Profile: Neil Harrison, Soul Telecommunications
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Neil Harrison Number of years in role: 6 months; 10 years in Call Centre Management |
What do you do?
As the Manager of Customer Care, I am responsible for ensuring our customers receive the best possible service. My role focuses on the management and strategies of our customer channels, ensuring resources, processes and systems are managed and developed effectively to promote the highest possible service.
What results are expected in your position?
I have a number of performance indicators which include service delivery, customer satisfaction and budgetary measures and other internal metrics that include staff development, employee satisfaction and business improvement.
What has been your biggest career highlight to date?
In 2003 I was awarded the ATA Call Centre Manager of the Year award, but I have also had other equally rewarding moments such as being elected as the ATA Chapter Chairperson in WA. A more recent highlight is joining Soul, were I get to work with some really talented people.
What is the best and worst thing about your job?
The best part is that no two days are the same. The market we operate in is extremely fast-paced and every day is different, which brings new and different challenges and opportunities for our team. In the Telco space there is so much new technology coming on board you can actually learn something new every day.
There isn’t really a “worst thing” about my job. I think every job has aspects that are more difficult than others, but nothing jumps out as a specific “worst thing”.
Any tips on how to get and stay ahead?
Understand the market in which your contact centre operates, and what external factors may have an impact on your business and your contact centre. Network with other people in the contact centre industry, and ask questions. Some great ideas may have been implemented in another centre that may be useful to replicate in your own. No matter how good your products and the technology you use, your most important asset in your centre is your people. Let them become involved and they repay the favour tenfold.
How do you encourage loyalty with your staff and clients?
Listen to them. Understand what issues they have and make it easier for them to go about their daily lives. Too many call centres become fixated on internal productivity measures that they lose touch with what their customers or staff members are experiencing.
What do you think employees want from their employer?
Employees need to feel valued and to understand how their contribution adds up to the bigger picture. Call centre staff have one of the hardest and most important jobs in this business - satisfying customers, who are not always known for being nice or patient.
Management needs to work hard to ensure staff members understand that their role is appreciated and respected. Their ideas, suggestions and problems are acknowledged and listened to, and that they provide every effort to ensure they are able to do their job in the best possible way.
What does your company do for its staff that you feel is different from what other companies provide?
We provide a number of benefits that include salary packaging, on-site massages, theme days, and subsidised parking. We run a number of incentive programs aimed at rewarding our high performers, and offer discounted mobile phone and internet plans for our staff.
What are the biggest human capital issues your industry is dealing with? …and what should be done about them?
The current resources boom in WA is having a significant impact on skilled staff, where people can work in the mining sector and be paid significant money. The downside is that people don’t really see a long-term career in the contact centre industry and the industry loses good people. Further work needs to be done from within the industry and government to show that Contact Centres play a significant part in businesses worldwide and staff members have career paths available should they choose.