Calls At End of Shift

Calls At End of Shift

Currently our call centre closes at 9pm. The agents shift ends at 9pm also. I have 2 questions really.

1) if at 9pm there are calls still in the queue then what is the best way to deal with them? Because the agents are only paid till 9pm they are far from enthusiastic about staying to answer them. This scenario doesn’t happen that often so changing the shifts to finish at say 9:15pm isnt an option as most of the time they would be just sat around doing nothing for 15 minutes.

2) If an agent gets a call just before 9pm and it lasts beyond the end of their shift there is a tendancy for them to get rid of the customer asap as they want to get off home. Also some of them have taxi’s waiting outside which puts them in even more of a hurry to get away. What are the best ways to deal with this situation as we obviously dont want the customer experience to be affected?

Question asked by kbkc

Hi KBKC

What you need is a culture change. We recently did training on all our agents and support staff, 6 sessions of two hours per team and the training involved:

1)Identifying agents current behaviours

2) Agents are placed in situations where they can view the service from the customers perspective

3) Given a clear understanding of their purpose and role in the organisation.

As a result we have had a definite change in the way customers are treated and the experience for both agents and customers has been boosted.

In the interim. There are always individuals who come to work late, if you drive total staffed time you will probably find that there will be a few more extra hands to assist at closing time. A pat on the back and public appreciation goes along way in driving E-Sat which will drive your C-Sat.

Good Luck

With thanks to sean

Thanks, that’s definately something worth thinking about. It’s not going to be easy to sort out and there wont be a quick fix but that’s definately food for thought.

Cheers.

With thanks to kbkc

Another angle if you have enough data on the call volume around 8:50pm to 9:15pm. Use that to work out the number of agents need to take those calls and then advertize to your staff that shift and get a couple of agents to handle those calls.

With thanks to ERAC123

I think that this is a clear management issue. The real secret is to analyse the call recordings.

If the calls sound hurried and not up to the usual standard then you have the evidence needed to

– Coach individual agents on the problem

– Raise the issue with everyone on the shift

If it continues then you may need to take disciplinary action.

You may also be that you need to extend the shift for a couple of agents to cover this situation.

With thanks to Jonty

Author: Jonty Pearce