Employee Recognition - Why is everyone talking about it?

Why are so many people talking about Employee Engagement? We'll find out a few tips on the effectiveness of employee recognition and how it can potentially provide financial success to your company. Zane Safrit, CEO, Business Consultant, and Author will share some of his experiences and lessons learned on building employee awareness of company goals, raising morale, and increasing productivity.

To listen to this episode, click the following link: http://www.benchmarkportal.com/call-center-newsresources/calltalk-online-radio-show/5/8/employee-recognition

ARAG Customer Care Achieves Its Eighth Certification as a BenchmarkPortal Center of Excellence

BenchmarkPortal recognizes the exceptional efficiency and effectiveness of ARAG Customer Care by awarding it Certification as a Center of Excellence for the eighth year. The granting of certification is based on a company’s operational metrics, customer satisfaction and agent satisfaction.

ARAG® Customer Care call center was certified earlier this year as a Center of Excellence by BenchmarkPortal, a leading contact center research and consulting organization. “Only the top 10 percent of those benchmarked annually achieve this distinction,” said BenchmarkPortal CEO Bruce Belfiore. “The Center of Excellence Certification is so prestigious that only 5% of those centers that applied have actually attained certification 5 or more years in a row.”   

MESSA Contact Center Achieves Its Eighth Certification as a BenchmarkPortal Center of Excellence

BenchmarkPortal recognizes the exceptional efficiency and effectiveness of the MESSA Member Service Center by awarding it Certification as a Center of Excellence for the eighth time. The granting of certification is based on a company’s operational metrics, customer satisfaction and agent satisfaction.

The MESSA member service center was certified earlier this year as a Center of Excellence by BenchmarkPortal, a leading contact center research and consulting organization. “Only the top 10 percent of those benchmarked annually achieve this distinction,” said BenchmarkPortal CEO Bruce Belfiore. “Achieving Center of Excellence certification is an acknowledgement of strong management and leadership in the call center industry.”   

Click here to continue reading: http://www.benchmarkportal.com/call-center-newsresources/press-release/2014/08/messa-contact-center-achieves-its-eighth-certificati

CallTalk Caramels: Team Meetings-How Your Employees Will Benefit

Team meetings are regularly scheduled, compulsory gatherings of the contact center team that usually last at least an hour. They are often perceived as being drab and boring - or they become the hurried huddle where a manager or supervisor hastens to push out information, and then rushes the staff back to their cubicles. Although regularly scheduled team meetings are tough to schedule, they also provide enormous benefit to the center and bond colleagues to each other.

Expert research shows that for team meetings to be successful, they need to be well-planned and structured. A well-balanced and structured approach to team meetings avoids them becoming either elaborate agent gripe sessions, or supervisor “dump sessions” where agents become overwhelmed with too much information. Here are some suggestions that will help your team meetings be more successful:

Click here to continue reading this article: http://www.benchmarkportal.com/call-center-newsresources/news-articles/2014/08/call-center-team-meetings-how-your-employees-will-benefit

Last Online Quality Assurance Training of the Year Aug. 27-29,2014! Don't miss this opportunity!!!

The call center quality assurance training workshop is designed to meet the needs of the Director, Manager or Quality Analyst responsible for delivering a "best-in-class" quality monitoring and coaching program. Attendees will leave with the framework for their center ready for implementation. The Quality Assurance Workshop provides participants with an understanding of the elements that are crucial for building an effective and efficient program that meets the strategic needs of the organization. Those goals and/or needs may be focused on Cost, Service, Sales or Marketing.

•  Introduction to Quality Assurance
• Creating a QA Strategy
• Positive Culture, Behaviors and Definitions
• Quality Assessment Forms:
  • Structure,
  • Scoring & Weighting
  • Measures and Calibration
• Service vs Compliance
• Call Monitoring Process
• Evaluation Frequency
• Art of Coaching
• Feedback
• Time Management
• Discussion: How many calls, Coaching process
• Reward and Recognition Methods
• Technology
• 3rd Party Options
• Conclusion

Click here for more information: http://www.benchmarkportal.com/call-center-training/call-center-quality-assurance-certification-training/qa-live-online-2014-08-27

Concordia Publishing House Contact Center Achieves Its Fifth Certification as a BenchmarkPortal Center of Excellence

BenchmarkPortal recognizes the exceptional efficiency and effectiveness of the Concordia Publishing House Contact Center by awarding it Certification as a Center of Excellence for the fifth year. The granting of certification is based on a company’s operational metrics, customer satisfaction and agent satisfaction.

The Concordia Publishing House customer contact center has been certified as a Center of Excellence by BenchmarkPortal, a leading contact center research and consulting organization. “Only the top 10 percent of those benchmarked annually achieve this distinction,” said BenchmarkPortal CEO Bruce Belfiore. “Achieving Center of Excellence certification is an acknowledgement of strong management and leadership in the call center industry.”   

Click here to continue reading this news release: http://www.benchmarkportal.com/call-center-newsresources/press-release/2014/08/concordia-publishing-house-contact-center-achieves-i

Revitalizing Your Call Center: Small Changes that Make Big Differences

Like any other work environment, call centers can either become a place of joy or the proverbial dungeon – that dreaded place to which we must go to serve out our time. The difference between the two are tied to many factors.  Some simple changes can lead to increases in performance and ROI while making the workplace enjoyable for the worker. Our experts suggested looking at facilities, food and environmental issues. Here are some of the suggestions they offered on how to make your center a joy and not a dungeon.

Click here to continue reading this article: http://www.benchmarkportal.com/call-center-newsresources/news-articles/2014/08/revitalizing-your-call-center-small-changes-make-big

Online Call Center Agent Training - Soft Skills Video

Check Out Our New Course For Agents! Agent Soft Skills. The course is Online and On Demand.



Click Here For More Information: http://www.benchmarkportal.com/call-center-training/ondemand-training/agent-training-courses

Revolv Contact Center Achieves Its Fourth Certification as a BenchmarkPortal Center of Excellence

BenchmarkPortal recognizes the exceptional efficiency and effectiveness of the Revolv Contact Center by awarding it Certification as a Center of Excellence for the fourth year in a row. The granting of certification is based on a company’s operational metrics, customer satisfaction and agent satisfaction.

August 5, 2014 - The Revolv customer contact center has been certified as a Center of Excellence by BenchmarkPortal, a leading contact center research and consulting organization. “Only the top 10 percent of those benchmarked annually achieve this distinction,” said BenchmarkPortal CEO Bruce Belfiore. “Achieving Center of Excellence certification is an acknowledgement of strong management and leadership in the call center industry.”

Click here to continue reading: http://www.benchmarkportal.com/call-center-newsresources/press-release/2014/08/revolv-contact-center-achieves-its-fourth-certificat

EyeMed Vision Care Contact Center Achieves Its Fifth Consecutive Certification as a BenchmarkPortal Center of Excellence

BenchmarkPortal, a leading contact center research and consulting organization, recognizes the exceptional efficiency and effectiveness of the EyeMed Vision Care Contact Center by awarding it Certification as a Center of Excellence for the fifth consecutive year. Certification is granted exclusively to companies demonstrating high operational metrics, customer satisfaction and agent satisfaction. Only five percent of centers that applied for the prestigious Center of Excellence recognition have actually attained certification five or more years in a row.

“The achievement of the Center of Excellence represents a contact center’s commitment to customer service,” said BenchmarkPortal CEO Bruce Belfiore. “It is the culmination of important initiatives that were undertaken to achieve sustainable service excellence.”


Click here to continue reading this news article: http://www.benchmarkportal.com/call-center-newsresources/press-release/2014/08/eyemed-vision-care-contact-center-achieves-its-fifth

CallTalk Caramels: Avoiding Agent Burnout

CallTalk is a monthly internet radio program featuring the most innovative managers and thought leaders in the customer contact field, interviewed by BenchmarkPortal CEO, Bruce Belfiore.  “Caramels” distills key moments from these interviews into practical, bite-sized nuggets to inform and assist you as a contact center professional.
Agent burnout is often correlated to the culture of the call center and to the culture of the people working in the call center. Sweatshop centers and “crisis call” centers have particularly high levels of burnout. A statistical proxy for burnout is agent turnover, which exceeds 100% per year in some cases.
Helpful tips to identify early warning signals of agent burnout include:

1. Agent Adherence to Schedule – When burnout occurs, agents lose their appetite and interest for work and become less responsive to occupancy levels and service levels.
2. Quality Scores – as attitude slips, so does the quality and accurateness of work. This is reflected through the tone and pace of the agent- -and can be perceived by customers as well.
3. Apathy – Agents lose interest in the activities of the center, or in interacting with others.

Agent burnout is also characterized by the following types of behaviors:

Click Here to Continue Reading This Article: http://www.benchmarkportal.com/call-center-newsresources/news-articles/2014/08/calltalk-caramels-avoiding-agent-burnout