Operations and Management Principles for Contact Centres

by Unknown

Edition: CD

ISBN13: 9780702177040

ISBN10: 0702177040

Format: Spiral Bound

Pub. Date: 2008-09-01

Publisher(s): Juta Academic

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Summary

Several South African agencies, institutes, organizations, and professional bodies are promoting and developing contact-center operations in order to satisfy international and national market demands. Accordingly, additional information, knowledge, and experience are needed to improve on how organizations integrate core business processes into these contact-centers. Responding to this need, the industry is now being represented in higher education. Featuring sections on managing contact-center performance, recruiting, training, and motivating staff- and customer-relations management, this comprehensive course guide, cowritten by several experts in the field, is ideal for institutions offering courses for contact-center agents and anyone working in the contact-center industry.

Author Biography

Esther Hoffmann began researching and networking with national and international stakeholders in the contact centre industry in 2004. She is currently a faculty member at the Ekurhuleni Campus of the Vaal University of Technology. Dennis Farrell is the chief operating officer of human resources for Africa and the Middle East representing Absa/Barclays, where he has implemented an internal HR shared services function within Absa/Barclays. Mariaan Ellis was appointed as the project coordinator at the Vaal University of Technology in 2006, aiming to recruit and train new professionals for the contact center industry. Michael Cant is head of the marketing and retail department at Unisa. He is editor of the International Retail and Marketing Review. Khotsietsile Simon Molefi teaches communication skills and teaching practice at the Vaal University of Technology, and is a former teacher of English as a Foreign Language at the Rand International Language Centre.

About the authors	p. x
Foreword	p. xiii
Preface	p. xv
List of acronyms	p. xvii
Peak Performance of Contact Centre Staff and Effective Use of Technology
The South African Contact Centre Industry: An introduction
Outcomes	p. 1
Introduction	p. 1
The history of contact centres	p. 2
Business process outsourcing and ICT	p. 7
Business process outsourcing across borders	p. 10
The evolution of contact centres	p. 11
South Africa's value-adding business process outsourcing and offshoring-key success factors	p. 13
Supportive synergies and patrons of a successful industry	p. 15
The contact centre culture	p. 23
Recruitment, screening and selection of contact centre agents/operators	p. 26
Organisational hierarchy	p. 27
Some industry problem areas	p. 28
Summary	p. 30
The Business Environment and Business Functions
Outcomes	p. 31
Introduction	p. 31
What is a business?	p. 31
The free market economy	p. 32
The micro, market and macro environment	p. 33
Types of businesses	p. 37
The important functions in an organisation/business	p. 38
Summary	p. 53
Leadership in the Contact Centre
Outcomes	p. 54
Introduction	p. 54
Understanding leadership in the 21st century	p. 57
Understanding transformational leadership	p. 60
Full-range model of leadership	p. 65
Leadership competencies in a contact centre	p. 66
A word on the leadership of teams	p. 79
Summary	p. 81
Corporate Governance and Risk Management
Outcomes	p. 83
Introduction	p. 83
Corporate governance	p. 84
Risk management	p. 89
Summary	p. 101
Contact Centre Technology
Outcomes	p. 103
Introduction	p. 103
Role of technology in a contact centre	p. 104
Technology and processes	p. 105
Defining technology	p. 105
Types of contact centre technology	p. 107
Role of cell phone technology in contact centres	p. 117
Technology and management	p. 118
Technology and ergonomics	p. 122
Summary	p. 125
Telephone and Internet Skills
Outcomes	p. 126
Introduction	p. 126
Telephone skills	p. 127
Cellular phone etiquette	p. 135
The internet and netiquette	p. 136
Electronic communication	p. 139
Mailing lists and netnews	p. 142
Interactive services such as chat	p. 142
Other means of communication	p. 142
Mental scripting	p. 145
Summary	p. 145
Motivated Contact Centre Staff
Health, Wellness and Ergonomics in the Contact Centre Environment
Outcomes	p. 149
Introduction	p. 149
Wellness	p. 150
Stress	p. 156
Ergonomics	p. 164
Workstation arrangement	p. 166
Summary	p. 168
Behaviour and Self-management
Outcomes	p. 170
Introduction	p. 170
Organisational behaviour	p. 171
Self-esteem and self-improvement	p. 175
Self-management: the key to time management	p. 181
Business and social etiquette	p. 191
Spatial arrangements	p. 196
Business gifts and functions	p. 197
Protocol for shared equipment	p. 199
Summary	p. 199
Organisational Behaviour
Outcomes	p. 201
Introduction	p. 202
Knowledge management	p. 202
Diversity	p. 204
Perception and attribution	p. 210
Personality, values and attitudes	p. 213
The nature and dimensions of attitudes	p. 214
Job satisfaction and organisational commitment	p. 215
Motivation in the contact centre environment	p. 218
Positive organisational behaviour	p. 222
Conflict	p. 225
Teambuilding in the contact centre	p. 227
Summary	p. 231
Contact Centre Recruiting and Staffing
Outcomes	p. 232
Introduction	p. 232
Recruiting	p. 233
Employment specialists	p. 240
Filling shallow labour pools	p. 241
Selection and placement	p. 242
Criteria for hiring and retaining	p. 244
Develop the right people	p. 245
Recruiting and training: contact centre management	p. 247
Alternative labour pools	p. 248
Customer service representative retention	p. 250
Coaching	p. 251
Mentoring	p. 259
Summary	p. 261
Performance Management and Productivity
Outcomes	p. 262
Introduction	p. 262
Monitoring performance	p. 263
Characteristics of monitoring programmes	p. 264
Key components of optimal performance	p. 265
Monitoring output of CSRs	p. 265
Reasons for under-performance	p. 273
The importance of feedback	p. 274
Praise	p. 277
Correcting	p. 279
Performance levelling	p. 283
Improving productivity of representatives	p. 284
Summary	p. 289
Labour Law in the Workplace
Outcomes	p. 290
Introduction	p. 290
The structure of labour law	p. 291
Regulation of labour relations	p. 296
Labour law as it applies to the employment life cycle	p. 297
Summary	p. 323
Satisfied Customers through Effective Customer Service Delivery
Communication: Theory
Outcomes	p. 327
Introduction	p. 327
What is communication?	p. 328
The importance of communication	p. 329
Communication models	p. 330
Communication functions	p. 333
Communication directions	p. 333
Communication channel	p. 336
Barriers to communication	p. 336
Categories of communication	p. 338
Interpersonal communication	p. 343
Listening skills	p. 345
Communication styles	p. 347
Cross-cultural communication	p. 348
Summary	p. 351
Communication: Linguistic Skills
Outcomes	p. 353
Introduction	p. 353
Indefinite tenses	p. 354
Perfect tenses	p. 360
Continuous tenses	p. 363
Questions	p. 367
Parts of speech	p. 370
The apostrophe	p. 384
Concord	p. 385
Summary	p. 387
Communication: Reading and Understanding/Comprehension
Outcomes	p. 388
Introduction	p. 388
Why do we communicate?	p. 388
Clarity of messages	p. 390
Formal and informal language use	p. 390
Reading	p. 391
Comprehension	p. 395
Summary	p. 398
Marketing and Sales
Outcomes	p. 399
Introduction	p. 399
Marketing: definition and processes	p. 400
Selling	p. 404
Summary	p. 412
Customer Relations Management
Outcomes	p. 413
Introduction	p. 413
Definition and components of customer relations management	p. 414
Service excellence	p. 415
Customer profiles	p. 421
Moments of truth	p. 422
Service recovery	p. 422
Summary	p. 433
References	p. 434
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