When YOU Became a Supervisor

 When you became a supervisor you were no longer one of the most important people in the company!  Agents are the most important people in an answering service or call center because they are the people who provide the services that our customers buy!  Agents are essential personnel – Supervisors are not – Administrative people surely are not, and the President – well, let me say again the Agents are the MVP’s

That said, when you become a supervisor, you become a very important part of this company!  Why?  Because you are the first support for our agents!  AND you have the most contact with our clients.  Agents have the most contact with our client’s callers – YOU have the most contact with our clients themselves.  YOU ARE this company in the eyes of our clients!  YOU are the company in our agent’s eyes, too.

When an agent has a problem whether it is with a caller, a client, a schedule, or a decision, they are going to bring it to YOU.  How you handle it will determine how they will come to you next time they have a problem.  You have to listen; you have to understand and you have to plan advice or actions.  You are the company.

When an agent becomes a problem, whether it is because they can’t follow instructions, they won’t follow instructions, or they don’t understand the instructions, you are going to be the first line of defense for this company – You are the company.  It is up to you to make sure things are done the way our clients are paying for them to be done.  It is up to you to make sure that our agents are doing things the way this company is paying for them to be done.

It isn’t easy to go from being a peer – a co-worker – a friend, to being a supervisor with responsibilities!  But it is necessary – because You are the company. 

Many of our supervisors have had to learn the hard way that friendship has to be set aside when you are supervising – when you are in charge of this company’s reputation and success – when you ARE this company.  Giving a close friend a bit of a break is every bit as dangerous as coming down on the people you don’t like too hard.  You will have to treat every single member of your team as equals.  They are equal to each other and equal to you.

The only way to earn respect is to first give it – respect the agents, who are responsible for the service to our customers, they are the agents who make our jobs possible.  Be respectful of their knowledge and their feelings.  Be respectful of their responsibility to do things correctly, to do the job as it is meant to be done.  Our agents can’t take shortcuts, they can‘t cheat, bounce calls, or do any other disrespectful thing.  It is your responsibility to make sure things like that don’t happen - because you have to protect our all agents, and our customers, from the consequences of such acts.

You are this company, and this company is a very special thing!  You are the security of our company and we trust and appreciate you!

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