Call Center Agents

Call center agents are supposed to be adept people managers. Yet the culture of call center customer management is intrinsically foreign. No one is born knowing how to talk to people over the phone. Thus, it is your job as the call center manager to educate your agents as to the proper phone etiquette and protocol.

Yet rather than force your agents to adhere strictly to a wooden sales script, you may want to empower them to process calls according to their own styles. The danger here, of course, is that your operators will go so far off message that they'll alienate customers. However, I believe it's far more damaging to suppress your operators' naturally instincts.

Developing Your Call Center Agents

One way to strike a balance is to start your operators off on script. Then, once they've developed a sense of the job, you can slowly give them slack. This is not to say that you should leave them to their own designs. Indeed, a hands-off management approach at this stage could be deleterious. Once your agents learn bad habits, it can be very difficult to correct them.

Another tool you can use to promote savvy salesmanship among your call center employees is social pressure. When everyone in your office is working at optimal capacity, your operators will feel energized to perform well. Conversely, if your agents are slacking off, your efficiency will suffer. The key isn't necessarily to take the fun out of the job, however. You want to build a functioning unit that values hard work and camaraderie.