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Listen to Your Staff
By
Peter DeHaan
July 11, 2007
It was only a few minutes after
the last issue of ATA's eConnections had been sent that I received an encouraging
email from ATA member Joseph D. Lucero of Communications Marketing Services, in
Saint Louis Missouri. He enjoyed my article, "Beware the EBR",
and had an additional insight to share.
As you may recall, the article
was about a newspaper and their unrelenting calls to "upgrade" my subscription
despite my repeatedly telling them "no" and asking that they not call. The
upshot was that I cancelled the paper in order to stop the intrusions. My
article's point was that even though the paper had an EBR ("existing business
relationship") with me and could legally call me, their blatant abuse of that
right caused them to lose a subscriber. Joe commented "that because the paper
was essentially not listening, they spent X number of dollars on trying to
‘upgrade' someone that was not going to upgrade. Then they lost your
business." He noted that the paper took a double hit: lost business and wasted
resources.
He was right on. I had only
looked that the ordeal from the standpoint of my inconvenience and the paper's
lose of a subscriber. But what about the call center itself? The center had to
cover the cost of making ill-advised calls. Beyond that, how much was this
contributing to employee churn? Were they losing staff by having them make
calls, the preponderance of which they would fail?
Here's my hypothetical scenario
of what transpired: A "bigwig" at the paper stumbles onto the idea of upselling
undersubscribed readers to a full subscription. They hire an enthusiastic
newbie with the "gift of gab," give her a list, and tell her to call. She works
through the list - and with amazing results. She has a 23% conversion rate.
Because of her stellar work, she gets promoted. They hire another to replace
her. They give him the remaining names on the list, and getting greedy, set a
conversion goal of 25%. He only hits 9% - and gets fired. Over and over they
repeat this process, with each succeeding pass through this tired, old list
resulting in fewer sales. In desperation, they sweeten the proposition by
offering a free, three-month trial upgrade. By now they are expending a great
deal of effort, dealing with much angst, and generating little, if any,
results. This is certainly much more serious and costly then just losing me as
a subscriber.
Let me continue with my
ponderings: The agents' manager saw what was happening and realized why. Yet
the orders were coming from above and the dutiful manager did what she was
told. It's not a good career move to tell the boss "no" or suggest that upper
management is wrong. The prudent course of action is to obey the directives and
hope you don't get blamed for the bad results.
Less you consider this
unrealistic or fatalistic, let me assure you that it is all too common. Now
it's time for some honest introspection.
Do you allow - and encourage -
your direct reports to provide feedback on your decisions? Before you proclaim
an emphatic "yes," contemplate how they might answer the same question.
Are you now a little less confident in your response? Next, consider the last
time someone actually told you that your great idea was doomed to failure.
Can't remember when? And if you can, how did you react? At best, I imagine
that you struggled to choke out a meek "thank you." Quite simply, if you don't
encourage and reward open and honest feedback, the only kind you will receive is
the patronizing or disingenuous sort.
Had the paper's "bigwig" been
ready to listen and able to hear what the manager knew, then much effort, money,
and time could have been saved, good agents could have been retained, and we
wouldn't be talking about it today!
To read other articles written by Peter DeHaan,
go to From
The Publisher or check out his blog at
blog.peterdehaan.com. In addition to publishing Connections Magazine
and AnswerStat magazine (for hospital and medical related call centers), Peter
also publishes several related websites, including
ArticleWeekly.com.
He may
be reached at 616-284-1305, dehaan@connectionsmagazine.com
or www.PeterDeHaan.com.
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