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We wish all readers and supporters a very happy holiday. We have enjoyed bringing you Contact Professional and CP Wire in 2008 and look forward to sharing more information in 2009. See you in January 2009.
Top-performing call centers drive their revenue and performance through superior hiring tactics. Deploying tools that give you better insight - and more accurate predictions - as to which applicants from a pool of candidates will perform up to, or beyond, your established standards contributes significantly to increased call center productivity.
So which tools and techniques yield the best results?
In a study on "The Comparative Validities of a Variety of Predictors of Hourly Wage Jobs in Reducing Turnover in New Hires," the following results were uncovered:
| Interview | -- 14 percent Predictive Ability |
| Reference Checking | -- 26 percent Predictive Ability |
| Job Preview | -- 44 percent Predictive Ability |
| Skills Testing | -- 53 percent Predictive Ability |
| Personality/Job-Fit Assessment | -- 80 percent Predictive Ability. |
1. Interviews are a subjective and potentially biased process. This study demonstrated that regardless of an interviewer's skill - or a candidate's ability to present well - an offer of employment based on a strong interview alone had only a 14 percent chance of predicting the long-term effectiveness of a job candidate for a call center agent position.
2. Adding Reference Checking to the interview process only increased the likelihood of predicting long-term effectiveness in a job candidate for a call center agent position to 26 percent. And we all know that it's getting harder to perform meaningful and insightful reference checks.
3. Job Previews - via software-based call simulators - or by employing "reverse psychology" and "instead of trying to sell the interviewee on joining the company and how great the job is, describe all the negatives" - or through having the candidate just spend some time on the production floor shadowing agents/supervisors - only increases the likelihood of predicting long-term effectiveness in a job candidate for a call center agent position to 44 percent.
4. Skills Tests such as typing tests, audio transcription tests, Windows literacy tests, etc., only increase the likelihood of predicting long-term effectiveness in a job candidate for a call center agent position to 53 percent. That's just a bit better than flipping a coin!
5. With an 80 percent result, Predictive Ability, Personality/Job-Fit Assessments are best at forecasting the future success of a job candidate for a call center agent position. Personality/Job-Fit Assessments weed out job candidates who will burn out fast - or quit - because they aren't suited for the work - and they identify the people with the personality/job-fit, soft skills, motivation and work ethic to be top call center agents. Personality/Job-Fit Assessments allow you to select new call center agents who will fit your employment needs better and stay on the job longer - leading to an agent workgroup that has more experience and is more productive.
By David Filwood, the principal consultant with TeleSoft Systems, publisher of the SPAS Call Center Agent Pre-Employment Screening Software. http://www.telesoftsystems.ca/35436.html
December 11, 1:00 Eastern: How Merrill Lynch Extended their Customer Relationship Strategy for Individualized Customer Treatment. Presented by Portrait Software. Top analysts are cautioning that while today's business climate requires a customer centric business model, today's CRM systems were simply not designed for this, leaving a critical, fundamental gap between many organizations and their business objectives. In this webcast we discuss how best-in-class companies have established a new process for engaging with their customers by providing the most relevant sales, retention and service messages at the time when the customer themselves have chosen to interact - through inbound customer touch points such as service channels, call centers, IVR and web site.
Economy Pushes Call Center Work from Home
Companies that supply customer service agents to businesses around the world say they are saving money and attracting better employees by letting them work from their own houses.
Companies That Will Hire You to Work at Home
Watch how to best handle working from home.
Online Buyers Turn on Poorly Integrated Shops
Integrating contact centers is no easy task. And despite all the buzz about SaaS CRM, it doesn't look like cloud solutions are rushing to the rescue any time soon.
Retailers Keep Fingers Crossed --- Call Centers Crushed
Harry and David says 50 percent of its sales are now conducted over the Internet. Because so many people are buying online, the company's not doing much holiday hiring this year. They need fewer people in the call center to take orders by phone.
Dodge Infomercial Rams It Home
Whenever a prospect dialed the toll-free number on the screen, the call was immediately routed from the call center to the prospect's local dealer, which arranged sales appointments and test drives.
How to Make Sales Appointments With Proven Cold Calling Techniques
Many call center agents start their introduction with, 'My name is.' Do you want to sound like you're calling from a large call center? You want to project the impression of an important personal business call, or a friendly information provider.
Contact Centers for Dummies
This guide provides a high-level approach to the different methodologies you can use, with lots of information not only on running contact centers, but also on implementing technology in contact centers in a profitable way.
Business Process Automation in Financial Services
Explore this white paper to find out how to increase personal and organizational productivity, make better decisions, and enhance operational excellence.
A winner says, "There must be a better way to do it." A loser says, "This is the way it has always been done here."-- Unknown
Contact Professional magazine provides useful management tools and resources to the contact center professional. Written for executives, managers and directors of contact centers, the editorial focuses on real world solutions to issues faced on a daily basis. From hiring and training to technology implementation, each article emphasizes ROI and increased efficiency within the contact center.
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