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As ICRM has noted more than once, your frontline staff can make or break all your good CRM plans. And when customer service staff are treated well, they treat customers well. As Bill Gessert, president and CEO of TeleSolutions Consulting, Inc. (732-767-1421; www.tsc-online.com), noted in describing the disturbing results of an employee satisfaction survey his firm conducted for a client: "The indication was, we had some dissatisfied employees who in turn were dissatisfying their customers very well. The model was working."
Is this model "working" for you, too? While Gessert offered his comments during his presentation at last year's International Customer Service Association (ICSA; Chicago; 800-360-4272; www.icsa.com) ICSAnet 2002 conference in Chicago, "Turning Around a Dysfunctional Customer Service Operation: A Case Study," but ICRM thought they had particular resonance today to those in charge of contact center staff. Many managers have been forced to stretch already tight budgets and make do with less under harsh business conditions now have continued for much longer than anyone expected. And stress of this sort inspires dysfunction.
As Gessert told attendees, you know you have a dysfunctional call center when:
* "You hear a rep say, 'You want that when?' followed by hysterical laughter."
* "Your reps define a satisfied customer as one that just stops calling."
* "Your reps interpret a customer saying, 'Hi, I hope you can help me with a problem,' as a trigger to escalate a call."
* "Your reps are heard saying, 'Huh?'"
* "There's no laughter or fun in your center."
* "You're afraid to have your newest rep sit with your most experienced rep." Why? You wonder, "What's going to rub off?"
Attendees of Gessert's session added these other signs of dysfunction:
* They noticed a shift in employee population--the major differences in ambition/energy level that the new guard/old guard employees bring to their jobs.
* They made the transition from outbound only to outbound and inbound (or inbound only to a mix).
* They realized they had no performance objectives to speak of, and hadn't for years.
* Many people from outside the center started "participating" in customer service decisions. Worse, reps took their advice over the center management's. (While ICRM could understand this if the "suggestions" came from top...