One more thing, a poster is printed monthly that lists the center's performance results in comparison to our goals. It's proved to help Agents better understand how their efforts impact the center overall (negatively or positively!). It's color-coded to clearly indicate "Right on Goal", "Close to Goal", and "Needs More Effort".

The poster includes normal stat's like Talk Time, Availability, and Service Levels - but we also include things like Absentee Hours, Attrition, and Amount of Hours Dedicated to Training.

It shows the Agents that "we're all in this together".

Thanx Mohan and Jennifer,

Ur tips are useful, Specially jennifer ur tip about games between management people and other guys...Good one.....Hey keep on posting these kind of suggestions....

Jennifer i haev another topic as "Light up the fire- Call Centre....Please see if u can contribute to this topic...

Looking forward to it,,,,,

Aman

Well it is indeed important aspect of our work life
Following things have always worked with me-
1) Before starting the shift take a team brief. I start my brief session with short motivational story. This has 2 benefits-a)it makes my team brief interesting and generally agents do not want to miss it b) there is a take away in each story which gears them up.
2) I do set goals for the day and a week and every day i let my agents know how far they have progressed towards the achievement of their goals.
3) Usually i use words like " I completely believe in your capabilities and am confident that u guys are gonna make me proud all the time"
4) Appreciate their good work in front of your team and whenever it is time for a negative feedback take them in a secluded area ..while giving a feedback i always try to attack the behaviour and not the individual
Hope you find this useful....
I would be glad to recieve more such tips :-)

Hi,
A lot of sessions with individuals helps you ascertain what motivates whom.
Not every body would get motivated by money and holidays. More realistic approach is to understand individual’s strength areas and make them operate from those strengths. Success motivates the most and making them operate from their strengths assures their success.

Hi Jim,

what I feel is a Team Manager or a Service Delivery Manager can run Weekly and fortnightly contests for the Teams. For example Top 3 CSPs from a Process every week should be given some meaningful gifts and for the Fortnightly contests you can keep a Rotating Trophy were best CSP for fortnight can keep the trophy with him or her and at the end of 2 months the person who wins it for the most times can take the trophy home. Apart from normal Incentives that are given to the CSPs depending up on there performance taking the Team for Dinner or an outing can surely keep them motivated. If any one else has any more sugestions please let me know as well Thank you Bye.

Regards,

Ahmer

Hi,

In my point of view i guess if you could listen to what they are saying might
help them,to expresses themself and more important TREAT THEM AS HUMAN BEING.

TAKECARE.

JO

"better the straight up stick than the sideways carrot"

COMMUNICATION is essential, even if it is simply a 5-minute pep rally type meeting held DAILY.

SIMPLE REWARDS that go beyond the salary/benefit scheme. It doesn't have to be much. Once had a collection team and rewarded each check by phone they got with an extra 50 cents. And we also had a daily random drawing for $5. Actually not completely random. Staffers got one ticket for showing up and one additional ticket for each additional check by phone that they got throughout the shift.
Hardly a budget buster and gave people a little extra something to do better as well as look forward to the drawing. Buying pizza's (or whatever is a local favorite)for the staff once a month or so goes a long way to building some ties.
In some places, social gatherings where the workers families are invited are expected and appreciated, like India for example.

Also, Need to have someone in a management position that has GOOD PEOPLE SKILLS. This may very well not be the direct-line supervisor. But someone, at some level, needs to be able to relate to the workers on a HUMAN level and try to avoid the "us vs. them" mentality setting in.

Thanks,
Steve Howell
showell@telegenisys.com
925.825.1122

"I find that people are almost invariably already motivated. If they
weren't they would have given up when the midwife slapped them.
The reason that people appear to be demotivated is not something that is
wrong with them that needs to be replaced.
It is the result of things that happen to them.
Every single nurse that I have ever listened to shows a level of
motivation that is extraordinary when they talk about their patients.
When it comes to management of the hospital or the health authority they
are not interested because they have been betrayed by them so many
times.

This is reported as a lack of motivation.
What it is really is people who are fed up being jerked around when all
they want is to be allowed to do their jobs.

In order to motivate people you don't have to do anything extra to them.

Just find out what is demotivating them, then stop doing it."

(with acknowledgement to Peter Hunter)

Shane a man to my own heart!
Vedula a bastion of humanity Indeed! Mumbai weather is killing me ! I am from Up north..
John as always an interesting analysis!

You Guys said it all...most of us would do everything for our family...HR and managerial people grab a clue..are we a family in this industry..can we try?..

We introduced a WFM solution from Teleopti that involve the individual agents to enter their working time preferences in a web portal.

The system will then combine call volume forecasts, agent skill profiles and individual preferences.

We can now offeri the staff work-patterns that suit their individual needs!

Regards,
Christian Bulock
Sales Director
Imsys Technologies

I think Neil P has hit on something vital here when he says

"HR and managerial people grab a clue..are we a family in this industry..can we try?.."

It should not be about 'them' and 'us'- it's OUR industry, no matter what part we play in it - it should always be 'we'. As a team, no matter what role we play we all work together to take things forward!

Per-lease can we stop trying to dress this up as some kind of nice cosy 'family' love in.

Business is not family. Families do not destroy each other, cast people out or create massive redundancies when times are tough.

Can we address the reality of working in a business atmosphere? Management can make unpopular decisions that affect staff's livelihoods whether the staff agree or not. If you want more say in what you do then become your own boss and set up your own company. All to often staff forget that they are employed to do what they are asked.

Businesses are not democracies, lets not try and kid ourselves.

Staff motivation comes from your own motivation. Are you motivated?

Why not ask your employee's what motivates them, no doubt you will get many answers that will range from recognition to remuneration. But surely the first step is to ask the people who you are trying to motivate? That is how I have done it over the years and it has had a degree of success. Although you cannot motivate everyone all the time, you can certainly be seen to put the effort in.

Regards

Colin

I think it is a tad more complicated than that my friend.

I can be the most motivated person in the world (I have seen managers like this) but if they are not able to communicate properly with their workers then everything falls apart.

This is not rocket science. Treat your people well and they will reciprocate! I don't meany money or other financial rewards but courtesy, the one thing that is sadly lacking in most call centres. This doesn't cost money or time, it's free.
Managers too busy to spend time with their teams, staff not working with their teams, the do unto you culture.

Managers need to be more considerate and understanding. What better motivator than to see your own manager taking calls, suggesting you go for a break after a difficult call and they'll keep your seat warm.
Keep your promises!
Simple things!

While in practice I definetly think you have some good points that is not realistic for all centres.

Specifically much larger ones where perhaps your team has 40+ agents on it. You can't possible hope to take a few calls for each person and still perform your duties. You are also assuming that agents won't take advantage of such an open ended approach and want to get off the phones more often. You are also assuming that the lowly manager has the ability to pull people offline to suit his own needs rather than the needs of upper managment or a client.

It's not always as easy as just pulling someone offline.

Not to mention you are assuming a manager is qualified to take a call. I have been a manager in the past and my job skills are radically different. My job is to make sure that my agents feel comfortable doing their job and that they have all the required tools to complete it. I have always told my team that if I can take a call better than they can after a month of them being on the floor we have a pretty big problem that needs to be address. Every member of my team should be better at taking calls than me.

In my experience simply treating people well will not work. For some people it will...other people need other kinds of motivation...whether it be money...or simply having a hardass boss looking over their shoulder.

And spending time with your team...taking their calls...giving them breaks...those all DO cost money...sometimes enormous amounts that you can not justify.

In a perfect world I would love to see your management method implemented, today..it is rather naive.

Does anybody bother to read the entirety of this thread any more or does everyone just jot down their personal experieces and thereby claim to have solved the problem?

Hardly a professional approach, if you had an ongoing problem with a piece of software you would 1. Consult specialists 2. Examine best practice 3. Keep an open mind. 4. Trial solutions 5. Evaluate results etc etc.

It is strange that everyone thinks they are an expert yet doesnt appear to have have looked externally or even studied the numberous text books on this subject.

Isnt this an indication of how unprofessional we are as an industry?

Your post astonishes me, not leat because of the team seize you mention but also the fact you could not do the job of an adviser.
My suggestions will not solve all of the issues in a Contact centre but they are a start. Too often our businesses are managed by numbers, what about the people!
It's easy to dismiss my suggestion but try it! The dismissive way you have replied to my posts leads me to believe you have almost given up!
One step at a time, you cannot solve everything at once but sometimes the problem is not as great as you think!