What is Call Centre Management?
Call centres are intensely fast-paced environments with plenty of employees, processes and tasks to manage. Call centre management refers to how leaders manage the centre. It includes activities such as forecasting, scheduling, queue management, agent training and coaching, and, of course, ensuring customer contacts are handled professionally and efficiently.
Because call centres are so fast-paced, things can fall apart quickly. Calls can come in well over forecast and agents call in sick, then suddenly the call queue is backed up and average wait times are through the roof. Taking your eye off the ball can wreck the customer experience. That’s why standard practice call centre management techniques are proactive in nature. Effective call centre managers are constantly monitoring and adjusting.
Fortunately, there are numerous software tools available to help with call centre management efforts. Workforce management applications automate the number crunching that translates into accurate forecasting and agent placement, ensuring agents are in the right place at the right time. Sophisticated analytics tools allow leaders to proactively monitor workloads, volume and trends. Training and quality assurance is supported by applications that provide content, scheduling and reporting. Call centre management is still an elite skill, but these tools make it more manageable.