Home workers on call to help out

New Zealand Herald - August 28 2013

Skill shortages are on the horizon in the contact centre industry, but home workers may be able to close the gap.

John Chetwynd, the director of contact centre recruitment firm Call Centre People, has been in the industry for 18 years, and says the call centre environment is "in a good space" right now...

Read the Full Article on NZHerald.com  ...

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Training and e-learning, do they really work?

When I raised this subject with some of my contact centre management colleagues and clients I was surprised at the depth of feeling there was. Both positive and negative.

It seems that when e-learning was but a twinkle in the eye of many, a number of “e-learning companies” tried to get ahead of the game and essentially just developed an online PowerPoint display, loaded it and called it e-learning. People got sucked into paying too much for what they got and that has left a sour taste in their mouth.

When e-learning is developed properly, utilising an interactive style and using adult learning methodologies it can be extremely useful. I don’t want to go into all the potential applications for e-learning use, but what has surprised me is the lack of use e-learning is getting within contact centres.

While I agree that there needs to be a mixture of learning methods including one on one, classroom and independent, it seems to me that e-learning has a place in contact centre training. It is perfect for self-paced learning and gives an agent the ability to log on during quieter times to brush up on their soft skills.

CallCentre people has researched what contact centres want from e-learning and partnered with The Learning Wave, a specialist training company and Litmos, an online learning management system, to develop a series of modules designed for contact centres with material sourced specifically for contact centre staff. The examples used are all relevant to contact centres so this training is ideal for an existing contact centre agent to brush up on their soft skills or for someone wanting to gain employment in a contact centre role and gain the necessary skills to ensure they stand out in a crowd.

Why not check out the first two modules at http://www.callcentrepeople.co.nz/ or go directly to the course description:

Module 1 - Dealing with difficult customers
http://callcentrepeople.litmos.com/register.aspx?c=xb4tjaJdHEo_
Module 2 - Tone of Voice is key to your success
http://callcentrepeople.litmos.com/register.aspx?c=EGHUFuUZdMA_

How to deal with difficult customers

Dealing with difficult customers is a part of every contact centre agents day. Difficult customers can be defined by their tone, their language or the problem.

What has surprised us through our research is the lack of training agents and team leaders receive on how to deal with difficult customers to ensure there is a satisfactory resolution for all parties involved.

The cost to a business in unresolved customer disputes can be huge. We have all heard the "multiply it by 11" scenario. Those of us in business just can't afford to get a bad reputation, especially when the solution is tangible. Just what are your agents telling your customers and how do they placate a customer or prospect without giving away hard earned company revenue.

Some might say the answer is just plain common sense and in some cases they would be right. But aren't most things common sense? If that was true then a lot of training companies would go out of business. Sales Managers wouldn't have a job, there would be no need for coaching, mentoring and who would need the reports based on productivity - surely then it isn't just common sense.

E-learning is the perfect platform to deliver soft-skill training within contact centres and one of many modules to be developed by CallCentre People is "Dealing with difficult customers". This was selected by numerous callcentres in a recent poll taken by CallCentre People Ltd as an essential skill needed by agents and team leaders that could potentially save the company thousands of dollars.

I'm sure you are providing training to your agents on how to work the CRM Systems and product information but are you equipping them with all the skills and information to truly represent your company professionally. Do you provide this type of training in an agents first week or two of working with you and then never again. This e-learning module can be used as a total training solution for this subject or as a refresher for existing agents.

Check it out at www.callcentrepeople.co.nz and select the e-learning page for more information. If you like what you see why not register for the training, or if you would like to set up training for more than 5 agents in your organisation please contact CallCentre People who can set up group pricing and invoicing for you.

Are you projecting the image you want in the market?

Wow, what a change in the past 12 months it has been. The number of job orders has definitely decreased - that's no secret, with the number of candidates continuing to rise.

Receiving large numbers of applications isn't something new. For some of us that have been around the block a few times we remember having candidates coming out our ears with few places to refer them to only a matter of a few years ago.

Everything is cyclical, the housing market takes a crash about every 7 years, the share market about every 10 years and so on and so on, if you think our current times are unusual you only have to go back in the history books to realise they are not.

The large number of candidates coming in the door has led me to wonder how other recruitment companies are handling them. Are they treating their candidates with the care they did when candidates were hard to come by, or have they forgotten the past 5ish years and are treating them as just a number. It's not easy if you don't have the systems and processes in place, but our industry is all about people, so if you don't have the systems in place, you better get them because you are losing business.

Put yourself in your candidates position, if you sent away your resume for a job you thought you were suitable for and never heard back, wouldn't that leave a sour taste in your mouth. How many times do you give a candidate a time frame i.e we will be in contact within a week, and two weeks go by without contact?

Today's candidate could be tomorrows clients and we should all be treating people with the respect they deserve. Why not go the extra mile by offering them some advise, tell them the truth and recommend improvements to help them in their job search. People do business with people and they are more likely to spread positive comments to their friends, colleagues or even when they do secure a role they may mention to their manager the good experience they had dealing with you.

Your reputation is only as good as the last person you dealt with.
for more information about callcentre people, please visit www.callcentrepeople.co.nz

Here is what job applicants are saying:

Some recent survey results don't surprise us. Here is what candidates are saying:

In a recent NZ survey, only 5% of candidates reported having an excellent recruitment experience and 80% of candidates have an average to poor recruitment experience.. this is obviously extremely disappointing for our industry and something that we here at Call Centre people are determined to change. We believe in treating people fairly. Ensuring that we feedback constructively and honestly and project an attitude that we do care and are working our best to assist ALL our candidates, that's probably why we came runners up in the Seek Annual Recruitment awards for 2008.

In that sames survey it was shown that 90%of staff make the decision to stay with their employer long-term within the first 6 months. Based on this, how important is the full on boarding process. At CallCentre People we work with our client companies to help them get it right. How much time have you put into your new employees making them feel welcome, training them, offering development and generally sticking to what you have agreed to through the interview process.
(Sources: OCG Candidate Survey 2009 and HRX)

9 TIPS TO HELP YOU STAY MOTIVATED WHEN SEARCHING FOR A JOB

If you have been unemployed for a while, or have been searching for a new role for some time it is quite natural to get deflated and perhaps feel that you have lost your "mojo".

You are not alone in this. Recruiters are often told by candidates that they "just need a job" offering to "do any role" and that sound of desperation makes recruiters nervous. Although it's natural to feel like this or feel that you are in a rut, it is important to keep picking yourself up and keep going. ALTHOUGH, in saying that, there is a couple of sayings that come to mind:
"if you keep doing the same thing, you will get the same result". Another is:
"the sign of insanity is to keep doing the same thing and expect a different result".

I'm not sure where these sayings came from, but there is an element of truth to them both.

1. With this in mind there are things you can to do differently.
2. Project a positive image of yourself to others
3. Look at doing some volunteer work to keep you active and to meet new people
4. Network at every opportunity, let people know you are looking and for what
5. Look at part-time or contract roles – these can often lead to other things and if not,
   at least it is an income and can help give you a sense of purpose
6. Check your CV, asking for assistance to ensure you are presenting yourself in the best light
7. Revisit what you are applying for, and try to become very focused on the role you desire
   rather than taking a "blanket" approach
8. Ask yourself honestly "Do I need to re-train to secure the role you want"?
9. Approach companies that are not necessarily advertising but are in the industry you wish to be in. Ring and get the name of the person who is responsible for the area you wish to work.
10. Send a letter of introduction to that person marking it private and confidential, that way you avoid the gatekeepers and are targeting your search to the right people.

Job seekers beware of Twitter, Facebook and networking sites

I don't admit to being the most technically savvy person around, so if I can navigate myself around the likes of Facebook, Bebo and Twitter then so can many other recruiting managers.

If you are looking for work, going through job interviews, testing etc then one thing you probably haven't considered is what is currently "online" about you. Have you checked? Try putting your name into Google. If you haven't checked I can assure you a savvy recruiter or hiring manager will have.

Facebook, Bebo, Twitter, blog sites etc all carry information about you and from what I can see, it's not always complementary. Once this information is online, you can't hide it, and what is even more disconcerting is that the information doesn't have to be true.

There is very little you can do to get the information removed once it is in the public domain. If you find there is information posted that is incorrect you can attempt to contact the source or author to get it amended, or you can publish your response.

A hiring manager needs to remember that the information is not always correct and to view it with caution. However, if you have posted information about your activities that leave nothing to the imagination or use language that is unprofessional, then be it on your own head. What is online about you assists to define you. Each and every time you post something on the net, I can't stress highly enough to you to THINK first.

You may not be looking for a new job right at this moment, but I can assure you, at some time in the near future you will be. Ask yourself the following question prior to putting anything online: "Is this something I would want a prospective employer to see"?