Question: I manage the in-house call centre for a large retailer, and I’ve recently been told that the business is thinking of investing in click-to-call technology for our website. What I want to know is how the system is likely to impact on the call centre in terms of call volumes.

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Question: I work in the outbound department of a health insurance company and have recently been promoted from a sales executive [agent] to team leader. If I’m honest, I know I was promoted because I always exceeded my targets. But now I’m finding it difficult to manage the people who were previously working on the same level as me.

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Question: Like a lot of call centres, we have a fairly flat structured operation here. But we’re also lucky to have a lot of really competent and talented staff. - My problem is that we’re not able to promote people as quickly as we’d like as there simply aren’t the opportunities available. I’d expect maybe two or three team leader positions to come up every year. For each of those, we might get 15 to 20, and sometimes 30, internal applications.

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Question: I manage a public sector contact centre where our people have to cope with complex calls - frequently covering a number of queries from the one customer. Our operators are trained to deal with difficult and often emotional conversations. But we’ve recently realised that we now need to start coaching our people in how to deal with angry customers too. We’re finding that customers are becoming a lot less patient on the phone, and sometimes our people are subjected to a barrage of verbal abuse that they simply don’t deserve.
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Question: Just how do I find telemarketing campaigns to keep my existing call centre running? I have contacted several different companies to find out if they have the need to outsource or if they have any overflow to send our way. I have received some responses, but for the most part they are all doing fine with their current contact centres or don’t need to outsource in the first place.

There must be an easier way to find some work to keep this centre going! Does anyone have any advice on the best way of bringing in new business?

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Question: I’m working as a data entry operator and want to move in to call centre work. My problem is this: I have attended several interviews but have not been successful in finding a role. I get very nervous when I go for interviews and I believe this is holding me back. Can you propose any methods that will help me relax and be more like myself? And are there some questions that I should be asking to show that I am keen to work in customer service?
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Question: What kind of questions do you think we should be asking at exit interviews to find out why staff leave our call centre? Our attrition rate is just under 30%, and while I know other call centres have higher churn than that, I think it’s important to understand where we’re going wrong.

What I don’t want is to ask the kind of questions that will encourage leavers to answer with bog-standard answers - like: “I really enjoyed my time here, but I wanted a new challenge”. Can you therefore recommend a line of questioning that will get straight answers without intimidating people at the same time?

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Question: I know this might not be the kind of thing you hear too often, but I really enjoy working in my job as a team leader and want to make a career for myself in call centres. I’ve got a great boss who knows I’m interested in staying with the company long-term. What I haven’t told her, though, is that I’m really interested in moving over to the training department as I think I have a lot to offer. Developing people is the most rewarding part of my job, and I seem to have a knack for getting people quickly on-board whenever a new system or sales technique is introduced. My group huddles are also widely acknowledged as one of the most productive in the company.

The thing is that I’ve only been doing my job for a couple of months. I don’t want my boss to think I’m ungrateful for the promotion she’s given me, but at the same time, I want to show her how enthusiastic I am about training and development. Should I tell her now that this is what I want to do, or should I wait a couple of months and meantime try to show her through my day-to-day work how well suited I am to this kind of job?

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Question: I’ve recently been promoted in my company and, as part of my new role, have been asked to come up with some low-cost ‘quick wins’ to improve our customer experience.

My boss has asked me to produce two or three simple ideas that can be implemented within a month or so, but I’m struggling. Can you recommend any easy-to-implement tips? Or would I be better off spending my time trying to formulate a more long-term strategy around customer experience?
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Question: I work as a manager for an outbound call centre. My career has progressed through different industries, but I have always been fortunate enough to have the opportunity to manage a broad spectrum of people and their associated personality types. I am a fairly progressive manager and subscribe to a holistic management style as advocated by coaches like Tony Robbins, John Maxwell, Jim Meisenheimer and the like. Here is the thorn in my side - being an over-authoritative, inflexible ’slave driver’ continually yields better sales results than a motivating, caring, dynamic approach does. I am growing more disillusioned by the day. The ‘nice’ approach yields better attrition rates and creates a far more pleasant environment, but poorer sales figures. Are all the management gurus talking rubbish?

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