Supervisor Snacks

  You disconnect your call and find yourself shaking.   The caller was furious and nothing you could say seemed to help. There may be a legitimate reason for the caller to be angry, late deliveries, poor service, unkept appointments, or promises, or unreturned phone calls may all push a caller over the edge.   As our client’s “employee”, we are obligated to present them in the best possible light.   The way we handle their callers can make or break their client relationships.   An angry caller is an opportunity to be of real value to our clients.   If you do your best to handle an angry person’s complaint in a courteous and professional manner, rather than hanging up, those irate customers can become a company’s best customers.   Here are some of the things we can do to control the situation. Anger is a result of the caller’s frustration with their situation, not you.  Don’t take it personally.  When a caller is furious, respond calmly. ...

Even if you aren’t a football fan, it is hard not to get caught up in the hype of the Superbowl.  It’s everywhere, and the sport has productivity lessons for us all. Mark the Distance to the Goal While it’s super exciting to grab the ball at kickoff and run all the way for a touchdown, it’s more likely that we will get to the end zone by breaking the job up into smaller plays.  In football they’re called “First Downs”; in life they called steps.  Celebrate the completion of each one, if only in your mind.  Split goals into “downs”.  Take on the longer tasks at the beginning and make each subsequent piece shorter.  When you’re in the Red Zone, with just a few small tasks yet to complete, you’ll be re-energized. Sequence for Speed Statistics show that the team ahead at halftime is more likely to win the game.  Arrange your day to get at least three tasks done by noon and enjoy your break, knowing that you have accomplished some of your goals.  The b...

 Very few of our clients visit our office; therefore, the senses that help to form an image of a company are not all used.  Clients can’t see the colors of our space; they can’t smell the potpourri; they can’t touch the fabrics.  Nor can they identify the people they have spoken with on the phone.   All those key components of the essence of our company are missing for people who only speak to us on the phone.   The things they can’t touch, smell, or see, are things that would help them to have a visual of our company.  Their image of our agents and their clients is formed by the things they see in their messages and hear in their conversations with us.  Our agents then, help form the mental image our clients have of us.  As an employee in this industry – you create the image our customer sees in their mind.  How does it look and sound? Our Visual Image is provided by your message – our product; how does it look?  Are your sent...

 Nothing saps your energy like negativity can!  Whether caused by outside influences or self-generated, negativity causes mental and physical stress.  As a customer service representative working in a call center, negativity and stress are sometimes unavoidable.  But, are we inadvertently adding to those feelings through our own response to them?  Are we “snowballing” our feelings?  When we build a snowman, we begin with a small, hand-packed snowball and then we roll it in more snow, picking up layers of the white stuff as we go; eventually, we have a huge ball.  Negativity can be layered like that; sticking one event or negative thought upon another until all you can “see” are the negative aspects of every situation. Imagine leaving for work and discovering that you have a semi-flat tire.  Are you happy because it isn’t entirely flat?  Or unhappy because it means a stop for air on your way to work?  Positive feelings or negative feeling...

“Hello?  Hello!?  Are you still there?” DEAD AIR on a phone call is, well, just deadly to the caller.  It is so frustrating to ask a question and hear silence.  Even if one asks a question and the response is, “Let me check” and then silence - it can’t go on too long or the caller will think they have been disconnected. Nearly all call centers have some accounts where time is needed to look up information.  In almost every instance we are careful to let the caller know we are looking something up and we let them know fairly frequently that we are still looking.  Occasionally, agents become so involved in the search for information that they forget to let the caller know what they are doing. It is difficult to break your concentration when you are searching and/or reading, but the caller hearing dead air should not be left wondering what is happening for 2 or 3 minutes at a time – even 30 seconds is too long.  When you need time to search for informatio...

Astronaut Scott Kelly spent most of 2015 in space and has just finished his memoir of the 340-day journey. In his book, Endurance – A Year in Space, a Lifetime of Discovery”, he writes, “I’ve learned to better compartmentalize, which doesn’t mean forgetting about feelings but instead means focusing on the things I can control and forgetting what I can’t.” The ability to compartmentalize feelings is one of the most important personal skills we can acquire. To understand what we can change and what we can’t, and to bury that which we can not change, gives us the power to do more and better things in life. When our brain is busy fighting the frustration of negative things, it uses energy that we could be putting to good use for growth. Those conversations we have in our heads, the woulda, coulda, shoulda that are out of our hands should also be out of our heads. Some people imagine a box in their heads where they stuff negative thoughts and lock it with a key. Others use self-discipline t...

  It’s inevitable, eventually, you’ll find yourself dealing with someone who is angry. It comes out of the blue, and you are just not ready to have someone begin ranting at you right after you’ve politely asked, “How may I help you?” Take a deep breath; see if you can turn this around. First, empathize in your mind. “POOR GUY, something has happened to make him miserable!” Your job is to help him. Now, listen without judgment until the story is out. There are a lot of things that can cause out-of-control anger, and you must remember the anger isn’t personal. You are just caught in the crosshairs. Never admit fault, when everything is out in the open, it may not have been the fault of the answering service or your client. So, you can’t say, “I’m sorry we did that.” But you can say, “I’m so sorry you had to go through that.” “I’m sorry that happened.” “I would be unhappy too if that happened to me.” Establish that you care how he feels. Anger is an emotion; so, the incident its...