The Great Resignation, The Great Re-Think, or The Great Retirement

 By Colin Taylor

We are now into the fourth quarter of the year. Retail and ecommerce firms are gearing up for the holiday season, which means more staff. But where are they going to find more staff? It is hard to find new staff. We can blame the Great Resignation if we like, but where did all of the workers go? Have all of the frontline agents found new rewarding and well-paying jobs? Certainly, some have, but I think many people have decided to take a pause. Sure, some are opening a shop, trying their hands at gig work, changing careers, and certainly some have shifted completely out of the workforce.

Many in fact have exited the workforce, including those who deferred their retirement during Covid and are now looking to retire. That could mean 3 years of retirements occurring in a single year. Is there any doubt that this has helped to fuel low unemployment and the shortage of workers. What happens if we don’t have enough staff to deliver the services in the manner and with the proficiency that we wish? With our current and former staff members are considering their options — maybe even quitting or retiring — that is a sad commentary on us as employers. What does it say about the roles and the work these folks have done in our call and contact centers that leaving seems like a good idea?  

We know that working in a front-line role and dealing with customers is challenging. In COVID and post-COVID environments, it can be even more of a challenge as it can be exacerbated by staff shortages.  

Perhaps the Great Resignation is really the great Re-Think; our staff are rethinking their careers and asking themselves, “is this really how I want to spend the rest of my career?” We as employers need to look at ourselves and ask a number of questions... READ MORE

Hybrid Work...Scary Stuff for Contact Centers

 

By Colin Taylor

Halloween, the night of the dead, the end of all things, whatever you call it, this time of year with the harvest behind us and the ghouls and goblins; not to mention Squid Game characters who have now darkened our door; can be a frightening time. It is more frightening perhaps as we are all still dealing with the fallout of the pandemic.

While some areas of the economy are getting back to pre-Covid levels of activity and hiring is robust in many sectors, there are still some areas of concern on the horizon. We have all seen the pundits and experts wax poetic about the risk of a 4th wave, 5th wave, new mutations, and the likelihood that Covid-19 will shift from being a pandemic to being endemic and something we just learn to live with like the flu (or subtitles and bad dubbing on Netflix binge-worthy series). With these two twin challenges of Covid and Korean dramas addressed, let me move on to other less critical, but still important areas of concern…

First, why is it that corporate America, now that it has embraced the concept of remote contact center agents and hybrid work environments[1], is so slow in adjusting its management processes to support these new deployment models? We shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that traditionally in the pre-pandemic world there was great resistance to remote contact centers, driven in part by technology concerns and by a management concern that “if we can’t watch them, how do we know that they are working and not watching Netflix”?

The early returns were very positive: productivity went up and absenteeism and sick days went down, to the surprise and delight of managers. Both of these changes were broadly seen as innate aspects of remote work and were taken as positive ”wins”. Both of these are emblematic of darker and more frightening (see how I brought this back to scary Halloween?) shifts that were occurring under the surface...READ MORE

 

The Evolution of Contact Center Scripting

By Colin Taylor

[This post was adapted from a webinar that Colin Taylor delivered for Customer Contact Central on September 8, 2022. You can see the replay here while available: https://www.customercontactcentral.com/frs/22041151/top-industry-secrets-for-successful-contact-center-scripting/email]

There has been a continuous evolution in scripting since we were taping printed copies onto cubicle walls. There are primarily 4 different types of scripts that are employed in contact centers and many variations on these.

Traditional scripts

These are the type I was writing 35 years ago. These outline an “Ideal” path with suggested verbiage for the call. They were disconnected from any systems. Of course, the biggest drawback for any script was that the customer on the other end of the phone didn’t have the script and consequently didn’t know how they were supposed to respond.

Often, these reflected a checklist of all of the elements that needed to be addressed. These could be compliance related or behavioral. These checklists in turn became quality evaluation forms. These checklists and forms tend to be more structured for Outbound calling (Greeting>Qualification>Presentation>Objection Handling>Close>Objection Handling>Close).

Individual performance, where we expected it to be similar between agents using the same script, could still vary significantly. Often the agent’s ability to “make the script their own” was the key to success, as was the agent’s ability to recall and use their product knowledge and training.

Real-Time Guidance scripts or RTG

RTG introduced a process based on interviews, call recording analysis, and internal best practices to scripts. It included sub-processes and screenshots of the appropriate systems with links. This type of script, however ... Read More

Contact Center Training should not be the Buddy-System

 

By Colin Taylor

A lack of agent training is a sure-fire way of ensuring customers are disappointed. Learning a new skill or capability provide both enjoyment and a break from the mundane, and brings with it the opportunity to increase earnings. But to be effective, organizations need to ensure that they take a measured and consistent approach. Leaving staff to learn on the job or “wing-it” may work for a while, but, to quote Humphrey Bogart, “you’ll regret it. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon and for the rest of your life”. Sooner or later this lack of training, knowledge, or experience will adversely impact a customer.

Now, let’s be clear: no one sits down and says, “let’s design a really lousy training program”. 

Instead... READ MORE

Mistakes are a Great Teacher

 

Alignment is Critical to Customer Experience Success