How to Become a Better Team Leader in a Call Centre
Being a team leader within a call centre means you will have a lot of moving parts to stay on top of. Not only do you have to ensure that your team members are happy, well and productive, but you also have to ensure that they have the best tech and equipment so that they can do their job properly and keep their customers satisfied. After all, customer service is the pinnacle of a call centre as your team will be reaching out to old and new customers while also ensuring that all the calls that come in are handled properly.
How can you become a better team leader so that your whole team can thrive? Read on for guidance on how you can not only improve your skills, but also improve the work ethic of your co-workers and employees.
Place Emphasis on Customer Service
A call centre’s main priority is to ensure that they answer calls to customers and ensure that the customer gets the advice and information they need to sort out any issues they have been experiencing. The best way to do this is to practice what you preach and be a great role model. For instance, how could you expect your team to provide great customer service if their team leader fails to do it themselves? You will want to undergo training so that you can improve your current customer service skills or brush up on the ones you already have.
Another way to improve your team’s customer service is to invest in call centre analytics technology so that you can obtain data and analyze it. By doing this, you can see where you need to improve as well as what you are doing right. The data that is logged is also real-time, so you can gain insight to up-to-date, relevant information. Learn more about how call centre analytics can help improve customer service.
Improve Communication Skills
All great team leaders will have strong communication skills so that they can speak with their team and ensure that everyone is on the same page and has clear instructions on what is expected of them. Poor communication can lead to mistakes that are damaging and costly to the business’s bottom line but also their reputation and brand. It can also cause in-house frustrations as co-workers are unable to understand one another clearly.
Ensure that you can direct and lead your team effortlessly by improving your communication skills. This means learning how to cover the most important points, being concise, and ensuring that your instructions are understood. You will also want to improve your digital communication skills due to the digital world we are living in, even more so with the pandemic happening around us. This means learning how to work with tools and tech such as Microsoft Teams, Slack, and Skype. It also means checking in and holding team meetings that are also remote.
Motivate Your Team Members
Motivating your team members is extremely important, as good motivation can promote productivity within the workplace. How can you motivate your employees, though? Simple and easy ways to motivate your employees include:
— Showing them recognition and praising them
— Treating them with respect
— Being mindful of their wellbeing
— Ensuring that they are able to live a healthy work-life balance
— Paying them more
— Helping them expand their career and learn new skills
Engage in Training Sessions
Firstly, you will want to enrol yourself in training sessions so that you can become a great team leader. There are many roles available to you so that you can improve your existing skillset, so be sure that you find a few interesting courses that will be worthwhile. Furthermore, you may also wish to teach your team the skills you have learnt and impart your newfound wisdom.
Group training sessions, although looked down on by employees, can prove useful. Find a few team-building courses and exercises for you and your team to participate in, assign a couple of hours or a day for your team to be free from work, and engage in team-building exercises together. This could be roleplaying customer service scenarios or a simple trust exercise.
As a team leader, one of your responsibilities is to ensure the wellbeing and productivity of your team. You can do this by improving your own team leader skills so that you can learn how to motivate your team and push their productivity. The aforementioned tips can help you improve your skills but also your team’s skills, too.
