The career cycle in the BPO industry typically starts as a call center agent. Most upper management professionals started as an agent except for a few who climbed the corporate ladder by “padrino” route.
If you will review Resume at linkedin, you will notice that most Team Leader started as an agent but does being an experienced or tenured agent for several years necessarily means that you are right away eligible to become a Team Leader. It all depends on how solid your foundation is.
Here is the “typical” cycle of a career in the BPO industry.
You will apply as “Customer Service Representative” or “Technical Support Representative” at first and you will be given an account. That account could either be a Telecommunications account or a Media Account or a financial account or anything else.
Assuming that you were profiled to a Telecommunications account which is the typical profile for a newbie, you will then stay on that account for one or two years then when a position was opened either as Quality Analyst or Team Lead post, you will apply.
You got the job as a Team Leader (TL) on the same account you have been.
Suddenly, because of failed negotiation between the client and the vendor, the account was pulled out.
You were left floating then as a Team leader but because of your experience as a Team Leader, the company opted you to stay for an incoming account. That incoming account is a Healthcare account.
You undergo another set of training for that account together with the other agent. The only difference then is that as “team leader” you will no longer take calls.
The start of a breakdown is now looming then.
Can you spot where it is?
The mere fact that an account was dissolved only means that it has been improperly managed and to “recycle” a Team Leader from a dissolved account only exacerbate the problem. And who is managing the account: The Account Manager, The Operations Manager and the Team Leader. The agent which is at the bottom of the food chain is just taking orders from above.
This is a case wherein a Team Leader is just functioning as plain “Statistician”. And by being a “statistician” means monitoring hourly AHT, what is the head count for the day, how many agents are absent for opener TL, generating end of shift report for closer TL, filing vacation leave for agents and the most funny part of all, coaching an agent. Kelan pa nangyari na yung naka–hands–on 7.5 hours a day eh mas less ang alam kesa sa di naman nagte–take ng calls at all?
The primary job description of a Team Leader is to lead the team to a specific goal. In a call center setting, that goal would be to achieve a specific metric. But how can a Team Leader lead when he or she doesn’t know the road map. In this situation, the road map is the account itself. How can you advise an agent to lower down the AHT when you don’t even know how to navigate a system to mine data? How can you expect agents to have a good Quality score when you yourself doesn’t even know what Quality practically speaking?
Others may argue di namin trabaho mag–take ng calls. Precisely it is. But if you are going take calls that is for “product knowledge” and “quality purposes” only. Let’s apply the Pareto principle behind this. If the average calls handled by an agent per day is 20 and the AHT required per call is 5 minutes then what the assignment for the Team Leader then is.
Let’s do the math,
20 calls x 0.20 = 4 calls
4 calls x 5 minutes = 20 minutes
A Team Leader’s shift is 8 hours a day and if she can meet the AHT of 5 minutes per call then she would have finished the 4 calls prescribed to her in 20 minutes time and 20 minutes subtracted to 8 hours of her shift will be 7 hours and 40 minutes. Assuming that she has 1 hour lunch break & 1 hour yosi break as her privilege, she still has 5 hours and 40 minutes na makipag–usap sa Excel file niya.
But was it being practice in the BPO industry?
Absolutely No!!!!
Let me share a case scenario.
Each agent in this call center is receiving 80 calls per day. The account they are handling has large volume of calls per day because customers are cancelling their subscription. While agents are taking calls, si TL talak ng talak ng Hold break!! Hold break!! We have large volume of calls!!! Pero huwag ka, pag nawawala siya sa post niya, nandun siya sa mga QA at walang kamatayang hagikhikan ang eksena!! And before the TL wrap up her duty, she distributed coffees and crackers to her agent with a saying, “Eto na lang ang maitutulong ko sa inyo”.
In this situation, the TL cannot take calls because she was not trained for it. She did undergo training theoretically but as there is no provision for her to have phone hours thus she is not taking calls for quality purposes and the Operations Manager is tolerating it.
In another situation of TL lacking practical skills on the account,
I will name this TL’s as TL Ganda and TL Unano.
Here’s the scenario,
Baklitang SME got an escalation call from an agent so he took it.
However, the customer is not satisfied with the resolution rendered by Baklitang SME and the customer demanded for a Manager. In this call center, Manager’s call was supposed to be handled by the TL. On duty that time is TL Ganda and TL Unano. Who will take the “Manager’s call” then?
TL Ganda says that it should be TL Unano. TL Unano says that it should be TL Ganda. Baklitang SME is now in the middle of confusion. The dissatisfied customer then escalated her concern to the corporate office and the corporate office then reprimanded the Operations Manager.
In this situation, the reason why TL Ganda and TL Unano are both refusing to take the “Manager call” is because pareho silang walang alam na isasagot sa customer kasi nga they are not taking calls. This in return fumes up rage between the two Team Leaders forcing TL Ganda to resign on her post. Then the vicious cycle repeats itself. TL Ganda will be considered as an external hire from another call center with much higher salary with no knowledge at all about the product and where she will function again as plain statistician.
Analyzing further, as an agent, do you really need to work really hard to earn much? Not at all!!!
In one call center I applied with, it says, “Attrition is hurting our business that is why we need to background check you to be sure you are fit for the job”.
With all these background check and “attrition risk” assessment, sila at sila pa rin yung mga call center na nasa jobstreet na may kung ano–anong pakulo to hire an agent. It is because the root cause (despite the root cause analysis they have) are all sugar–coated lies. Most call centers are on denial that there is something wrong with the system when the system itself is not perfect.
In this situation, TL’s are not really leading, they are just plain statistician. The mindset is, pag na–dissolve tong account na’to malilipat naman ako to another account eh. Pakialam ko ba!!!
What is the solution then?
Most agent aspire to become a Team Leader to escape taking calls. TL’s earn twice as that of an agent without the pressure of hitting any metrics. TL’s earn more at the expense of an agent and that is receiving additional incentive once her team becomes the Top Team. The salary range of TL is 34,000 to 36,000 a month.
If a call center will split this amount to 16,000 basic + 20,000 TL honorarium, where the 20k TL honorarium is “non–portable”, they will exert every effort to perform well. The condition is, once the account is dissolved, you will go back to being an agent & compete with the others including the newbies for the TL post thus the craving for product knowledge will be so much inevitable.
The current situation is that agents are the one “absorbing all the risk” in a call center setting thus they become “attrition risk” and attrition is hurting the business, SOLUTION: Ipa–shoulder mo yung ibang risk sa TL and OM and that would somehow lower down the attrition.
In the first place, if you are a Team Leader, you should serve as Subject Matter Expert too. You should be the first person to know about the product, the demand of the product, the challenges of the product. Eh hindi eh, ipinapasa tong mga to sa mga SME who happens to be agent as well who if weren’t able to survive the risk and pressure will resign.
I even know one Team Leader at “One Julia Vargas” who is not doing anything. Every time a task was being impose on him, ipapa–Aux niya yung agent niya at yun ang pagtatrabahuhin niya. Ne hindi siya marunong ng System navigation and his salary is tumataginting na 38,000 a month.
Can anyone blame an agent if he or she opted to resign?
If you are an agent aspiring to become a Team Leader, make sure that you have solid foundation. Let me show you the path.
First, never make absences. This is one thing that an HR in a call center cannot tamper. They can tell other call center not to hire you but with attendance, no one can alter your time stamped presence in the call center.
Second, make sure you experience a lot of account while being an agent for at least seven months. Why seven months? Win–win situation both for you and the call center. It is because, by default, after six months you are a regularized employee already and by being a regularized employee means that you pass metrics set forth by the company. A hopper, technically, is someone who jump from one call center to another without being regularized.
Third, make sure you have experienced the largest account in a call center setting before you apply for higher position. What are those account? Telecommunication account, Healthcare account, Media account and Financial account. The hierarchy is Agent then TL then Operations Manager then Senior Operations Manager then Site Director. Should you become a Site Director and you were able to experience all those accounts when you were an agent, you will just say, alam ko lahat yan! It will also give you leverage on contract negotiation with the Client. Bongga diba!
Fourth, make sure that you have experienced different line of business (LOB) in each of those account if applicable. What are those LOB’s? Billing and Collection, Retention, Sales & Technical Support.
Fifth, the most important of all. Be level–headed.
The reason why there is high attrition in a call center is because of the following equation:
Investment Risk + Attrition = Attrition Risk
Where:
Investment Risk is the agent
Attrition is the agent also
So therefore,
If the agent leaves the company, the investment disappears & it will surely hurt the business!
What is the “risk” on part of the Team Leader? Nothing! Because their performance is gauged based on the performance of the agent. The equation is:
Team Performance = Team Leader Scorecard
What is the “risk” on part of the Operations Manager? Nothing! Because their performance is based on the performance of the account against other vendors. In fact, even if they are not performing well against other vendors, wala namang disciplinary action diyan!! The equation is:
Account Performance = Vendor Ranking
Even if the site is at the bottom against other vendors, di naman napaparusahan ang Operations Manager, basta magaling ka lang lumusot!
In this situation, the agent is the one absorbing all the “risk”.
In investment, you should always have leverage.
One of the leverage is diversification, which is, diversifying the “risk”.
Is that happening in a call center? Not at all!!
It is because when a call center hires a Team Leader, they based their competence on how many years of experience they have being a Team Leader? Call Centers are not basing Team Leader competence based on how many years they “handled” “a lot of” account?
Let me give you an example:
Candidate:
Male, 25 years old, Team Leader for two years in a Telco Account
One year as an SME in a Telco Account
One year as TSR in a Telco Account
Total of 4 years working experience in the BPO industry
Open Position:
Team Leader for a Cable, Internet & Phone
If a candidate with above qualification applied for the open position, kakagatin yan ng call center because of the two year work experience as Team Leader.
The thing here is, each account is different from the other. It’s not a “one size fits all.” In this situation, ang alam ng TL candidate na yan is about text message packages, number of minute packages, volume of data available per package? And that is kung may phone hours siya sa previous call center niya. Eh paano kung wala!! Will he know what the different cable packages available are? What are the Channel Line up? What are the speed of internet available & the type of boxes for each speed?
The solution which will be rendered by the call center then is to send this TL to training. Ganun kabilis ang “learning curve” niya? Eh yung mga nagte–take ng calls nga for one year eh nagkakamali pa, ano pa kaya yung nag–training lang for one month?
Once this TL was given a Team and one of the team member ask him a question about the product, it’s either this TL will ask a tenured agent about the answer or give a wrong info & who will suffer if the info given was wrong? It’s the agent. Will the wrong info given by the TL be discovered? He can cover it up anyway.
In this situation, is there a leverage in the call center for risk?
No. The call center created the risk that will “self–destruct.”
See the picture!!!
How do you leverage risk on part of the Team Leader and at the same time gauge their competence & at the same time emerge on top of the vendor ranking?
It should be on a 50/50 basis:
50% Team Performance
50% TL Performance
TL Performance should be evaluated based on the following & it is very simple and very achievable, that is, if they are competent enough to surpass it.
(1) Product Knowledge
This is evaluated through phone hours. The number of calls to be accommodated should be 20% of the “average” calls of all the agent on the campaign and it should be audited for quality by an “external quality analyst” to prevent connivance. Those “external quality analyst” could be quality analyst from other vendors for as long as those quality analyst have a “hands on” experience on the account for at least 1000 hours.
(2) Team Reshuffle
Part of the reason why agents were not performing well is because they don’t get along well with their TL’s. There are TL’s who are “bitchy” and there are those who are naturally born “kupal” and those characteristics are not being quantified. One Operations Manager I know even says to his TL, “I don’t know if your agent is the problem or YOU ARE THE PROBLEM!”
The best way to catch those characteristic is by Team Reshuffle. If the TL’s team is consistently at the bottom, that TL is not really leading and is a “liability” for the campaign and should be eliminated at any cost irrespective as to how many years they are in service. Likewise, a TL who is always on top is an “asset” & should be made to handle those agents at the bottom of the stack ranking before those agents will be endorsed for “performance management.” If a TL successfully save “outliers” from a stack ranking, as the saying goes, “You can’t argue with success” and yan ang sinuswelduhan ng Malaki!
In Economics, if the country’s income is not increasing in three consecutive months, that country is in recession. If a TL is not performing in three consecutive months, that TL should be sacked.
Team Reshuffle can be made every month if the campaign has more than 100 seats or every two months if the campaign is relatively small.
It is also important to maintain a 1:11 ratio for a team where one Team Leader should only handle 11 agents and where the Team Lead would be the 12th person on the team creating a dozen. Out of those 11 agents in return, there should be rotation of “assistant team lead” so that the leadership potential of the agents could be harnessed.
(3) Attendance
I know one TL na nanguguna sa absenteeism and tardiness. Kesyo, sa Cavite pa siya nakatira! Kesyo ma–traffic! Eh gasgas na yung mga dahilan na yan eh!! And guess what, di siya tinatanggal nung call center despite those behavior. And everytime, bubuksan yung email niya for client update, nakatulog na si client bago pa siya makasagot kasi nga walang product knowledge.
Mahatma Ghandi says, “You should be the change that you wanted to be”. Lead by example. In this situation, I don’t think the TL is setting as an example.
Fast paced environment is not only applicable to agent. It applies to all staff working in the BPO industry. It is not possible where an object is static and the rest is dynamic. It is not possible for TL or OM to be stagnant and the agents are dynamic. That is a sure recipe for destruction!!
If you are a Team Leader with a solid foundation as an agent, wherever you go, nothing will be deemed difficult & you insecurity level will just go out the window by itself!!
In majority of the call center, either the Operations Manager or the Team Lead is the one conducting the final interview. Another reason why attrition is high in a call center is because the right candidate is not being selected for the account. Paano nangyari yon? Here’s the cycle. The TL or the the OM will conduct the final interview. Ano ba alam ng OM o TL na yan about the account eh hindi naman nagte–take ng calls yan or isang externally hired na TL yan na nag–one month training lang on product specifics? When this OM or TL conducts the interview, he will just browse how many years of experience does the applicant has? Does the applicant has good communications skill? Will he stay on the account or will go on AWOL? All of these questions was already screened by the recruiter on initial interview. Para ulitin lang ng OM or TL eh para kayong sirang plaka!
Oftentimes, it is just a “gut feeling” that dictates an OM or a TL whether “to get” or “let go” of the applicant. Oftentimes also, wrong expectations were being set when an applicant was being interviewed thus comes the actual job itself, there is now a mismatch between what was communicated by the OM or the TL during the interview to what was being expected by the applicant. When I was interviewed before for a “cable account” I was told by the TL that it was a “cable only”. When I started my training, all of us were surprised that it includes “internet & phone”. How did it happen? When I passed the Abay training, that’s when I find out that the TL who interviewed me was actually a former workforce analyst who was promoted for that position so technically wala siyang alam sa account! When I was interviewed in another call center for a “car insurance” account, I ask the OM as to what are the metrics of the campaign, I specifically ask what is the AHT? His answer was somewhere between 5 to 7 minutes. He even said that it was the QA who are setting it. When I sense that the OM doesn’t know anything about the account, I know I can “technically manipulate” him and I succeeded in doing so. Moral of the story, “hands on” experience of the account is always the key to success of the campaign.
In another call center I know, the Trainer is the one conducting the final interview. They say, so that the Trainer will be able to gauge whether the candidate is “trainable” or not. Well, that makes really a lot of sense! First, if that trainer comes from the account then he or she has superb product knowledge. Second, the Trainer will be able to get firsthand information from the applicant during training whether the hired applicant was really telling the truth during the interview. In this situation, di mo na kailangan pang mag–background check because lalabas at lalabas or madudulas at madudulas yan regarding his or her true employment history. Perfect!!!
Product knowledge is the key to a very successful campaign. If you are a Team Leader who is “technically bobo” on the account and at the same time “technically a bitch na kina–career ang pagiging kupal”, I say one word to you, “Putaaaaaang–ina mo!” And if you are an Operation Manager who is tolerating the unlearning of your TL, ma–pull out sana lahat ng account mo at bumalik ka sa pagiging agent hanggang sa matutunan mong magkaroon ng knowledge about the account! Any violent reaction? Dare me! Kaya kong panindigan ang mga sinusulat ko dito! I’m not writing fiction here! Is it too much to ask or is it wrong to demand for product knowledge? That’s everyone’s responsibility in a call center?
Do you have similar story? Spit it out using the following format:
Name of the call center: “a call center in…..” (make it indirect)
Name of the TL: (her initials and her FB or linkedin account URL)
What makes him or her bobo?
And if you happen to be the person involve, you have the right to justify yourself as to why the person who wrote something is so dead wrong. Fair enough?!!! Then we are all good!
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