Skills to look for in Agents

All call centre managers are aware that agents are the biggest asset and also the biggest expense.
They are also a crucial part of your centre’s success.

Consumers rate their experience with customer service as the single most important factor influencing their loyalty to a brand or a company.

It goes without saying that your agents should have great customer service skills. When you’re recruiting call centre agents, you need to be aware that there are a number of key attributes and skills which will affect their ability to deliver this customer service.

Good telephone manner
This is the first and foremost skill to look for in a call centre agent. While most agents are professional, many consumers can give examples of speaking to an agent who was rude, disinterested and un-engaging. Both local and overseas-based agents can be like this.

Obviously, it’s not the best idea to base recruitment decisions solely on personality. However, you should be able to get a strong idea of the phone manner of your potential recruits by the way they communicate. Are they cheerful and polite? Do they listen before responding? Do they choose their words carefully? Do they enunciate clearly? All of the above will help you make your decision.

Ideally, your recruitment process should involve a simulated call with the potential agent. This will be useful in determining the phone manner of the agent in a variety of scenarios. Anyone can be friendly and patient in ‘soft-sell’ situations, but these won’t reflect the real working conditions. Typically, agents will be dealing with complaints, difficult customers, and people who have English as a second language. They will often be confronted by confusing and complex situations. All of these may need special skills, but the good applicant will demonstrate a consistently pleasant phone manner throughout.

Verbal communication skills
A core competency of call centre agents is verbal communication. They must be able to speak clearly, listen attentively and logically explain concepts to customers.

It is often suggested that 80% of communication is non-verbal. It follows then that agents have an uphill battle communicating without the benefit of physical context. This is why its crucial to assess the tone of their voice, their command of language and their ‘active listening’ skills. Physical posture in call centre agents plays a large part in how they communicate. Sometimes its possible to tell that the person on the other end is slumped or slouching at the desk.

Written communication skills
Increasingly, follow-up and accountability are playing a large part of agent roles. They need to be able to document the results of their calls and in many cases convert the information into emails. These emails must be clear, easy to read and to the point. This is especially so when the emails will be sent to customers. With many call centres dealing with high volumes of calls, speed may be another skill required.

Furthermore, many contact centre agents are now required to respond directly to email communications. Its imperative that the typical request for someone with `strong written communication skills’ is followed up. Fortunately, simple time honoured written tests in the recruitment process can clearly help you ascertain a candidate’s abilities in this area.