Guest Post: Hiring and Leadership to Improve CX in Your Call Center

This week we feature an article by Matthew Smollen who says ensuring your clients have an amazing call center experience when interacting with your brand is one of the best ways to encourage repeat and referral business.

Ensuring your clients have an amazing experience when interacting with your brand is one of the best ways to encourage repeat and referral business. This is multiplied in a contact center as often the customer experience is the main focus.

Now more than ever companies are opening more and larger contact centers and with them all focusing on CX that means more competition for you. It doesn’t matter if it’s a first-time caller or a long term client. You need to deliver memorable and high-quality interactions throughout the entirety of the customer journey.

You need to make sure that two major factors are strong. Who you hire, then how you lead them. Be picky, find the best and then once you have them, give them a reason to achieve that potential you have identified.

So how can we do it? Let’s build it from the ground up.

Recruitment

You aren’t going to be the one on the phone. All the scripts in the world won’t mean anything if the person delivering them doesn’t fit. Your agents need to love coming to work, they need to be motivated by results (the right results), and they need to care about the client. So what should we look for in a new hire?

1. Use behavioral interviewing. At some point, your agents are going to have to deal with emotional calls, if they are unable to deal with them they will escalate far more calls then they need to, using more of the supervisor’s time. Start some questions with “tell me about a time that you…” the idea is to prompt your candidate to talk about their successes and failures and get a gauge on how empathic they are.
2. Record your interview. Your agent will be the first point of contact, they need to sound approachable and capable. Listen back on their natural speech and also have them read off a script. A speaking voice may be the difference between candidates.
3. Target Posting. Make sure that you are displaying the opportunity to the right people. Is there an area or interest-specific group/board to be advertising on? Use effective analytics to maximize your exposure to the best potential candidates.

Leadership

So now we have the right people. What do we do with them? How can you and your leaders help your agents feel happy and motivated?

1. Make sure the environment is positive and encourages growth. That way people will want to come to work and try their best every day. Training means your agents will perform better and feel like their job is making them a more complete person.
2. Make sure to join the troops on the front line occasionally. Julius Caesar himself would never back away from the fight, placing yourself in different areas of the call center can show your team that you know and understand the work they do.
3. Support your agents with the best technology and industry practices. If you want the best results you need to be working in the most productive way. The best call centers aren’t just pumping out calls from a call sheet with a desk phone. Make sure you are positioning yourself for success!

If you push every day to be sure that your agents see the best of you, you will see better out of them. Following some simple steps to have the best people lead by the best people will mean your agents are energized and positive all day. Your clients will feel that buzz, it’s electrifying and contagious. They will remember you.

Matthew Smollen is North American Sales Manager at Integra Contact Center Solutions he is also a CX and Contact Center expert with 12 years of experience in the industry.

For more articles from Shep Hyken and his guest contributors go to customerserviceblog.com.

Read Shep’s latest Forbes article: Customer Loyalty And Retention Are In Decline