Training Holds The Key

The success of outsourcing your call center operations hinges not on the low costs but on the effectiveness of the agents hired by your outsourcer. The key lies not only in selecting the best, and training them to perform to the standards expected, but in giving them room to grow into their roles.
Very often, companies in India and other Eastern countries train their staff in how to speak the accent of the parent company’s country. They are given an English or American name, and then, they’re good to go. Is that how things are supposed to work?
The answers to many problems faced by call centers today can be found in the way their agents are treated. Most of them are under pressure to effect sales or be courteous to the rudest of customers. To derive their best performance day after day, the company has to stop punishing them for minor transgressions. Rewards should be commensurate to the work performed. Incentives and praise work better than words of rebuke and censorship.
To protect its long-term interests, the company that outsources its operations should play an active part in the selection and training processes. This should not be just a one-off thing at the start of the working relationship. Instead, performances have to be continuously monitored, and problem spots identified and solved.
Call center work is no longer the glamour job it was, with qualified youngsters realizing the pitfalls associated with working night shifts under tremendous pressure to deliver. It’s time organizations that outsourced stepped in to slow down the high personnel turnover in call centers, in order to retain their best agents.