Six Attributes Of A Good Call Center Manager
The shortage of good call center managers is hard to spot. Call centers always have someone holding that title. Often, they’re just not the right person for the job.
Fundamentally there are two types of call center managers:
- Those who are technology and process driven.
- Those who understand human motivational psychology.
Ideally, a call center manager will be skilled in both fundamentals.
From my experience, a successful call center manager is 75%/25%, with 75% being a solid comprehension of what drives employees to give their fullest potential to their work.
Technology can be learned; even mastered. Being able to motivate and lead a group of people, which defines a manager’s ability, is not as simple as applying generalized management principles.
If I were interviewing candidates for a call center manager position, I would look for the following six attributes (Notice I did not write “skills.”):
- Ability to lead. During the interview, uncover if the candidate has successfully led a group of people. Presumably, the candidate has call center management experience, so ask about other leadership roles, whether it was in Boy Scouts, the military, schools, team sports, etc. How do they define their leadership style? How do they measure if their leadership style is the right style for their team? Have the candidate give at least two STAR (Situation, Task, Action and Result) stories where they lead a team towards the desired result(s).
2. A sense of humor. As a call center manager, my use of humor, to create levity, is my greatest asset. A call center manager who takes themselves too seriously adds unnecessary stress to an already stressful environment. Eventually, they will alienate their supervisors and agents. Being able to showcase the fun and enjoyable aspects of being employed in a call center, and there are many, along with the benefits of, and exploiting them will naturally keep agent turnover to a minimum while maintaining a high morale level. Does the candidate appear relaxed and approachable? Do they make remarks that make you smile and laugh? We all enjoy being around people who are genuinely fun to be around.
3. Able to sell ideas. Call centers are constantly changing. Therefore, agents must be sold on the benefits of any change. Selling ideas, selling anything, comes down to show “What’s in it for me?” We buy into ideas that benefit us in some way (i.e. making our job easier, reducing stress, removing a tedious routine, and increasing efficiency). You can ask candidates how they would sell the importance of following the dress code’s policy regarding proper footwear. Would they use the approach that wearing sandals and flip-flops is a health and safety issue? Agents will more likely understand why this policy exists and therefore comply because there’s a “What’s in it for me?” in protecting their toes and health.
Give the candidate a hypothetical scenario, or better yet one your call center has actually experienced, where the agents had to learn a new process, technology, or there was a change in policy and ask how they would have sold this change to the agents.
4. Understands management is not about having control. Most call center managers have the misconception that their primary role is to “put out fires.” If a call center manager is spending their day putting out fires, this is a sure sign that they are not giving enough authority to their supervisors and agents to make decisions. Does requiring authorization to pick up overnight delivery costs warrant putting the customer on hold (increasing the call handle time), the agent’s time to locate a supervisor or the call center manager and then their time? In past call center, managerial roles, how much authority did the candidate’s agents have? Is the candidate comfortable with giving agents a high level of decision making?
A good call center manager makes sure their supervisors and agents have the tools and training to do their job and to make decisions which are in the customer’s and company’s best interest and then — here’s the key — allows (READ: trusts) their agents/supervisors to make those decisions.
Management is about guiding people towards a sought-after result(s).
5. A visionary. Great call center managers are always looking at the big picture. They have a vision of what their call center will look like in a year’s time, 3-years’ time, 5-years’ time and are navigating their call center to where they envision it will be. They should be comfortable sharing their vision with their leadership team and agents.
Outsourcing, web-enabling, marketing, Do Not Call registry, advances in telephony technology, teleworking, have forced call centers to operate differently than they did just five years ago. Give the candidate an overview of your company’s business model and who are your competition, then ask how they see the next level of the call center looking? This is where the 25% (technology and process driven) comes in. Are they on top of current call center technology? Do they see where they can integrate CRM software and workforce management to enhance the caller’s experience? How about feeding back results, data, and customer feedback to various department heads throughout the company so business processes, product lines, ordering can be adjusted to accommodate changing consumer demands?
Today we expect to be able to order a pizza by simply giving our telephone number. The agent repeats back our address and has our order history. Not long ago, this was not the case. Major pizza chains now offer the ability to order online and thru apps. I would venture to guess most pizza delivery orders today are done online. In 2010 was this the case? How has this changed the way a pizza chain call center interacts with its customers? The latest buzzword, for what it’s worth: Omnichannel
6. Outside the box thinker. By far, the most critical attribute for a call center manager to have is creativity. I am a big proponent of incentives to reward certain behaviors and key performance indicators (KPIs) and therefore spend a good portion of my time creating, implementing, and maintaining incentives. The return I get is well worth it, and I find the more creative, but not complicated, the incentive, the better the results.
Being creative in upselling, such as creating value packages, will yield much better results than merely trying to tack on a product or service to an order. Being creative in using technology to create call center efficiencies, increase revenue (even uncover new sources), or manage agents’ productivity is what differentiates a good call center manager from one that is mediocre.
Managing a call center is an art.
Of course, there’s much more to being a good call center manager than these six attributes. Having common sense, logical thinking and being comfortable making quick decisions would rank up there. Must have hard skills would be excellent, if not superior, verbal, and written communication skills. When looking for a good call center manager, keep in mind hard skills, while important, can be taught; soft skills cannot.
Originally published at https://www.callcentertimes.com.
