The Reality of Contact Centres

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‘9’s and 10’s are what we’re looking for…’ 

NPS is a measure of service quality which is assessed by customers. The grading is 1 to 10, and 9’s and 10’s is what everyone is chasing. 

NPS is also a measure that can alter the way we treat our customers, and can be a misleading metric which it is essential we understand. Chasing a high score can hugely change the way you look at your service delivery. This can be both positive and negative. This podcast explains how the whole thing works, 

To find out more about our work and to see what we could do to help your organisation, visit www.realitytraining.com.

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‘It’s not me, it’s the system.’ ‘They’ve put the price up…’ ‘I used to be able to do this…’ ‘I don’t set the prices…’ ‘let me see what I can do…’

In your contact centre, you will have colleagues and managers who will be using Disloyal Bonding tactics to win customers, and this may be having a great effect on your results, whilst damaging your business. 

This is a problem that is behavioural and can be led by managers and team leaders, and often is unconscious. It’s one of the biggest issues we’ve seen in 20 years of training and that’s why you need to be aware of it.   

In this podcast we define the problem, take you through some clear examples, and give you some key ideas on how to manage this problem. 

To find out more about our work and to see what we could do to help your organisation, visit www.realitytraining.com.

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After Black Friday, we really unpick the pricing psychology that is supposed to appeal to customers. 
Do people always want the cheapest? What assumptions do we often make that can be entirely wrong? What is a good discount? In what circumstances can a smaller discount be attractive? 
This podcast helps you understand the importance of selling on value and of not taking decisions away from customers. 

To find out more about our work and to see what we could do to help your organisation, visit www.realitytraining.com.

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After some years as an agent or advisor in a contact centre you may well aspire to management. 
What will that promotion give you? Who will you be reliant on for some of your salary and bonus? How will you balance the tasks and team management, with the driving of performance? 
This podcast will help you decide if being a team leader or manager is really for you and also suggests possible other routes. 

To find out more about our work and to see what we could do to help your organisation, visit www.realitytraining.com.

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What are the words we can’t stop ourselves saying? What phrases do we pepper our conversations with? Do we understand the effect on our customers and our results? 

This podcast nails the most common phrases and words that literally ‘irritate’ our customers, and should be avoided!

To find out more about our work and to see what we could do to help your organisation, visit www.realitytraining.com.

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With over 6,000 contact centres in the UK and a high turnover of staff recruiting is a constant and tricky job.

What kind of people should you recruit?

To recruit advisors with the right skills to do the job they should be sales minded.

If there is any kind of incentive it is a sales role not a service role. 

If the role is to win or retain customers and to sell more products and services for a brand, again it is clearly a sales role.

Integrity, tenacity and other non-brand damaging skills are what a modern contact centre requires. Calling it a service role may widen the net but it often simply isn’t a true reflection of what the job entails.

A sales minded advisor will want to learn how to sell and serve whereas a purely service minded person will find things tougher when the brand wants them to sell and grow the customer base profitably.

Good sales skills will last a lifetime and a contact centre is a great spring board for a high earning potential career. 

To find out more about our work and to see what we could do to help your organisation, visit www.realitytraining.com.

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How do you prepare for dealing with difficult customers? 
This podcast offers some simple to remember techniques for coping with these types of call. Listen to 3 role plays, think about the language and the tone – how can you adapt these for your difficult calls? 
Also watch out for disloyal bonding – saying the wrong things to get the result you want – it’s a dangerous habit. 
Please listen, rate, review – and tell us about your difficult customers! 

To find out more about our work and to see what we could do to help your organisation, visit www.realitytraining.com.

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Contact Centre Focus is an industry specific, regular podcast, which will offer advisors, agents, salespeople, team leaders, managers, and directors of contact centres, the very best advice. 

Our perspective is to develop individuals and management, so that the contact centre industry, including call centres, web chat teams, and virtual contact centres, is fit for purpose in the modern world. 

Your presenters, Bob Morrell & Jeremy Blake are leading sales trainers and executive coaches who run Reality Training – a leading sales and management training company who have trained thousands of people in contact centres, all over the World. 

This podcast will help you engage with customers with free advice and tips that will improve your results. We will also challenge behaviours, leadership strategies and management related subjects. 

Positive and Negative – we will give you so many ideas and perspectives you will be inspired and engaged – that is our aim. Original Music composed by Charlie Morrell. 

Episode 1. CCF Introduction

Your first episode sets up what this new podcast series will be covering, all sorts of contact centre related content, find out who your hosts are – and how you can get involved and influence the conversation. 

This intro gives you so many reasons to listen, and please let your friends know so that for 10-15 minutes every fortnight, you can enjoy some free, impartial and valuable advice. 

To find out more about our work and to see what we could do to help your organisation, visit www.realitytraining.com.