It might be an upside or a downside, depending on your personality – but not being able to look your customers in the eyes is a huge disadvantage when you try to provide excellent customer service. There is one great thing with any call center; there is always room to improve. So the question I am asking today is this: How to Improve Customer Service in a Call Center.

I will provide you with these ten advices today:

1. Don’t look too much at the numbers
2. Technology
3. People
4. Troubleshooting
5. Self-Service
6. Eliminate unnecessary contacts
7. Hire a coach
8. Listen to the customers
9. Play the blame game
10. Be happy!

     

1. Don’t look too much at the numbers

The numbers are indicators and should never be considered the truth. Use the numbers carefully because the side effect is really bad service. Some service agents might get so caught up in answering the most. This could lead to short cuts and cutting off customers to early. You should try to improve the numbers, but NEVER at the cost of poorer service. Look for trends in your numbers. Are there peak times you can’t handle? Look for obvious seasonal trends. Make sure everybody knows how to work with numbers to avoid unwanted results. Look at trends, by hour, lunch time, days, weeks, months and so on. You might find that you have peaks you can’t handle or downs where you don’t use the free time effectively.

2. Technology

Do you have the tools you need? And does the technology give you benefits? Are there ways to improve how you work with them? Eliminate unwanted clicks and searches. No need to search for a customer if you could automatically trigger a customer database lookup based on the caller’s phone number. Bad technology might be a huge frustration in your call center. Listen to your staff and try to make some improvements. Find your top 3 improvements and work to solve them before addressing another issue. Here is a hot warning as well: How do you motivate your employees to come to work if their gadgets at home are more up to date then at work? Whatever problem you face at work, there might be a gadget solving that issue, it might not even cost that much.

3. People

You need a motivated staff. On average during my seven years in a call center I can claim that a demotivated employee is 20 % less effective, monotone in his voice and have a high dissatisfied customer rate. A highly motivated employee is 10 – 15 % more effective and has a high happy customer rate. You need to work with your staff every single day, providing feedback and engaging them. Make sure they all understand your goals and empower them to find solutions.

4. Troubleshooting

Make sure you have a good system for troubleshooting both for internal and external faults. You might want to use your ticketing system to solve customer issues. But as soon as the trouble is solved for the customer – do not close the issue. Is this an issue that can be prevented in the future? If so keep it open until the root cause is fixed. I know companies that stop selling a product if they find ONE faulty product, until they are sure that this isn’t a beginning trend. It is easy to keep sending new products to your customers, but it might be expensive in the long run.

5. Self-Service

Do you have customers calling asking for a copy of their invoice or order details? Create an online self-service portal and teach your customers to use it. Customers like to solve their own issues. Placing orders online, checking for ticket status, copy of documents and more. Online product information is also important. Any repeat contact made for your call center that could be online in the self-service center. But you need your employees to listen and look for those contacts.

6. Eliminate unnecessary contacts

A bit like self-service, but there is more to this. You might have a dead link on your website leading customers to a non-existing webpage. Either fix the link or remove it. Do you know that your customers keep calling because they complain about the package? Fix the package. Do they contact your call center because they can’t find information on your website? Make it easier to find it. There could be information missing, no user guide with your products. They can’t find your stores and so on. If you analyze why your customers is contacting you, I am sure that 10-30 % of your contact could be eliminated. How would that affect your call center? Yes this is a very important bullet point. What you should look for is illogical things your customers don’t understand, faults in your service/website/online presence. Combine it with a great self-service and you are making progress.

7. Hire a coach

You might not have the time to provide the time necessary to improve your staff and service levels. One of my best experiences I have ever had as a leader was when I decided to remove one of my employees from the phone and he got one mission: Make the rest 10 % more effective. I instantly reduced capacity with 50 handled calls per day, but he was successful and the rest of the team increased their capacity with about 150 calls per day, giving me a coach, freeing up my time, and the employees got more attention. A win win win situation resulting in the team managing to handle the amount without hiring more staff. As you see, this has a great payoff. Either use the talent in your staff or hire an external coach for some time. It is absolutely worth it.

8. Listen to the customers

You customers are not complaining, they are providing valuable feedback. As you see from many of the other bullet points here, you might find solutions resulting in better service, lower costs, happier employees and more. But listen with a purpose; look for things you can solve for the bunch. If we apply the Pareto principle the top 20 % of issues is resulting in 80 % of your contacts. So to be able to find this, you need to listen. And in combination with a good ticket system you have good tools to find out where you should focus your attention.

9. Play the blame game

One of the best things about working with customer service, you are very seldom the cause of the trouble. If your product department messes up a product, you get the heat. If your billing team is creating unwanted additional costs – customer service gets the heat. If your marketing department creates a campaign resulting in more questions than sales, CS gets the heat. Guess you got the picture? This is why the customer service team needs to find the cause of the problems and be able to make other department leaders accountable for their faults. If you have a good contact resolution system you could easily address where the problem spawned. And the customer service managers should get feedback and reports from the rest of the organization – “What do you do to reduce the number of contacts?” “Why are your numbers not declining?” – as a call center manager you need to get in this situation. If not, you might be the one who takes the heat. The call center is the best tool for any CEO that want information on what’s going on.

10. Be Happy!

Happy employees are producing great results. Make sure that the environment is good. Have some fun, arrange teambuilding events. Create time to improve and make sure that you have the best technological solutions. Redecorate the office once in a while. Be a little crazy, arrange a carnival at work, weird tie day, all dress in blue day. Be creative and have fun. You can hear if the person on the phone is smiling.

As you see, there are many aspects in creating a great customer service center. You can contribute even if you are an employee, manager or work in other departments. Everybody in a company can improve customer service. What is your best tip?

Thanks for reading – Have a great day!

Twitter: @frodeheimen – I am on facebook too – Have you read my book? Becoming Great at Work - 120 pages of great advice!

Please do follow me on Twitter: I do not spam, and try to provide good motivational content. I am starting my own company this summer as well, so following me might be fun!

In life there are crossroads, some are small like what do I have for dinner? Other are larger like what do I do with my job/career/life. I was recently standing with both my feet in the middle of such a giant crossroad – with both hands deep in my pocket and I remember it was raining. Having a good life balance is important and I felt I did not. I was talking to myself like a crazy person, wandering around my living room. I could not feel that my life was in balance. I have a great job working as a customer service manager for a major Norwegian company. I have a great son at the age of 8. But I have no life in the evenings, it is work, work out, eat or sit. I live far away from friends and family and things was starting to wear me out. My energy was leaking in the evenings when it was supposed to be filled.

I quit my job! I decided to move.

The question was hanging in the air; I have just asked myself what will I do? What do I miss? I miss my friends, city life and my family. I have to quit my job and move. So I did follow my own advice – Now what?

And then on any given Monday.

I was sitting in my office after work, looking at a picture on the internet of a classroom. I was thinking customer service, classroom and the words spun like a whirlpool in my head. And it struck me like lightning. I am going to open a Customer Service School in my home town of Molde. That night I surfed the internet like a maniac looking at competition, looking at numbers, doing some math, brainstorming, talked to loyal friends and within hours I found the name, the concept and the name was available and the concept is surprisingly unique. So I have decided to go for it and open the “Kundeserviceskolen as” – in English it translates to “The Customer Service School Inc” – I took a choice and decided to plunge both feet in, no turning back. Nike’s slogan was working wonders for me… I know I am supposed to have a good business plan. But this time I just acted on my gut feeling and I have plenty of time to write a strategy plan instead. And I am going to have humongous amounts of fun!

“I found my passion right in front of me, I love to talk, I love to teach, I love to write at a whiteboard and wave with my hands, I love to sell, I love to share, I love to create and I do love business”

So I will probably be providing some inside start up frustrations and joy at my blog in the near future..
But first I will enjoy two days in Oslo attending the CallCenterConference arranged by Confex. This is my professional highlight of the year and I am like a kid on Christmas.
To all my friends, present and former co-workers, thank you for your inspiration! Wish me luck!
Do follow me on twitter. @frodeheimen
If you like: Do follow Kundeserviceskolen on twitter! (Will only be in Norwegian)
And have you read my book yet? Becoming Great at Work – No? What are you waiting for?

My son captured me today 29th. April 2012.

I have after careful considerations, decided to part from my employer and find a new job. What the future holds for me is unknown, but I am sure that it will be a journey worth travelling. Hunting for a new job, or a new career is always exiting. But why did I quit my dream job? There are several reasons for my decision.
First of all I see no future living in this beautiful rural landscape. The job I have is the only one in my profession in this area. With just one job to hang on to, this result in insecurity as I see no alternative if I for some reason should lose my job. I will not buy a home here and I do not find the peace I need to settle down. Living in a city would give me more opportunies and a safety net if something would happen.

So now what?

I do not know yet what the future holds, I have currently started my job hunt and I am trying to find interesting work where my skills will be at good use.

What kind of job would I like?

I love to work with customer care, coaching, motivation and call centers. I know how to motivate employees and get the best of them in return. And I love to reach for becoming the best at what we do.
I love to work in a call center feeling the daily pulse of the company – this is a living organism without two equal days. And I love to coach employees to improve their results. If you have ignored your call center I will probably make it at least 20 % more effective.

I do also have e-commerce experience and would love to run an e-shop, combining it with my social media experience. Or maybe I could work for a IT company producing e-commerce solutions as I have a wide business experience and I know HOW to advice the customers to make more money. I would love to be an e-commerce consultant or advisor/key account manager.

Store management is also fun. Meeting customers face to face, handling sales campaigns. Motivating staff, creating displays – optimizing space for more revenue, oh I love a challenge.

What can I offer?

I have a strong strategic sense. I am visionary and I am able to create good goals. I know how to get staff onboard with the same goals. I am a strong motivator with good coaching skills. I got sales experience, change management, project leadership and I do always try to create a fun atmosphere around me. I believe in the potential of people and have seen people improve to new heights. I am creative, fun, determined and I do always share my knowledge with people around me. I am able to see the helicopter view in any business and I am used with working with processes and improvements.

Or is it time to start something on my own?

I would like to make a bigger dent in the universe, and I have always dreamed about running my own company. I could be a consultant in my area of expertise. In that way I could be able to put all my knowledge to use. I could advice in e-commerce, web, social media, leadership/coaching/motivation, CMR, call center technologies and so on.

I do also have an idea for an automated sales machine. Using the latest of technologies, I could build a solution making sale super easy. What I want to sell, I do not know yet. If you got a great product for the Norwegian markets let me know! – Could this be my time?

If you face a crossroad in your life, and you do not have a map, always go counter clockwise, because the majority will go the other way.

Do you have a job for me?

The future is blurry at the moment, I am positive that I will get a job soon. But you got the chance to sign me now. I can start this summer. I am open for all suggestions as long as you feel that my knowledge will be of good use for your company or idea. Contact me if you are looking for good people.

Where do I want to work?

The world is my playground. I can actually work anywhere – as long as there is an international English speaking children school nearby. (as I have a 8 year old son, who is actually quite good in English) I am open for everything, my son said he would love to live in Oslo, Paris, London or New York , guess he got big cities in his blood. But I would love to work in Molde, my home town or in the eastern parts of Norway from Lillehammer to Kristiansand. Where? Could be anywhere, as long as the job seems exciting I will be open for offers.

I am not able to find a good work/life balance where I am right now, and I would strongly advice anybody in my shoes to make changes. So I have to follow my own advice too.

I got great references from my current employer, please contact me if you would love to work with me, and I will send you my resume and references.

I have given myself a time limitation until August 1.st to find a new job and move. If I fail, I will stay another year here, as I do not want my son to move in the middle of a school year.

(If you have worked with me, please do comment your recommendations)

Wish me luck…

Oh and I would love it if you would buy my book. Read more about it here.

I wrote this book in order to create a different business book, not targeting leaders but the employees. I have been working in leading positions for many years, and I have always wanted to create a guide helping my employees to do a better job. Not by getting fast results, but to help them open up and understanding the whole concept of business thinking from the leadership point of view. Helping employees to see the helicopter view, understanding how their behavior impacts others and so on. This book will give you a wider perspective about work. It might help you to become happier at work, and less afraid of change.

Action packed with advice and helpful tools.

This book is action packed with advice and tools to help you become better at what you do. I hope that my Norwegian background will provide a book free of mumbo jumbo as we are quite straight forward. This is one thing that amazes me about English native speaking authors; you guys have a talent for writing much about nothing. A lot of the books I have read got entire chapters writing around the point, before it gets to the point. I have tried to write a book that gets straight to the point without the typical tension and mood creating page fillings. I have read books that could have been reduced by 80 % – get to the point already.

What is this book about?

This book starts with an exercise that will help you to define your values. It is about you and your co-workers, about seeing the bigger picture, about burnouts, motivation, goal setting, rules of the game and more. This book got 120 pages; it got 15 chapters + a bonus chapter. It is easy to read and it is straight to the point. I am sharing some of my experiences and I set out to write a book I would wish I had 20 years ago. I have included some short true stories from my career. This book is a guide to make you the star player of your team.

Is it all work and no fun?

No! Fun at work is essential to succeed. This book will not make you work harder, but smarter. This book is written about doing a good job, but it can also be transformed to your life outside the office.

You think you can’t succeed?

Who am I to tell you how to succeed? The surprise is that success is not about promotions, it might also just be about being happy with what you do. If I can do it, you can too. Why? – Because I had no future when I was in school. I did not find my direction in life. I failed in some classes, and I got out of high school with bad grades unable to get into a university. I spent one year improving my grades, started a business that I had to shut down two years later. It took me eight more years to get an education. It took me another six years with trying and failing before I “got an awakening” – I started doing something that I love. I have been promoted, I have read, I have learned, I have shared. I have been speaking about change management and motivation in front of 100 business leaders in Oslo. I currently work in a top level management position within customer service and I love it! And now I have managed to write a book. From my “idea” to finished product – it took me 4 years. This is what this book is about. It not about speed or quantity – it is about a lifelong progress – step by step and never stop learning.

A short quote from my book

“I can’t say this too often. You are always hired to provide value at work. You are not hired to earn money or to have a relaxing life. You are hired because the top management can’t make all the money single handedly. So here is the sweet cherry deal. “I will pay you to make more money for me. At least make more value than I am investing in you.” This is the basic reason why anyone hires anybody. It gives you great insight into what any company would love to get out of you, and, yes, they do hire you to get something in return.”

Why you should buy my book

Because this book will give you value for money from every single page. I am sure that you will be motivated after reading this book. It might even change your life or at least how you see your job. This book does not have a bunch of text creating a pointless story around each advice. If you are an employee, you WILL become a more valuable player on your team. If you are a manager you should get a copy for all members on your team. It is short – only 120 pages, it is filled with good advice and tools you can use today.

You can download it, or buy a paperback copy safely from Lulu.com – Click here for your options. - oh.. and remember to follow me at twitter.