I know you don’t want to be call center rep forever. However don’t waste away your time as a call center rep doing a mediocre job. If you want to improve your life and move on to a better job (within or outside of the call center), then you need to focus on two primary things while you are a call center rep:- Make as much money as you can while you’re in the call center
- Distinguish yourself from all the other call center reps
Simple, right? Actually it is because there is probably no other job in the world that has such clear-cut performance measures than a call center rep job. The highest paid reps and the reps given better job opportunities consistently exceed their job performance measures. The bottom line is that it costs a company a lot of money to run a call center and call center management is under a tremendous amount of pressure to manage the call center as efficiently as possible with a very tight budget. Within that budget they will allocate the largest pay increases to those reps that are the most productive with quality customer interactions.
When there are special teams formed in the call center to handle special products, special clients, etc., call center management will turn to the reps with the best job performance to fill the positions on these teams. You want to be on these special teams! Often these teams are higher paid than the general call center rep population and the type of customer interactions most likely are more interesting and challenging than the routine interactions of the overall call center. The reps on these special teams also become very familiar names with management.
So what exactly are a call center rep’s performance measures and what do they mean? Your call center management team has many measurements they monitor for the overall efficiency of the call center and I’ll go over those in a future entry. For now, there are just four that you need to be concerned with for your own good:
Talk-Time (TT) = the amount of time you spend actually speaking to a customer. The clock starts counting on this measure from the second you answer the call to the second you disconnect the customer.
After Call Worktime (ACWT) = the amount of time you spend completing work related to the phone call you just finished. The clock starts counting on this one from the second you disconnect the call with the customer to the second you put yourself available to take another call.
Average Handle Time (AHT) = Talk Time + ACWT. For example if a call center has a standard of 120 second Talk Time and a 30 second standard of After Call Work Time, then the Average Handle Time standard would be 150 seconds:
120 TT + 30 ACWT = 150 AHT
Call Quality = measure of how well you handled the customer interaction. Each call center will have their own favorite measures but most common ones are measuring your degree of politeness and professionalism with the customer, your problem solving skills and your adherence to company procedures and scripts.
Schedule Adherence = measurement of the degree to which you actually worked the hours you were scheduled. For example, if you constantly put yourself in an unavailable state (without supervisory approval) so you don’t receive phone calls, then you will have poor schedule adherence.
Each call center will have a standard for each of these measures. If your Supervisor hasn’t told you what they are – find out now! Your Supervisor should be giving you regular feedback on how you are doing with your performance measures. Work collaboratively with your Supervisor to improve your job performance measures. No, it’s not a matter of kissing up to the boss – it’s looking out for yourself and making your life the best it can be – even in a call center!
When there are special teams formed in the call center to handle special products, special clients, etc., call center management will turn to the reps with the best job performance to fill the positions on these teams. You want to be on these special teams! Often these teams are higher paid than the general call center rep population and the type of customer interactions most likely are more interesting and challenging than the routine interactions of the overall call center. The reps on these special teams also become very familiar names with management.
So what exactly are a call center rep’s performance measures and what do they mean? Your call center management team has many measurements they monitor for the overall efficiency of the call center and I’ll go over those in a future entry. For now, there are just four that you need to be concerned with for your own good:
Talk-Time (TT) = the amount of time you spend actually speaking to a customer. The clock starts counting on this measure from the second you answer the call to the second you disconnect the customer.
After Call Worktime (ACWT) = the amount of time you spend completing work related to the phone call you just finished. The clock starts counting on this one from the second you disconnect the call with the customer to the second you put yourself available to take another call.
Average Handle Time (AHT) = Talk Time + ACWT. For example if a call center has a standard of 120 second Talk Time and a 30 second standard of After Call Work Time, then the Average Handle Time standard would be 150 seconds:
120 TT + 30 ACWT = 150 AHT
Call Quality = measure of how well you handled the customer interaction. Each call center will have their own favorite measures but most common ones are measuring your degree of politeness and professionalism with the customer, your problem solving skills and your adherence to company procedures and scripts.
Schedule Adherence = measurement of the degree to which you actually worked the hours you were scheduled. For example, if you constantly put yourself in an unavailable state (without supervisory approval) so you don’t receive phone calls, then you will have poor schedule adherence.
Each call center will have a standard for each of these measures. If your Supervisor hasn’t told you what they are – find out now! Your Supervisor should be giving you regular feedback on how you are doing with your performance measures. Work collaboratively with your Supervisor to improve your job performance measures. No, it’s not a matter of kissing up to the boss – it’s looking out for yourself and making your life the best it can be – even in a call center!
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