Clients needing outsourcing or starting a project can follow this link
Centers and clients: Check out sales hints for telemarketers!
Training information. Revolutionary? Maybe. Helpful? Yes.
Attendance Problems?
Not Hitting the hours your company needs on a daily basis?
Why?
There could be a variety of reasons for attendance problems:
- Your supervisors are driving them away (don't discount this--its possible)
- Your schedule policy doesn't really accomodate many of your employees.
- Your dress code might be creating a problem.
- People might really be sick. For the 89-cent solution, click here now!
- Reps don't like the programs they're on.
There are a number of solutions for these type of problems.
Your supervisors are driving them away (don't discount this--its possible)
This is really a typical problem when a person just starts as a supervisor.
The new sup hasn't gotten used to the reps, and vice versa. An easy way
to help rectify this is to make sure that the supervisor is properly trained
on PEOPLE SKILLS before they begin supervising. Nonverbal posture and behavoir
play a significant role in the perception of a new supervisor
(or an experienced one) and I can give you more info on this...just call me.
Your schedule policy doesn't really accommodate many of your employees.
Your dress code might be creating a problem.
Reps don't like the programs they're on.
I lumped these together because there is a simple solution to these issues:
Just ask your reps about them!
You can do a formal survey via payroll.
You can do a super-duper top-secret poll via human resources.
Or, you can just type one up in the computer and have the reps drop it off
in the suggestion box....anonymously.
Easy.
One great benefit of such feedback, is the reps will see that you really
care. This is very good for retention....and it decreases training costs.
One last thing on dress codes:
Granted, there are many centers that have lots of client visits and everyone
should look clean and nice. But let's face it, telemarketing is a position
that requires very little in-person contact. A friendly sounding voice
on the telephone is a major success. What a person looks like is moot
compared to the importance of their voice. Therefore, why require
a person to dress up everyday?
Some people will argue that when you're dressed up, you feel good about
yourself. This is really only true if that is your normal wardrobe. If
you have to wear the same 2 slacks and 3 shirts 5 days a week because that's
all you have, how good do you feel about yourself on the 5th day...after
everyone has noticed?
When a client has a visit, just ask everyone to dress up. Maybe some of the
'hard rockers' will go so far as to dry clean their Led Zeppelin t-shirts!
The best and easiest dress code that I've ever worked with (or been forced
to work with) was very simple: Clothes are required!
This was the most the enthusiastic crew I've ever worked with and they
knew that their only requirement was to give a good presntation....and they
did that extrememly well.
I've worked with other dress codes that simply waste time, or worse, prevent good people
from even applying.
One example was a dress code that required slacks (not jeans) and shoes
(not sneakers). This seemed pretty reasonable until you looked at the labor
force. The local labor force was a university campus with 27,000 students!
What do students wear every day? Blue Jeans and sneakers!
After months of negotiations, we got the rule changed from corporate...
But how many hours did we lose in the interim? Tens of thousands!!!
Another couple of dress code points:
I've seen 2 incongruous dress code rules attempt to be implemented:
1. The skirt cannot be more than 1" above the knee.
Fine I thought. But! Is that standing or sitting? From the top of the
knee, the bottom of the knee or the middle of knee? Please distribute
a ruler with company manuals......
2. The other rule was no sleeveless (cut-off) shirts.
What do you do when your top rep comes in a 'bought' muscle shirt?
Or your other best rep comes in on a 98 degree day with a silk, sleeveless blouse?
Then, your other three best reps then come in mini-skirts.
What do you do, send 'em all home? So much for hitting goal that day!
Not hitting the hours you need each day?
Not hitting the (inbound) service levels you need each day?
People might really be sick.
Have one of your dedicated TSRs clean the booths every night.
There's a lot more detail here than really meets the eye...
What does a rep touch in a booth? EVERYTHING!
It took me a while to figure this out.
People were coughing a lot. The flu was going around. It seemed like everyone
was catching the flu and then they'd recatch it.
I needed to be running about 450 hours per day in a 45-station facility, but I was only getting 320-350.
No matter what I did, nothing worked.
- Had the janitor clean the booths once a week... Didn't work.
- Bought a case of medical grade disinfectant... Didn't work.
- Bought a couple of cases of sanitizing wipes and distributed them to everyone when
they walked in the door... Didn't work.
- Required Doctor's notes... Got them and they were legimate! ... Didn't work.
- Teeanagers we employed, had to have missed school that day, etc... Didn't work.
Nothing was working, no matter how many people I hired...
The problem just kept recurring.
I finally hit on the 89 cent solution.
I hired a 'cleaner': A rep that never had a prayer of being a
good TSR, but was liked by everyone and always showed up early.
One night, armed with cleaning supplies we cleaned EVERYTHING in EVERY
booth...
The edges of the screens, the tape recorders, the phones, the
headsets, the edges of the booths, the keyboards, the mouse, the seat adjustment levers,
EVERYTHING a person touched was cleaned spotless.
Then, once a night, the well-liked 'cleaner' came in after shift and spent
2 to 3 hours cleaning everything again with isopropyl alcohol. (89 cents).
He just dampened a clean rag with the isopropyl alcohol and cleaned everything but the
computer screens.
One week later I was hitting 450 hours per day.
Did you like this information? Did you hate it? Let me know.
call 712-225-1288
Dan Seliger, Stellar Performance Marketing, Inc.
PO Box 354
Cherokee, IA 51012
(712) 225-1288
email address is stellarmail@ncn.net
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