When Bryan McCrae first came up with his Sales Motivations programme a few years ago, he aimed it at Call Centre Managers… watch Kate’s video…

Many students will be taking up summer jobs in call centres and plenty will leave because they are unsure how to deal with the pressures… one way to defuse the pressure and increase the harmony of call centre employees is to have Bryan’s Sales Motivation online video e-learning programme on tap for them to tune into…

Read the article below he put together for & was published by Call Centre Helper, an industry publication.

Let me know if you’d like to know more…

Thank you.

Is it possible to reduce agent stress and increase customer satisfaction?

Our survey says…
A recent survey of the UK contact centre market reveals that improving customer satisfaction, reducing costs and improving staff morale are the top three issues for Call Centre Managers, with over 80% quoting these concerns as their number one concern.

Conflicting requirements
At first glance, these may seem like conflicting requirements, but there is an approach that can address all three simultaneously, based on the most sophisticated technology available discovered so far in the universe, which you already have, but are probably using just a fraction of its capabilities!

That technology is the human brain and business psychologists are rapidly gaining an understanding of what can be done with it through use of some advanced proven psychological techniques to help people perform better.

These techniques are focused on the interplay between what we think, how we feel and how that affects how we behave. In fact, these factors all interact with each other, in complex ways, all of the time and often without any awareness that it is happening.

Proven techniques
Specific proven techniques can be used to take positive steps to make changes in what and how we think, to bring about more helpful feelings and behaviour, which leads to higher performance, less stress and improved morale. A recent published study has shown that these techniques, when applied in a UK sales force, achieved a 20% improvement in number of agents on target, a reduction in attrition of a factor of three and significant reductions in stress levels. When you consider that it costs on average £1800 to recruit a new agent, then the reduction in attrition alone can make this worthwhile.

Experts opinion
Up until recently, these techniques have only been used successfully in business through traditional training and face to face coaching, which although very effective, can be expensive, difficult to organise and disruptive to normal working activities.

However, psychologists have managed to translate these techniques to be delivered successfully through technology based platforms such as e-learning to achieve the same levels of success as the traditional methods. This approach can be implemented to integrate seamlessly with the call centre agent’s normal working activities over a period of several weeks, leading to long lasting establishment of new habits and approaches to dealing with stressful situations that are common in call centres.

Perhaps it is time to investigate how to get the best from the 1.3kg of grey stuff between our ears!

[Bryan McCrae is a Sales Psychologist and is MD of Sales-Motivations.]