Call Center Team Leader Training: Improve Effectiveness

Call center management can be complicated. We approach it as an upside-down organization chart. The Agent is the most important person because they have direct contact with the customer. They will do the most to impact your brand with the customer. Meanwhile, the Supervisor is the most influential person because they influence the performance of the Agent on a daily basis. Their style and approach provides a safe environment for the Agent to connect with the customer. Depending on the program, a  supervisor manages between 7 and 15 agents under their care. They need to manage, support, coach, and supervise their team. They are responsible for achieving the performance that delivers the Service Levels required by the customer. Our process and procedures are there to provide the path for success and ensure we get a consistent result with each customer engagement.

Supervisors use the tools of workforce management to help with scheduling, adherence and staffing decisions. Other tools help to monitor call volumes, provide quality feedback and support the review of employee performance.  The Supervisor is an important role and one that is critical to call center success.

To assist them with their task, we provide training and tools.

Our Call Center Team Leader Training helps supervisors learn how to complete all these tasks efficiently and be effective with their team members. Mastering soft skill and empathy techniques is a core part of the Supervisor training so they can identify where agents need to improve and help them to deliver.

Learning a wide range of options, including web-based dashboards designed to give managers real-time facts and data to work with, allowing them to make more effective decisions and adjust their plans quickly as different situations arise.

Real-Time Facts and Data

It all starts with real-time facts and data. Having up-to-date and accurate information can help supervisors make more informed decision making. Getting that information in real-time is even better. Imagine that you bought a widget online. This is the difference between receiving notice that the item shipped and getting regular status updates each time it changes hands. It is a big difference, and the magnitude of that distinction is even greater in the call center environment.

Agent Status

One useful piece of real-time data that call center supervisors use is Agent Status by Agent Name. This metric lets them see who is on a call, how long they have been on a given call, whether they are sitting idle, how many calls they have taken, their average talk time, and more. In addition, agent timelines can provide a visualization as to how each support person is spending his or her time performing on the program.

Supervisors can use this information to spot whether a specific agent is having an issue, identify which agents may need additional coaching or training, and see potential issues before they turn into problems.

The Complete Guide to Call Center Training

Everything You Need to Know about Improving Call Center Performance with Training

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Call Que

Call center supervisors can also see details about the calls in que. With a glance at their screen, they can see information about how many calls are waiting, see how many have been abandoned, and find out the average speed of answer. In a sales environment, there are additional numbers that indicate the amount of revenue received as well as the number of calls answered, the average earnings per call, and the average earnings per agent. In a multi-channel environment, supervisors can also see how similar stats for web chats, texts, and emails.

Specific Callers

Supervisors may also be able to see details about each call and  caller. This information can be used to see how often a certain person calls in, identify why an issue was not resolved the first time, and identify trends in customer issue resolution.

Increased Monitoring

Those measures identified as key performance indicators (KPIs) are displayed prominently in a dashboard so managers can see all vital information immediately. Typical performance trackers work by consolidating metrics and data from multiple sources and displaying them all-in-one cohesive and customizable dashboard.

From there, the KPI dashboard may link to nested dashboards that display related information in detail using graphic illustrations such as charts and tables. Supervisors can monitor a high-level overview of their Agent team and operational metrics, but they can also easily drill down into the details. Everything is linked using software or apps that consolidate data from various sources. Red, green, yellow and other colors are used so it is easy to see what metrics need attention.

In turn, monitoring performance becomes automatic, streamlined, and virtually effortless. Energy is used to address items identified by the data instead of digging for the information.

Goal to Actual Performance Comparison

One of the most useful features with this type of monitoring is that supervisors can automatically compare call center and agent performance to the goals of their clients. Seeing how performance compares to those standards can be eye-opening. These systems allow various teams to instantly compare actual performance to goal and then utilize the knowledge to take immediate, and effective action.

Call centers also see a benefit in comparing performance to accepted industry benchmarks. For instance, an outsourcing client might set an arbitrary number for abandonment rate or time to answer in a bid to get operations up and running. The right call center outsourcing vendor will go a step further and compare project performance to industry standards or previous project successes.

Goals are typically set for each team and even by agent. While meeting client standards is important, the process of continual improvement is applied at each level of the operation, including the individual agent. Meeting goals and maintaining them is often  a basis for productivity incentives.

Easy to Digest

Technology presents call center performance information in a format that is easy to digest. Data visualization makes it easier to highlight trends and identify agents that may be outside of the allowed range of performance.

Instead of scrolling through screen after screen of real-time data, supervisors can have that information processed for them. Graphs and charts can be automatically generated and added to management dashboards so that supervisors can see the information they need in a visually-appealing format.

Time Saved Running Reports

Because all the key performance indicators are displayed graphically in the form of charts, gauges, and grids, all the essential information can easily be displayed briefly without switching through multiple screens or even running specific reports. In turn, supervisors spend less time running reports and more time coaching their agents and managing their call centers.

Conclusion

Being the leader of a call center can be complicated because you have to manage the employees as well as the call center itself. It’s important to make sure that each  tool you use is contributing to the outcome and helping to improve the effectiveness of the center. Real-time facts and data can help make it easier to monitor performance and reach productivity goals. Effective call center team leader training involves teaching supervisors how to leverage that information.

Are you interested in helping your contact center become more effective? Get more information that explains and illustrates the role that good KPI dashboards and monitoring can have in an efficient contact center program from “The Complete Guide to Call Center Training.”

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The Complete Guide to Call Center Training

Everything You Need to Know about Improving Call Center Performance with Training

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