Conducting a Management Assessment of Your Telemarketing Team: 3 Components to Inspect
“Fix the people and everything will be fine.” My prospective client, the president of a mid-sized services firm, was convinced he had identified the source of his call center problem and it was the people.
His opening line led to a discussion of whether he had hired correctly and his opinion that he was overpaying for the contribution the team was making to the business. On the second point, his opinion about compensation, he was correct. He was overpaying for the contribution the team was making, a marginal contribution at best. The answer to the first point, whether he had hired correctly, was not as obvious.
An audit revealed that 5 out of 7 members of the Telesales team were doing the best they could. They were not effective because they were working without the benefit of common process and practices for managing the customer calls and handling objections and requests. Eventually, the lack of processes and common practices had led to a chaotic, every-person-for-himself, environment which had a negative impact on results.
Where do you start when you are trying to determine whether your Telesales or Customer Service people are doing all they can to deliver great customer experiences and revenue to the bottom line?
When developing your assessment, it is important to examine three components: People, Process, and Infrastructure.
1) People: The team of people you have on the phones and the individuals that manage them represent a significant investment and are the cornerstone to achieving your objectives. Be sure to hire wisely and ensure they are well trained, well managed, and fairly compensated.
2) Process: Have you defined the sales/service process? Are the steps outlined clearly? Are the solutions and answers documented and readily available? Do you have a process for updating the team on a timely basis? These are but a few of the questions that need answers in order to guarantee that processes are in place to support teleselling and teleservicing.
3) Infrastructure: What tools are the representatives using? Is the team integrated into the knowledge base of your company? Are they able to manage the phone calls efficiently, using tools that are designed to support telephone conversations? Select the right tools for the job and be sure to avoid over-engineering.
Conclusion: With the detailed results of an assessment that targets these three components, the areas for improvement will surface. A targeted plan with corrective action will be easier to develop and implement.
People-Process-Infrastructure: Be sure to audit these 3 components in order to ensure effectiveness and improve results.
