspirational quotes of the day as well motivational posters or boards on the walls.
A positive call centre culture
All the elements above are inexpensive ways in which to develop a positive yet challenging and nurturing call centre culture. Giving some thought to ways in which your team can enjoy and develop their skills within their work will pay dividends for the business as a whole. Imagine an environment of which your employees are proud and committed to doing their best possible work.