My line of business - the outbound call centre manager
Do you find the multitude of roles that exist in the call
centre sector a bit mind-boggling? Well, worry no more. Call Centre
Helper is on hand to give you the low-down on the variety of jobs that
exist in the world of call centres. Each month, we’ll be hearing from
an individual who works in the sector and will not only discover what
they do for a living, but also what their tips are for getting in to
that line of work.
This month, we profile Lee Gurton, outbound call centre manager at the outsourcer Converso Contact Centres
I’m a born salesman. Well that’s what everyone has always told me, so I
guess it’s natural that I’m now in the role I’m in. When I was younger,
people often described me as ‘cheeky’ and I think it’s this daring,
‘never say die’ attitude that’s helped me in my career. I always
thought I wanted to be a fireman, maybe just to prove everyone around
me that I wouldn’t go in to sales. But here I am, in charge of outbound
calling campaigns for a 200-seat call centre in Southend.
My
first taste of call centres was six years ago when I worked for a large
bank. To be honest, it wasn’t the best experience and like many other
call centre positions, offered little hope of progression. The customer
services work itself was fine, but I knew that the hierarchy that
existed there would ultimately preclude any form of advancement via the
call centre.
Lee’s top tips for succeeding in his line of business
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Soon
after, I joined Converso as a business-to-business (B2B) telemarketing
associate and it was here I began to learn my trade. There couldn’t
have been a greater contrast with my previous role. First of all the
atmosphere was completely different, with everyone being treated the
same, from a temp through to director level. How many contact centres
do you know where the directors know 90% of its 200 staff by their
first name?
The fact that no matter what your position in the
company, your view and opinion is always asked for and truly valued,
means a lot – and it certainly brings out the best in people. I think
it also helps people to relax and really feel at home. Most visitors to
the call centre are often surprised by what they find: plenty of
smiling faces and a real buzz of positive energy.
How starting at ground level has helped me
When
I started at Converso, I went through its standard induction, which is
backed up by the Investors in People initiative, followed by an
introduction to ‘product and service’ knowledge and sales techniques.
The training team then helped me, like all our beginners, to develop a
script that worked best for me.
The fact that I’ve ‘come through
the ranks’ has certainly helped in my current role because I can
identify with every member of my team, whether they’ve just started or
they have a year’s experience. I must say, I really enjoyed my time as
an outbound caller, mostly because of the thrill of making tough sales.
It’s not easy outbound calling, and because of initiatives such as the
Telephone Preference Service (TPS) and BT Privacy, there are now fewer
and fewer people to call. But I still believe it is one of the most
fruitful, cost-effective and direct methods of achieving sales.
What
is noticeable is how the introduction of more compliance has actually
helped the telemarketer. Being FSA registered, Converso works on behalf
of many financial services companies and, because of new rules and
regulations, it actually makes the agent’s life easier because the
customer is more aware of the detail of the actual product or service,
so they are less likely to change their mind later. Compliance helps
you to qualify a sales lead.
I’ve been in charge of all outbound
campaigns for about a year now, and I can honestly say that no day is
ever the same, which is why there isn’t another job I’d prefer to be
doing at this moment in time. Each day varies, according to how well
campaigns are going. My goal is to always meet and exceed customer
expectations and some days it’s harder to meet targets than others.
You
might have one day when a campaign just doesn’t seem to be getting the
right results, so you need to talk to the team leaders to understand
what might be going wrong. Sometimes, I will take over from the team
leader and do their job for a couple of hours, giving them time out to
analyse areas such as call recordings, data, individual agent
performance and so on.
There are many reasons why a campaign
might not work. For example, it might be because the script needs
adjusting, or the calling list or calling time isn’t appropriate. Years
of experience have helped both Converso and me to understand what works
and what doesn’t.
Take the time of calling, for instance. We
will never call on a bank holiday, we check when certain areas might be
watching a big sporting event, even check on the weather report in a
particular region. Ensuring that targets are met constitutes the
biggest part of my job, and it’s my responsibility to do whatever it
takes to achieve this.
Putting in the hours
On
paper, I work 40 hours a week, but the reality is somewhat different.
It’s not about the hours, it’s about the results. And if that means
working the occasional 9am to 9pm day, then that’s what we do. The
Converso philosophy is one of everyone pulling together. We work hard
but we also play hard too, and there’s always someone around to
congratulate you or reward you for going that little bit further. In
fact, there is a continual stream of extra-curricular activities
planned, whether it’s meals out or fishing trips. Everyone mixes, no
matter what job they have. Indeed, over 80% of Converso’s management
team has come from the floor.
After three years I myself had
become a team leader, and at this point I decided to take a short break
to do some travelling. From this perspective, the contact centre
industry is quite flexible, and it was great to have the ability to
take three months off, travelling through Europe, America and Australia.
In
hindsight, the experience helped me mature and it also helped me to
understand different cultures and meet people from all walks of life.
This certainly helped me when talking to people in the call centre and
I even got the chance to work as a call centre representative in
Australia, which again helped me to hone my skills.
It was quite
a challenge trying to sell to a different market, and because they are
quite used to receiving telemarketing calls, you had to be far more
imaginative in your approach. Interestingly, at Converso, we recently
managed a campaign on behalf of an American company, who had hired a UK
operation specifically to speak to US consumers. This worked extremely
well, because the English accent was a way of standing out from the
hundreds of other calls that they receive. The campaign was an
overwhelming success.
We usually have three, what we would
class as major, campaigns running simultaneously, with some smaller
projects too. Traditionally, Converso has had strong experience in
business to consumer (B2C) outbound work, but we are focusing on
developing our dedicated B2B team now too, so I am also responsible for
overseeing the recruitment and training needs that have to be tailored
to this area. I’m in charge of three team leaders, a training manager
and also the dialler manager, so part of my day is often spent speaking
to all these people so we can all work together to make the campaigns
work.
When I moved from being a telemarketer to team leader, the
role changed slightly because I was less involved in actual calls, and
more in face-to-face communication with the team. I really enjoy this
aspect of the job, trying to get the most out of people, incentivising
them and getting them to work as a team. I do miss the phones
sometimes, but I often step in for colleagues, as do even the
directors, if we need to cover for staff shortages.
As for the
future… although I’m happy with the role I have now, I have ambitions
for greater responsibility. Converso is one of the fastest growing
companies in Essex, so as the company grows in the UK or overseas, I
would like to become, say, area manager or perhaps get the chance to
travel abroad to manage a call centre there.
Lee Gurton is outbound call centre manager at the outsourcer Converso Contact CentresTel: +44 1702 434555
Website: www.converso.co.uk
