Bonfire trainers travel the country and find themselves in contact centers that serve and support such products and services as shoes, beverages, insurance policies, discount consumer goods, biomedical products, cell phone minutes, apparel, checking and savings accounts, electricity and water, transportation services, software, cars, sit-down restaurants and fast food. It’s all too easy to say that every call center is … Read More
Don’t Turn Your Holiday Workers into Grinches
Training Your Seasonal Employees in Effective Communication Skills Is Still Mission Critical. It’s probably your busiest time of year. It’s always an opportunity not only to make sales but also to cement new relationships, creating new customers and loyal followers for your brand to last throughout the year. Depending on your business model, however, you may be leaving most of … Read More
How To Treat Them Right On The Telephone
Originally posted in March of 2003 for the Journal of Accountancy: Monthly Checklist Series Treat Them Right on the Telephone Fostering a long-lasting client relationship starts from that very first contact someone makes with your firm. Here are 10 phone-etiquette tips to make sure you and your employees give all callers the five-star treatment. Give a warm welcome. Be sure … Read More
Gold Stars Are Free! Employee Recognition and Empowerment
When you were little, remember the teacher saying, “Good Job!” And remember how you felt when your test came back with a BIG GOLD STAR? WOW! Recognition! It’s one of the most powerful motivators we have. Your employees may have certificates, trophies, and plaques all over their desks and walls. But why does it seem that it is typically the … Read More
Have Your Employees Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’?
What makes an employee happy? What makes them miserable? To a great extent, the answer to both questions is their own attitude. Beyond that, it’s Management’s attitude. Patrick Lencioni, author of the New York Times best selling book “The Three Signs of a Miserable Job”, provides insight into how the attitude and actions of the management team impacts whether an … Read More
5-Step Process for Handling Profanity
A while back, Lisa Rike gave some great information about how to deal with difficult customers in our Free LIVE! Webinar Handling Difficult Callers. Recently, Heather Bond emailed us a question about profanity and we want to share the answer. “I enjoyed your webinar about how we can change the way a difficult call can be handled. At the very … Read More
Engaging the New Millennial (Gen-Y) Workforce
I am going to confess upfront that I’m a Baby Boomer. I like being known as the group that questioned authority and highly influenced corporate reform. I enjoy being a member of a group that is strong in number and continues to impact and redefine how life is lived. We are the largest group in the workforce….uh, until now. Millennials, … Read More
Make a Resolution to Start Coaching!
If you work in the call center industry, you are probably very familiar with the terms “coaching” and “monitoring.” Although two different activities, the terms are frequently used interchangeably. In reality, they are two separate and distinct activities that should be clearly set apart from each other. If you want to know who has a handle on how different these activities are, … Read More