4 Responses

1. Novel ideas and activities
   Hi Adam, I am unclear about your request – are your running the centre or attending as a participant hoping to get a team leader role?

   I worked with several Insurance and financial services outbound call centres for several years and together with the team leaders, developed many ways of managing teams.

   I am unsure how to proceed following the communication today from the editor, which I agree with in principle.

   Usually I put my e-mail in here so I can respond later, when I get home. I assume that if I do this now this reply may be struck off?

   If you can be more specific about one area you wish to cover I will come back tomorrow with something

   Best of luck.

   Cheers.

2. Reply
   Hello,

   Just to confirm I am applying for an outbound team leader role

   Adam

3. Outbound teams
   Hi Adam and thanks for the clarification.

   The first thing I would recommend is for a team leader to join HR and any other manager for any recruitment of new staff into your team.

   When setting up the training for Virgin direct in the 90’s I was impressed with Richard Branson’s approach to recruitment.

   The critical competence/trait that was assessed was attitude. The “catch phrase” used at the time was –
   “We can train anything to anyone with the right attitude”.

   This lead to an incredibly well motivated team for the launch.

   Whilst this was not an out-calling team I used the same approach some months later when setting up an outbound calling team for an investment bank.

   We recruited three people who were very lively and had none of the basic financial qualifications required.

   They passed these in four weeks, in addition to completing the induction programme and became a key part of the team.

   One final thought, when working with outbound teams I have always started by asking them to evaluate the level of rapport they achieve.

   By re-visiting this area everyone one I have trained or coached has identified a major improvement within minutes of seeing / hearing the way they operate.

   Having listened to many calls it is still amusing and alarming to witness just how many people miss big buying signals and critical information being offered by the client early on in the call due to the call operative focussing on the agenda they have to get through.

   General advice for assessment centres – be yourself and take all the feedback you are offered.

   Hope this helps.

   Cheers and good luck.

4. Go for long term gain
   I have recruited and trainer many outbound teams over the last 15 years.

   I hate to put a damper on things but its all been done before and most UK call centres still have 30% attrition.
   Whilst you can certainly recruit motivated and enthusiastic staff I have found that this wears off as the ‘newbies’ become accustomed to the hierachical structure, rigid framework, typically repetitive work and lack of progression. That’s not cynicism from staff just pragmatism, most are there because they are looking for something else or have another passion elsewhere.
   For me the important thing is to understand that all staff are different and no ‘one size fits all’ motivational technique will work and certainly not for any prolonged length of time.
   Its also important to recognise different ages react differently to different management cultures.

   My novel idea is to recognise the pragmatism (or cynicism) and address it head on, whistles and bells dont work long term.