Our business at the moment is slowing down due to a major push onto our automated conference systems. Staff are getting very bored and so am I, I know all of this boredom only leads to high absence and turnover, sluggish ( lazy ) attitudes and some general messing around. We have an extensive multiskilling programme that has been working , and we already do training and product awareness during these times, people are getting very de motivated so I want to perk them up as I have handed almost all my responsibilities down to them already. I would like to know of any fun or constructive activities that we could run

Hi Antony,

That's a very interesting situation, and one I've been in before. You're right about boredom leading to absence and turnover, and you're taking the best approach by trying to find some means of using the 'slack' time productively.

One of the crucial things to remember is that people need motivation, and motivation is a tricky subject (see this discussion for some comments). One approach that springs to mind might be to actually ask your staff what they would like to do with the slack time (in a work context, of course).

For instance, they may be aware of areas in the day-to-day environment and work practice which can be improved in some way - for example, perhaps this is the time to upgrade computers (get them involved in choosing specs for new machines) or even something as radical as helping give the workplace a facelift (new posters, re-arrange desks, plants, workstation ergonomics, etc).

By the sounds of things, there is still some work coming in - perhaps this is an opportunity to allow staff to 'shadow' each other with a view to cross-skilling and increasing their understanding of how the various job functions integrate. Perhaps you can use this time to get that documentation up-to-date - or maybe even let everyone pick up internet development skills by (re)designing the staff intranet - workers can interview each other and create their own 'home-pages' complete with their interests, hobbies, family details and so on.

There are a great many things that can be done other than 'boring' computer-based training packages, so intersperse the training and product awareness with creative or lower-priority 'touchy feely' things, such as role-playing (one person can be 'angry customer' and the rest can work out ways of making 'angry customer' happy.

Just some ideas, perhaps the others can help too?

John

Yeah I asked them today actually in our meetings, it came about as they were asking why they couldn't read while not on calls, I didn't like this idea much as senior managers would see and decide to cut staff as they are not busy. Out of it came taking on extra work from other departments ( more than we do already ) to fill the gaps as they all feel it is mind numbingly boring, by the way the whole nature of our call centre dictates that we have a lot of down time as we run audio conferences and almost all calls are on the hour or half hour. I might try some of those role plays has anyone got any good scenarios already they could copy and paste in ??

This worked for me in a previous life. I started a "Red Flag Team". The mandate of this team was to identified areas of weekness with either staff (in general not specific individuals) or procedures, product enhancement, overall operations of the department.

The team was responsible for identifying the issue, investigate the reasons behind the issue and come up with a resolution. Then they had to present to management the solution. It may include some spending of funds or may simply be requesting a meeting with a client to advise them that areas of improvement where available and they solution was....

Making and agent responsible for THEIR department certainly boosts their spirits. At least I found.

At the beginning the groupwas only a select few that had volunteered. My goal was primarily to introduce team spirit and at the same time, improve the department. Eventually every agent was part of the RED FLAG TEAM because they saw what good it was doing for the dept and for theother agents.

One of the agents ran the TEAM and assigned work to agents. Those agents determined if they would complete the work on their own or invite another agent to assist in the project.

One example was that one of our clients hada bug in their hardware that we supported. Our agents basically learned to live with the problem and became experts at resolving the problem when callers would call. The two agents assigned to the problem ran a report on from our call tracking system andidentified how many actual calls came in related to the problem, researched the impact it had to our call volumes and agent productivity. Approached the client with their findings which opened the clients Eyes. They were paying for each call we answered to support this problem that we supported. The cost of fixing this bug was less then the annual cost of supporting it. The customer was greatfull and resolved the problem, awarded the two agents a cash bonus of the difference they would save the followingyear and awarded us additional business.

Of course not all of your project would result in such a success story but the feeling in our department towards those two agents was certainly positive by all.


Now I'm in a new company starting up an outsourcing call center, one of my plans is to certainly implement this RED FLAG TEAM here as well.

Regards,

LC

Every client has problems that the call center rep hears about on a day to day basis. It may be functionality, it may be service at a store, it may be perception only.

This information is more valuable to the client than anything you have listed in your services menu. Usually, it is the front-line people who hear about it and the breakdown comes in transmitting that information to the client. Since there is usually no method for transferring that information to the client, there is nothing a rep can do to remedy issues that pop up literally every day - same ol same ol.

During slack times, figure out systems of categorizing information that the client would benefit from knowing. They will become even more loyal to your company services and they will be able to address and solve the problems they have.

By the way, this information has value - charge accordingly. There is a 'Courtesy Call' form and formula that my company is making available to businesses who are interested in follow-up satisfaction calling. www.teleconnecting.com

@ Your Service,
LoriAnne Hancock
Teleconnecting International