Today's Call Center Quick Tip comes from Gail Workman:

The FUN Committee!

The FUN Committee at my company is one of the best things about coming to work! There is always something going on – contests, barbecues, trophies for creating the best team mascot, performing quality skits, etc.

It's important to keep agents engaged and motivated. Here are a few additional links for you to help keep things fun:

• Maria Palma at Customers are Always shows us how to have a little fun in the call center.
• Cammy McCafferty provides a quick tip on making it fun.
• Tom Vander Well gives us a Friday chuckle and shows us a new frontier in outsourcing.

How do you keep it fun in your call center? Do you have any contact center humor that you would like to share?

Post tags: Gail Workman, Maria Palma, Cammy McCafferty, Tom Vander Well, call center fun, call center, contact center

flickr photo courtesy of KermitFan

Today Tom Vander Well wrote another great blog entry on call scoring and the curse of "Yeah, but..."s. As Tom stated, it can be difficult to be objective when you're scoring calls.

In the last center I managed, we made QA analysts put a quarter in the jar if we heard a "Yeah, but…" There were no "Yeah, but"s allowed. The only fair and consistent way to score was to ask ourselves to what level did "this" CSR on "this" call "this" time accomplish the skill. We were able to answer that question by reviewing our brief but clearly articulated definitions for each skill in our QA guidelines.

Read more tips and tricks about calibration in the call center and call center coaching.

Post tags: Tom Vander Well, calibration, call center agent, agent development, call center, contact center

flickr photo courtesy of bek_alkaline3

Today's "Call Center Quick Tip" comes from Kathy Zeier of SUPERVALU:

Promote the positive
Positive comments from the evaluation are always put in the "comment" area on the evaluation form so that this is the first thing the CSR sees when they open the review. This sets the tone for a positive experience!

Post tags: Kathy Zeier, calibration, call center agent, agent development, call center, contact center

flickr photo courtesy of p...kin...e

Today's "Call Center Quick Tip" comes from Morris Branson of VSP:

If you'd like to hear more from Morris, check out his archived Webinar or visit with him at the 2007 Envision Customer Forum next week on June 12-14, 2007.

Post tags: Morris Branson, VSP, contact center agent, contact center effectiveness, call center, contact center