11 Life Changing Pieces Of Advice For Those Working In A Call Centre

If you spend your working days on the phone for the most part, I’m going to go out on a limb and suggest some advice. I worked in call centres for more than fifteen years, and I know helpful coaching or advice can be hard to come by. Regardless of how often you get good advice, there’s a pretty good chance it’s not often enough. So I’ve got some tips for you, that will help with your next calls to ensure they’re your best calls. One piece of advice I’ll share before starting, is to always invest in yourself and your own development. Let’s go!

1. First things first, in the words of Tony Robbins “there’s no faking sincerity”. You can’t be something you’re not, well you can, but the point is that you should be proud to be yourself.
2. Please use your manners. Please, thank you, you’re welcome, my pleasure, they are all easy to say and show your customer that you’re not just a trained monkey. You’re not just a trained monkey, are you!?
3. Know your strengths and weaknesses, personally and professionally. Play to your strengths, and focus on improving your weaknesses where possible. If you’re not sure what your strengths and weaknesses are, speak to someone who will be 100% honest with you and write a list together. On this point, honesty is more important than friendship.
4. Every customer matters. If you have a challenging call, and then carry that emotion on to the next call, the customer will get treated poorly. As harsh as this sounds, your life and your problems are exactly that, your problems. How you feel and what you’re experiencing, should never impact the experience you provide your customers. The moment that you answer the call, you need to be at your best.
5. During the first 15–30 seconds the person calling you, will establish their opinion of you, and the company you represent. Someone gave me great advice once: “you only get one shot at a first impression”.
6. Every call that you receive should be treated like it’s the one and only call you’ll ever take. This is a really great mentality to have, immediately before answering any call. It’s a little bit like hitting the reset button on your day, but before each and every call. If you’re in a high stress environment, this will almost certainly help you to maintain a positive attitude.
7. If you don’t know, ask someone that does. Never provide a customer wrong, or misleading information. Wrong information results in customers needing to callback. This is frustrating for the customer, and makes you and the company look bad. If you don’t know something, asking someone for the information is a good way to keep adding to your knowledge.
8. Remove the phrase “above and beyond” from your vocabulary. Above and beyond is something people say, so that they can make simple tasks feel more important than they are. The reality of “above and beyond” is nothing more than someone doing whatever is required, in order for them to get the best possible outcome. This shouldn’t be special or celebrated, this should be your bare minimum.
9. Only make promises that you know you can keep. As a customer there’s nothing worse than being told that you’ll get a call at a certain time, only to get the call hours/days later, or not at all. Keep things simple, if you’re honest with your customer and give a clear explanation for the time you’ve set, everything will be roses.
10. Before ending the call (or letting the customer end the call), be sure to do a recap. This acts as a checklist for your customer and yourself. Advise of what the key reasons for the call were, and what has been done to address them. Advise what the next steps are, and ask if there is anything further you can assist with. Thank them for being a customer.
11. Keep your promises, and meet (or exceed) your expectations. In the event that you will be unable to meet your expectation, contact your customer and explain why. Avoiding it only makes things worse, because then the customer will call looking for you, and they won’t be happy. This is one of the most important steps in all of this.

That’s it. Nail this down and not only will your customers love you, your employer will too! If you have any questions, or you’d like some tips on anything please contact me. Thanks for reading and feel welcome to share your thoughts with me, either here in the comments or by email brett@thecrucialteam.com