Cultural issues in call centres

Once upon a time in a land far, far away people thought that working at McDonalds was torture and that if you did that you were a pleb, or a minion.  Well my fellow readers, there is a new kind of hell that some people have been subjected to in the name of cost cutting.

Now, before I go into the details of that I first need to share my opinion.  Cost cutting doesn't help anyone.  Cost cutting can do more harm than good in the long run.

The new type of hell I'm referring to involves the people who work in call centres.  Now do not get me wrong, there are some people who genuinely enjoy call centre work and love dealing with people.  There are some people who see it as a career path and good on them, but for many staff, a call centre is simply a temporary means to an end.

Before putting this article together I researched the top things that annoy call centre staf and the top issues that really need addressing to create better environments for call centre staff.

No Mr Manager, shouting at your staff in team meetings is not motivating.  Shouting at staff while they're on the floor making or taking calls is also not motivating.  It's rather annoying.  You wouldn't like to be shouted at yourself, so even though you've worked your way up to being a manager show some respect to your staff.  Shouting is the opposite of respect.

Monitoring calls and breaks.  This comes down to micromanagement.  Yes, yes, yes.  We all now time is money however most people will get annoyed when they're being micromanaged.  Most people will take issue with having their every step monitored.  It just puts them on edge and makes them feel as if they're back in primary school.  That's not the way to treat your staff if you want results.

Yes call centre staff do deal with a lot of personal information however despite what call centre managers or other managers (who've probably never sat foot in a call centre say) say, using your mobile phone isn't going to affect your performance.  In fact, having a little bit of freedom and room to breathe will actually help you perform better.  Would you like someone constantly monitoring what you can and can't do?  Sure a job has to be done but staff perform best when they feel valued.  If you just give a little then they'll be happier and a happier employee is a more productive employee.  You would also think that in the early recruitment stages you'd establish that the staff you're hiring are honest.  How about trusting them more rather than treating them like children?  Not all staff who use their mobile phone are going to steal confidential information, and those who would shouldn't have been hired in the first place.

Not letting staff go off script is really self explanatory.  You might as well hire a robot.  That is actually what call centre managers want.  They don't want people.  They don't want opinions.  They want robotic yes people who will just recite the company lines over and over again.  That's not always possible because call centre people are dealing with people and sometimes you can't script a real life conversation, especially when only one person on the call has a copy of that script.  But really, nobody talks like that in real life and consumers know this.  They know when someone is being genuine and when they're not.  If you're reading from a script you're going to come across as fake and insincere, even if you're a good actor.

Dress codes.  Nobody sees people who work in call centres.  Nobody on a call is going to know if you're dressed well or not.  How you dress is not going to motivate you to do your job better.  It's time managers realised they're dealing with people not robots and when people are relaxed they'll perform better.

The best managers do not breathe down the necks of their staff.  Instead they give their staff space and trust them.

It is no wonder the industry has such high turnover especially when staff are being shouted at by managers and customers for eight hours a day.

Staff, when dealing with rude people all day need to be treated better by management or turnover will only keep increasing from 44%.