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!