Theirs may not be the voice customers hear on calls they make to customer service or receive on behalf of a company. However, Call Center Managers are the professionals who ensure the smooth operations of call centres, coordinate the work of employees and motivate them, and help resolve customer complain... Continue Reading
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What are the typical responsibilities of a Call Centre Manager?
A Call Centre Manager would typically need to:
Call Centre Managers typically work in call centres where they manage and train call centre agents. Depending on how the centre is laid out, they may have their own office but typically work in large, open rooms that house numerous call centre representatives. The environment is fast-paced and stressful, and the goal is to work together to address customer queries and complaints while meeting targets, ensuring efficiency and tackling staff issues.
Some companies now prefer virtual call centres that allow agents and managers to work remotely using their phones, computers and relevant software.
Other than commuting to the call centre, you may need to travel to attend meetings or undergo training. However, travel overseas or to other cities is rare. If you are seconded to other sites or projects, you may need to live and work away from home.
Since call centres may work on a shift pattern to allow customer service around the clock, Call Centre Managers may find their working hours are unsocial and require them to be available early mornings, late evenings, nights, holidays and weekends. You can achieve a better work-life balance if call centres operate during office hours. However, since some centres deal with overseas clients, you must adapt to varying time zones.
Overtime work is expected during busy periods, and when meeting deadlines, and management staff must be available to call centre employees at all times during opening hours to help them resolve issues and mitigate emergencies.
Research suggests that flexible hours and generous telework policies appeal more than salary to the younger generation. There has been an incremental increase in employers willing to give promising employees a chance to adjust their schedules per the job demands.
Finding a new job might seem challenging. Call Centre Managers can boost their job search by asking their network for referrals, contacting companies directly, using job search platforms, going to job fairs, leveraging social media, and inquiring at staffing agencies.
Call Centre Managers are generally employed by:
Professional associations and organisations, such as ContactCenterWorld, are crucial for Call Centre Managers interested in pursuing professional development or connecting with like-minded professionals in their industry or occupation.
Professional associations provide their members with various continuing education and networking opportunities, and mentorship services. Membership in one or more adds value to your resume while bolstering your credentials and qualifications.
If the education program aspiring Call Centre Managers pursue requires a period of supervised internship, they will benefit from tasks outside of the classroom that line up perfectly with lessons inside it. One may hear countless stories from more experienced professionals and obtain valuable hands-on experience when they turn seemingly routine incidents into unique learning moments.
Summer internships, part-time work at an entry-level position or short-term paid/voluntary work in sales and marketing or other customer-facing roles offer a taste of the career, give valuable insight into how a company or institution operates, help build useful contacts and improve one’s prospects of getting a permanent job.
The experience may also help determine whether the public, private or voluntary sector is best suited to realise one’s ambitions. Your educational provider’s career service department can provide information about viable opportunities for work placements, internships and voluntary work in diverse sectors.
As an external candidate, experience in any call, contact or customer services centre boosts your employment prospects. Sales and marketing or general administration experience can also give aspiring Call Centre Managers a competitive edge in the job market.
Internal candidates who apply for or are selected for the role of Call Centre Manager already have experience working at the call centre in terms of its technology, products or services, processes, employee guidelines, policies and procedures.
All aspiring Call Centre Managers must develop a solid grasp of call technology, troubleshooting, problem-solving and decision-making skills to tackle the fast-paced nature of call centre operations management.
Experience in roles that require leadership and managing teams is critical for aspiring Call Centre Managers as they must supervise a team of call centre agents and ensure that operations are productive and meet targets.
Specialised experience in computers, finance, science-related fields and languages can land you a job with a company offering specialised products or services.
Remember that even after being assigned the role of Call Centre Manager, you may need to work as an agent for some time to appreciate what your staff does daily and the issues customers raise during their calls.
Even while in high school, you can check with a teacher or counsellor about relevant work-based learning opportunities available in your school or community that can help you connect your school experiences with real-life work.
Join some groups, try some hobbies or volunteer with an organisation of interest, so you can have fun while learning about yourself and be directed toward a future career.
Read about the profession and interview or job shadow experts working in call centre management to prove your commitment to course providers and prospective employers.
Aspiring Call Centre Managers must hold a minimum of a high school diploma or equivalent, which qualifies them to find entry-level openings at a call centre and rise to managerial roles based on experience and merit. However, candidates for the position typically hold a bachelor’s degree in diverse subjects, such as business or management, finance and accounting, computer science or software engineering, chemical or physical sciences, and electrical or mechanical engineering.
Apprenticeships in customer service or call or contact centre operations are another avenue aspiring Call Centre Managers can take to land entry-level jobs and climb the ladder to senior management roles.
When hiring Call Centre Managers, some employers may prefer MBA (Master of Business Administration) degree holders with a relevant specialisation. Coursework in sales and psychology helps you evaluate and train your staff.
Acquiring fluency in another world language and building IT skills can benefit your daily work and career progression.
In addition to academic qualifications, you must foster your personal qualities, such as communication, confidence, leadership, problem-solving, critical thinking and patience, to successfully manage a call centre and keep your staff motivated and trained to deliver optimal service on every call.
Take college preparatory courses in high school. Computer science, business, psychology, sociology and geography courses can prove useful. English and speech classes will help you develop your research, writing and oral communication skills.
Remember that completing a particular academic course does not guarantee entry into the profession. Be that as it may, professional qualifications and transferable skills may open up more than one door.
Do your homework and look into all available options for education and employment before enrolling in a specific programme. Reliable sources that help you make an educated decision include associations and employers in your field.
Certification demonstrates a Call Centre Manager’s competence in a skill set, typically through work experience, training, and passing an examination. When acquired from an objective and reputed organisation, it can help you stand out in a competitive job market, help you land a job at large call centres and carry a significant salary premium of up to 18 per cent. Successful certification programs protect public welfare by incorporating a Code of Ethics.
The Global Association for Quality Management offers the Certified Call Centre Manager (CCCM) or Certified Contact Centre Manager (CCCM) credentials. You may also opt for certification from other professional associations, such as the Association for Talent Development and the International Society for Performance Improvement. Sales and team leadership certifications can also prove useful for career progression.
Call Centre Managers may also need to undergo an employment background check, including but not limited to a person’s work history, education, credit history, motor vehicle reports (MVRs), criminal record, medical history, use of social media, and drug screening.
Performance, experience, and the acquisition of professional qualifications drive career progression. Employees with consistently high levels of performance may be eligible for promotion every two to three years. In general, since there is high staff turnover at outbound centres, promotion opportunities may come by sooner than later to determined and resilient agents.
Some ways of career progression are to manage larger centres or specialise in certain areas of call centre management, such as staff training & development, market research, data analysis, report-writing, call centre design, or building customer focus and services. Progressing to Divisional Manager puts you in charge of several call centres.
With their versatile and transferable skills, Call Centre Managers can look forward to success in any leadership role that requires them to apply sales strategies. They may also expand their scope to include marketing analytics, public relations, advertising or sales engineering. Other roles they may take up include becoming Retail Company Buyers and Sales or Purchasing Team Leads. Some job titles they may work under once they gather adequate experience are Call Centre Quality Assurance Manager, Team Captain and Sales Manager.
Experience may also qualify you to job share, take up part-time or freelance work, or launch your management consultancy to counsel call centres.
The desire to accelerate career growth and personal development has an increasing number of millennials choosing to job hop and build a scattershot resume that showcases ambition, motivation, and the desire to learn a broad range of skills.
Studies prove that job hopping, earlier dismissed as “flaky” behaviour, can lead to greater job fulfilment. Employees searching for a positive culture and interesting work are willing to try out various roles and workplaces and learn valuable, transferable skills along the way.
Candidates with the necessary skills, experience and education have the best job prospects. Proficiency in using computers, phone technologies and customer tracking programs gives you a competitive edge in the job market.
Continuing professional development (CPD) will help an active Call Centre Manager build personal skills and proficiency through work-based learning, professional activities, formal education or self-directed learning.
In addition to offering the opportunity to continually upskill, regardless of one’s age, job, or level of knowledge, CPD also enables the periodic renewal of desirable certifications, which increase your chances of advancement and becoming an independent consultant.
Aspiring Call Centre Managers begin to receive training on the job to finetune their human resource management and customer service skills from their entry-level job onwards. As they rise higher, they continue to learn about organisational and call centre policies and procedures, the management of incoming/outgoing calls and the technologies involved. On-the-job training for newly appointed Call Centre Managers also typically includes performance review and management, employment law and other relevant legislative and regulatory matters, business strategy, budgeting & resource allocation, and the management of cultural issues, work conditions and staff morale.
Membership in relevant professional associations allows you to access their virtual or in-person CPD courses, networking and knowledge-sharing events, seminars and conferences, and career guidance. The International Customer Management Institute (ICMI) offers CPD courses to help call centres and staff adapt to new environments and evolving business needs. It also provides the Contact Centre Management Boot Camp, which trains current and aspiring call centre professionals in best practices in forecasting, key management practices, trend analysis and reporting.
Take necessary courses and workshops to update yourself on the latest customer service and contact centre technologies, such as chatbots and AI-powered assistants. Then you can organise training and development programs for your staff to bring them up to par and equip them to tackle customer inquiries and issues better.
You may need a bachelor’s or master’s degree in relevant subjects to diversify into marketing analytics, public relations, advertising or sales engineering. A master’s degree, such as an MBA (Master of Business Administration), can give you an edge in the employment market and help you progress in your career.
Call Centres
Call centres are communication hubs that connect one or more businesses with current and potential customers and play the roles of extended sales and customer service departments. They contribute to fulfilling corporate objectives, including generating revenue and leads, by providing information and answers to customers’ queries, whether general or related to billing, sales, order status updates or technical support, resolving customers’ concerns and enhancing the overall customer experience.
Call Centre Management
Some aspects of call centre management include recruiting personnel, providing them with training and development, keeping them motivated, generating schedules for shifts, managing daily operations, and ensuring optimal customer interaction. The more effective the management, the smoother it is for call centre agents to ask customers the right questions, resolve simple issues, transfer complex ones to relevant departments, collect data, and complete routine transactions efficiently and at low cost. Call centre management also enables organisations to cross-sell and up-sell their products and services.
What is Customer Service Management (CSM)?
Businesses use a set of strategies, tools and technologies called customer service management (CSM) to enable their support teams to simultaneously tackle, evaluate and analyse multiple customer interactions. CSM focuses on developing, maintaining and enhancing long-term customer relationships and emphasises the entire customer lifecycle.
Types of Call Centers
Organisations may have in-house call centres if their business demands extensive customer support, or they may use the services of contract call centres. As a result, personnel who answer customers’ calls may be based on the business premises or away from it. Using external parties is referred to as BPO or business process outsourcing. Some companies may opt for off-shore call centres in other countries, which present lower labour charges, although language barriers must be overcome if using this option.
Another way to classify call centres is by the nature of their operations or services rendered. Agents at inbound call centres receive calls from customers who present their queries for information or requests for problem resolution or technical support concerning a company’s products or services. Agents at outbound call centres call current and potential customers to promote sales, raise funds or conduct surveys. Some call centres provide blended services.
Virtual call centres can provide inbound, outbound or blended services without needing all agents to be physically present at a single location. Instead, services can be decentralised with agents working across various locations and time zones and in different languages, using appropriate software and a strong and reliable internet connection.
Automated call centres are also an option that some businesses use since automation reduces the need for personnel and, thereby, the cost of call management. Staff is required at automated centres only to instal and maintain systems and perform specific tasks beyond the scope of automation. Such centres manage voicemails, assist customers in locating stores, and use interactive voice responders to help callers navigate the call menu and transfer them to agents as needed.
Omnichannel call centres take the multichannel approach further and provide more coordinated and customised customer services. Using integrated systems, they connect a customer’s information, history and interactions on the back end. This methodology of using various channels to gain a holistic view of customers can lead to faster problem resolution and greater customer satisfaction.
Whisper Coaching
An evaluating and training approach, whisper coaching allows managers, supervisors or trainers at call centres to listen in on calls between agents and customers without interrupting the conversation. If there is a need to intervene, the person listening in may speak to the agent without the customer hearing them. The announcement on service calls that the call may be monitored for quality assurance or training purposes relates to whisper coaching. Some advantages of whisper coaching include reassuring new staff that they are not alone, providing them with immediate and constructive feedback, encouraging them with positive observations, allowing managers to train staff in real-life situations and improving overall customer experience and satisfaction.
Call Barging
Calls to call centres may be monitored and recorded for later reference to evaluate their quality and assess an agent’s performance to optimise both from the point of view of customer experience and satisfaction. Whisper coaching allows trainers to monitor and assist agents while they are on call with customers without the customer sensing any interruption or interference. Call barging further enables trainers, supervisors or managers to participate in live calls between agents and customers. It works to the advantage of both the agent and the customer as the supervisor as trainers, managers or supervisors can assist in providing information about new products and services and help resolve problems about existing ones purchased by the customer if the agent cannot do so independently.
Call Centre vs Contact Centre
Companies may settle on opening their own or hiring the services of external call centres or contact centres based on specific organisational and communication requirements and budgets. The starting point of creating a customer support system is a thorough analysis of what customers require and prefer. Factoring in variables, such as call volume, wait times and potential automation, helps them decide the most suitable option.
Some of the technological tools that call centres and contact centres use may be different from each other. Call centres typically use only telephone services to allow interaction between customers and call centre agents. Agents help resolve customer queries and issues with the help of phone and computer technology. Contact centres use a multi-channel approach, which includes messaging, emails, texting and phone calls to communicate with customers and address their concerns. However, call centres are also integrating the multi-channel approach into their operations.
Since calls are the only way for customers to contact call centres, they may be placed on hold until an agent is free to take their call. However, since contact centres use diverse communication methods, even a virtual live chat with a bot, the speed of response to customers is higher. Customers wishing to speak firsthand with an agent may still do so while having the choice to use alternative methods of requesting after-sales service or ordering a product or service. Contact centres may thus be a favourable choice for larger companies.
Since automation technology lies at the core of contact centres, companies can find it economical to use their services rather than hire a large number of employees to interact with consumers. Automation and remote work have also reduced the need for contact centres to run their services within large physical spaces, resulting in cost savings.
Companies may also economise on costs and boost customer satisfaction by opting for an approach to customer care that blends automated responses with interactions with call centre or contact centre agents.
Call Centre Managers vs Client Services Managers
Call Centre Managers, whether in-house or at outsourced facilities, hire and manage call centre operations and personnel, establish goals and motivate their agents to meet them while also evaluating staff and call centre performance using key metrics. However, client services managers directly interact with clients to build and maintain long-term relationships that enhance customer experience. They aim to generate and implement the organisation’s client service strategies to boost company revenue and increase sales and customer satisfaction.
Metrics or Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
Establishing metrics or KPIs is critical for a call or contact centre to measure the consistency and quality of its customer service. Each metric measures a specific business capacity, and decisions are based on historical and real-time data.
Some metrics critical for inbound call centres to measure are given below.
Abandoned Call Rate (ACR): The ACR is the number of calls hung up by callers before agents answer them, divided by the total number of inbound calls. Typical reasons callers hang up are long wait or hold times or inefficient IVR (interactive voice response) systems. This metric must typically be 5% or lower to comply with the service-level agreement (SLA).
One way to reduce it is to start the call with a ring rather than an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system to allow agents a few moments to wrap up their current call. Giving callers a realistic wait time estimate is advisable as this information makes them willing to wait longer. Providing self-help options via the website through your IVR system, allowing callers to leave voicemail messages requesting callbacks, and ensuring adequate staff to manage peak hours are other ways to reduce the ACR.
Average Speed of Answer (ASA): The ASA is the average time in which agents must answer a call. This metric is a core component of the service level agreement (SLA) which is a commitment by the service vendor to respond to a fixed number of calls in a set amount of time. ASA is calculated by dividing the total waiting time by the total number of inbound calls received within a specific timeframe. Typically, it should stay within 28 seconds.
A lower ASA score signifies fewer customers in queue to have their calls answered. A higher score likely indicates inefficient customer service, meaning that ASA impacts customer satisfaction and contributes to a high score. A lower ASA also reduces the number of abandoned calls and vice versa, boosting the first contact or call resolution rate. Call centres can raise their ASA by streamlining their call routing and ensuring customers can access the relevant person in one go.
Average Handle Time (AHT): The AHT is the average time an agent spends handling customer issues or transactions. The metric is calculated by dividing the total of an agent’s talk time, hold time and after-call work time by the total number of calls.
Call Transfer Rate (CTR): The CTR tracks the percentage of calls transferred to a different department, supervisor or queue. Repeating the issue can frustrate customers, which makes this an important metric.
Cost Per Contact (CPC): The CPC is the total expenses of running a contact centre, including operational costs, employee remuneration and benefits, divided by the total number of contacts handled. Each answered call has an associated cost for the call centre in terms of staff salary and expenses on the infrastructure, such as software, hardware and electricity. The importance of this metric lies in evaluating the most effective channels from among phone, email, live chat, SMS and social media.
Customer Lifetime Value (CLV): The CLV is a key metric of customer experience programs. It measures a customer’s value to the business in terms of each purchase they make and across the entire relationship between the company and the customer. The marketing department uses CLV to identify a business’s best customers and target promotions, services or perks at them.
Call centres use CLV to prioritise outbound calls, delegating customers with high CLV to more experienced or specialised agents and those with low CLV to less senior or general call centre representatives. CLV is calculated by multiplying the annual customer revenue by the number of years of a customer’s relationship with the business and subtracting from it the total costs of acquiring and serving the customer.
Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT): The CSAT indicates how happy a customer is with the inbound contact with the call centre. It is calculated through responses to questions that form part of a customer’s feedback on the quality and outcomes of their interaction with an agent. This metric is important since customer satisfaction translates into organisational profitability. The CSAT score can be raised by individualised coaching and ensuring that the use of best practices keeps other metrics performing well.
Customer Retention Rate (CRR): The CRR is the percentage of current customers or users who continue to be part of a business’s pool of consumers after a specified period. CRR is calculated by first choosing a time frame, then subtracting the number of new customers gained within it from the total number of customers at the end of it, dividing the result by the number of active customers at the start of the period, and converting the result into a percentage.
Churn/Attrition Rate: It is the percentage of customers a business loses over a specified period. It is calculated by dividing the number of customers who left during the period by the number of customers at the start of the period and converting it into a percentage value.
These two metrics evaluate the retention capability of an inbound call centre in terms of the quality of its customer service. An annual 5-7% churn rate is typically considered a healthy average, which implies a monthly churn rate of 0.5% or lower. Customer Retention teams or departments can help call centres boost their retention rates and lower churn by resolving complex issues.
First Contact Resolution (FCR): The FCR is the number of customer issues resolved during the first contact with an agent at the call centre, the industry standard being 70-75%. This metric is significant in a company’s customer relationship management strategy as it demonstrates a centre and agent’s capacity for problem-solving, clarifying customers’ queries and supporting customers when they first call, reducing their effort and wait time and enhancing their experience.
Facing the Music
The music one hears when placed on hold on a call with a call centre agent is now considered a branding tool. Specialist companies help businesses turn the on-hold time into a marketing opportunity to reinforce brand identity while enhancing customer experience since being placed on hold is typically unwelcome. A verbal message and music together approximate an advertisement rather than just an easy-listening jazz piece and help customers feel optimistic about the company they are in contact with.
An on-hold marketing campaign may begin with a “caller experience” audit that considers aspects such as the frequency with which the same person calls and the longest hold time. For instance, a three-minute loop may be unsuitable for an average hold time of five minutes. Companies generating the on-call experience also factor in the demographics to tailor and optimise the experience suitably.
The on-hold music and accompanying message must be tailored to the client’s objectives, product or service, and customer. They must eventually contribute to generating an overall pleasant and positive customer experience on the call.
Music companies may factor in the number of beats per minute of a song to suit the type of queue, sales or service and what sort of action they would like the callers to take. They may also consider whether the hold music should be in a major or minor key to suit the emotional cues that must be conveyed to the callers.
Awards exist even for the genre of hold music and messaging, such as the MARCE Awards (MARketing & Creative Excellence), an annual competition held by the Experience Marketing Association. Humour on hold is yet another way to engage customers while they wait.
The Shape of Things to Come
Customers today wish to access customer service and communicate with companies through various pathways, such as social media, mobile apps and live chat, and receive prompt responses. As a result, although call centres traditionally rely only on telephonic contact between customers and agents, the multi-channel approach is growing in importance. It blends diverse technologies, such as customer relationship management (CRM), automation, cloud-based software and video chat, to make the customer experience smoother, faster, more efficient and cost-effective.
The Internet of Things (IoT), or the interconnectivity of devices connected to the internet and which can communicate with each other, is rapidly changing and advancing the call centre industry. Proactive customer service is becoming more accessible and goes beyond reactive service. It makes call centre operations more efficient by preventing or resolving problems anticipated or caught before they occur and even before the customer becomes aware of them.
The Internet of Things (IoT) or the interconnectivity of devices connected to the internet and which can communicate with each other, is changing and advancing the call centre industry rapidly. Proactive customer service is becoming more accessible and goes beyond reactive service. It makes call centre operations more efficient by preventing or resolving problems anticipated or caught before they occur and even before the customer becomes aware of them.
Advances in voice biometrics technology have enabled the collection and use of “voiceprints” as a security measure to confirm a person’s identity. While personal information risks theft, voice biometrics record nuances of speech, such as the size and shape of the speaker’s mouth, that cannot be easily replicated.
Current Scenario
The employment outlook of a particular profession may be impacted by diverse factors, such as the time of year (for seasonal jobs), location, employment turnover (when people leave current jobs), occupational growth (when new roles are created), size of the occupation, and industry-specific trends and events that affect overall employment.
Increasing automation and cloud-based software have led to a rise in remote working possibilities for call centre staff. Artificial intelligence (AI) tools to handle routine customer queries allow call centre agents to focus on more complex issues that demand human problem-solving skills and knowledge of products or services. While AI can help boost efficiency and save costs, customers may continue to prefer human interaction. As a result, future call centres may use a hybrid approach. One view is that call centre staff may not prefer more complex tasks, while another is that the challenge will add to job satisfaction and employee retention.
Furthermore, while phone calls are the traditional medium of contact between call centre agents and customers, call centres are transitioning to the multi-channel approach, using a blend of phone calls, text messages, emails, live chats, mobile apps, social media and other platforms.
As a result of evolving technologies, there is a risk that the need for call centre agents will continue to decline, eliminating some jobs or changing them so much that retraining will be required to help agents adapt to working alongside and with technology. Companies are expected to increasingly transition to AI systems that can enhance customer experience at lower costs. Some companies use AI-driven software to advise and coach agents during live calls, which means that AI is changing and supporting jobs currently rather than eliminating them.
Potential Pros & Cons of Freelancing vs Full-Time Employment
Freelancing Call Centre Managers have more flexible work schedules and locations. They fully own the business and can select their projects and clients. However, they experience inconsistent work and cash flow, which means more responsibility, effort and risk.
On the other hand, full-time Call Centre Managers have company-sponsored health benefits, insurance, and retirement plans. They have job security with a fixed, reliable source of income and guidance from their bosses. Yet, they may experience boredom due to a lack of flexibility, ownership, and variety.
When deciding between freelancing or being a full-time employee, consider the pros and cons to see what works best for you.
Customer care and technology form the core of call centre activities. Call Centre Managers are critical for an organisation to achieve its strategic goals, meet its KPIs and generate the best possible customer experience. These versatile professionals manage day-to-day call centre operations and services while keeping the big picture in sight. They equip their agents with the tools, processes and motivation to promptly and effectively resolve customer issues and help companies build new clientele.
Develop a communicative management style that lets you and your agents exchange ideas and review goals and performance together.
Create workflow balance and schedules that optimise productivity and work quality without overwhelming agents. Factor in peak hours and lulls, agent availability and rest time between shifts to ensure friendly and efficient customer service around the clock.
Set an example for agents by adapting to evolving technology and then teaching them improved methods to enhance organisational profitability and customer experience.
Interactive voice response, voice recognition, speech synthesis, natural language processing, sentiment analysis and predictive analytics are some AI and machine learning features that call centres use.
What do Call Centre Managers do?
A Call Centre Manager would typically need to:
Accredited
$46,861
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