The Challenges of a Novice Contact Center Agent

Citing challenges such as low compensation, high stress and repetitive job tasks, today’s contact center agents remain in their jobs for only about three-and-a half years.

Traditionally, the contact center industry has been plagued by high absenteeism and high staff attrition. Contact centers should develop strong policies with regard to staff retention, absenteeism and career development as the severity of these problems begins to dawn on the industry, we should expect to see determination to tackle these issues head-on.

These are some thoughts on cultivating and retaining key talent:

• Flexible schedules –By offering well-managed part-time options, contact centers can attract a wider variety of potential staff members.

• Diversified career options – By offering training programs in how to respond using multiple channels, contact centers can help agents hone their skill sets, while offering them a wider variety of tasks and increased opportunities for career advancement.

• Incentive programs –. By tying monetary incentives to skill diversification, contact centers can achieve greater levels of staff satisfaction.

• Close communication –Keeping agents informed of executive decisions is an important mechanism for boosting employee morale.

It is essential that everyone involved in a contact center’s day-to-day operations be well-versed in what value it delivers and how it does so – and in what detracts from that value. Contact centers should strive to keep agents abreast of key developments and to make their career paths more exciting. Having top-notch, productive agents who are better equipped to deal with and anticipate customer needs translates into having more satisfied customers.

Ethics at Work

Since there are quite a number of unethical people around, I thought it would be quite fitting to share my two cents worth on what it’s all about. Work ethics include not only how one feels about their job, career or vocation, but also how one does his/her job or responsibilities.

This involves attitude, behavior, respect, communication, and interaction; how one gets along with others. Work ethics demonstrate many things about whom and how a person is. Work ethics involve such characteristics as honesty and accountability. Essentially, work ethics break down to what one does or would do in a particular situation.

The begging question in a situation involves what is right and acceptable, and above board, versus what is wrong, underhanded, and under the table. Throughout the last few years, there have been companies whose work ethic -- honesty, integrity and accountability -- have been rather shady and have a rather negative impact on other people.

This has involved people looking the other way when people have done something questionable, or thinking it would not matter. Work ethics, such as honesty (not lying, cheating, and stealing), doing a job well, valuing what one does, having a sense of purpose and feeling/being a part of a greater vision or plan is vital. Philosophically, if one does not have proper work ethics, a person’s conscience may be bothered. People for the most part have good work ethic(s); we should not only want to do, but desire to do the proper thing in a given situation.

Shut Up & Listen: A successful entrepreneur knows when it's best to let others do the talking.

I learnt an important lesson when I decided to start my own business. I discovered through observation that the most effective way to grow your business is to let others do the talking. Over the years, I’ve been in countless business dealings and I realized that entrepreneurs who practiced exaggerated self-promotion rarely captured the attention of others. Prospective associates assumed boastful people didn't need the strategies they had to offer.

By involving other people, you’ll see how essential this is in creating business success. There are some very smart people around, believe it or not who have much information to share, and you’ll only be able to tap into it through active listening. It is only when you decide to understand where another person is coming from that you will discover all types of useful methods for achieving success.

Listening well isn't a skill we're born with unfortunately. But that’s what separates the doers from the followers. In order to lead a business successfully, you must develop it and learn to master it. Accomplishing this requires you to be dynamically present for every encounter--a difficult feat with all that goes on each day. Active listening begins with the willingness to recognize the value in every conversation you engage in.

So the next time before you open your mouth and get ready to say something, check yourself. Give the other person a chance to finish what they’re saying and consider what’s been said. You may learn something you don’t know but thought you did.

Undemocratic Any Business Organization Should Be, However...

I read a good management book over the weekend that says any business organization is a highly undemocratic organization and that is the way it must be. I totally agree with that statement. It is the responsibility of the leader in the organization to make the unpopular but right decision.

However in the course of my work as a consultant with companies, there are too many leaders that practice the above and at the same time DO NOT listen to a single word that is uttered by their subordinates. They do not want to receive any feedback from them. They want things done their way and any other way is against them.

I have had my fair share of experience dealing with the mistrust between the leader and the management team. Many a times, these issues would not have erupted if the leader were just to actively listen and gave his honest feedback to this subordinates.On the other hand, if this were done, there may not be a need for consultants.

Malaysia scores a 5.1 in Transparency International CPI.

Malaysia scores a 5.1 and fall in terms of world ranking to 47 from 43 for Transparency International CPI.

Despite all that has been done on corruption over the pass few years, it seems as if we are not going improving in terms of our corruption index in Malaysia. We are still at a 5.1 and have been hovering between a 4.90-5.10 for the last 6 years.

The CPI survey by Transparency International al measures the perceived levels of public-sector corruption in a given country and is a composite index, drawing on different expert and business surveys.

The 2008 CPI scores 180 countries (the same number as the 2007 CPI) on a scale from zero (highly corrupt) to ten (highly clean).”I have only one thing to say, we need to clean up the act. Malaysians needs to start moving up the ranking or else as a nation will be deem corrupt and easily corrupt by others. Furthermore in such situations, the poor in this nation will always be exploited.

A Malaysian Voice for Contribution

I am a person who is apolitical in many ways which is ironic considering my father named me after a very famous and colourful politician in the UK who unfortunately got into some trouble in the late 1970s, ala Anwar.

However despite using the word apolitical, I have since the coming of age to vote, I have never failed to exercise my voting rights as a citizen of this nation called Malaysia for what I believe is good for this nation.

With my upbring and my education background, I could have chosen to reside in several different countries in the world, however ultimately I choose to be a Malaysian and call Malaysia home.

Malaysia is home to me not because this is the land I was born in, which I am not. Neither is it home to me just because my family is here, as I have learnt at a young age that people adapt. Malaysia is home to me because it is the land I want to contribute to.

Unfortunately over the last few weeks, there has been lots of chatter about what it means to be Malaysian. According to some individuals a person must be of a certain race, a certain religion, live here for a certain time, forefathers are from here etc.

I am extremely irritated and sad when people say things above, as a Malaysian I want my fellow Malaysians to be contributors to this nation. As long as they are contributing to this nation by making it a better nation, reaping the rewards yet placing it back into the system to benefit more people, the person deserve to be here.

It is those individuals that suck this nation from its resources, the corrupt, the thieves, the leeches, the cheats; those are the ones that are not Malaysians.

As Malaysians it is time we look beyond whether a Malaysian is brown, yellow, green, black or purple. We need to look at his/her contribution to this nation.

We need a vote for that.

Manners

What happened to the simple “Thank You”?
Malaysians don’t say that anymore.
You hold the door for them, they walk pass as if you are the doorman.
You hold the lift for them, they give you a scowl.
You stop to let their car pass on a narrow street, they drive pass as if it is their grandfathers road.

What happened to the simple “Sorry”?
Malaysians don’t say that anymore
You get stepped on the foot and the person just looks at you blank.
You get accidentally shove aside and the person walks away.
You car gets block because another car has double parked and you get stared at because you have inconvenience them.

What happened to our manners?
All it needs is to start with a simple Thank You and Sorry.