Thought for the month: “Life is a storm my young friend. You will bask in the sunlight one moment and be shattered on the rocks the next. What makes you a man is what you do when that storm comes.” Alexandre Dumas, The Count of Monte Cristo
Dear Fellow Positive Thinker,
I hope you’re enjoying August and still managing to see the positive side of life whilst enjoying watching those Olympic athletes striving for sporting excellence. The way the best of them deal with both success and failure is a lesson to us all in positive thinking.
To help you remain focused on the future the Club has a full programme of events for the remainder of the year. Do please take the time to look and see what’s on offer. Topics covered range from Customer Service Excellence through to Benchmarking.
Remember, if there’s anything you think the Club can help you with, or you just want to chat, please pick up the phone and call us (01306 646555).
One last thought: “When dealing with bright people, it doesn’t pay to be too dogmatic” – Group Captain Garry Tunnicliffe, RAF
Stay positive!
Ray Wilkinson
Views From The Club House: Call Centre Resourcing
Call Centres range from simple telephone answering services through to complex organisations using sophisticated technologies and requiring highly skilled adaptable staff. Services may be provided by linking multiple sites together to cover peak periods in demand by seamlessly overflowing calls between sites. Calls may also be routed to different sites offering specialised services, languages, or time zones. The Call Centre may be operated under its parent company management structure, or services may be out-sourced using a Call Centre specialist company.
Customer Services Representatives (CSRs), the key resource within a call centre, are front line employees that have direct knowledge of customers and often play a mission critical role in shaping customer perceptions of organisations. The role of the CSR is increasingly requiring a wide skill set e.g. oral, written, product knowledge, sales, pricing, and technology skills along with an ability to handle stressful situations when dealing with customers.
Call Centres are increasingly being accessed via the Internet and e-commerce is being used to simplify transactions and to provide 24/7 availability. Call Centres use automatic call distributors (ACDs) to route calls to the appropriate CSR. ACDs are computerised phone systems that respond to callers using voice menus and distribute calls evenly between agents. Blended Call Centres allow agents to both make, and receive, calls as demand or strategy dictates. Blended Call Centres often combine ACDs (for incoming calls) with predictive dialling (for outbound calls) thus enabling more efficient use of the agents. The systems may also be linked to computer databases, adding a further level of service by making connections based on a caller's previous history. Skills-based routing can be invoked to connect a caller, along with the appropriate database files, to the CSR having the appropriate skills required e.g. a foreign language. Some ACDs can also route e-mail, faxes, web-initiated calls and customer call-back requests.
To learn more about this fascinating subject clickCall Centre Resourcing
Club Workshops
Six Sigma as a Continuous Improvement Tool
Benchmarking Best Practice
Members’ Day featuring Change and Customer Service
Internal Communications: Who’s listening?
A Systematic Approach to Organisational Development and Business Change
Active Learning Days
Achieving Customer Service Quality
Managing Change as if People Mattered!
Lean Six Sigma
Special Interest & Networking Groups
Stress in the Workplace – Best Practice Update
Role of Safety Reps and Better Working Involvement
Absence Management
Corporate Manslaughter Legislation
Waste Management Regulations
Click here to view all Club Events
Contact Details
The Best Practice Club
E-mail Enquiries: enquiries@bpclub.com
Telephone: 01306 646555
website www.bpclub.com
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The Best Practice Club is open to employees of all member organisations. If you think a colleague would benefit from any of the information in this newsletter, please forward this on.
Registered Office: Curzon House, 24 High Street, Banstead. Surrey SM7 2LJ
Registered in England Number: 05520469
