What to Look For In Potential Call Center Agents

To the best and brightest call center managers, having a friendly personality and an outgoing nature is not enough to make a good call center agent. A lot of call centers struggle with investing in modern call center tools in the hopes that their call centers will be a center of profit and that turnover rates would decline but they always seem to forget that it's not the tools and equipment: It's the agent who is going to use them.

First and foremost, a candidate's experience must match a position's demands. Consider where an individual has worked before. Will his previous experiences be able to help him succeed as a call center agent? Of course, previous call center experience is a big plus for any potential candidate, but carefully consider where he has worked before even if it's not a call center.

A friendly and outgoing personality is a good quality for any profession, but it may not be a definitive sign of a good call center agent. Managers have to make sure that the potential candidates are able to handle other characteristics of call center work like dealing with upset, angry and abusive customers and working various shifts. Conducting a face to face and over the phone interview would help in this aspect.

A good employee, as hardworking and loyal as he may be, may not be right for every job. Some agents of call centers are better at solving problems than they are at selling products and services. If the candidate was previously a writer or an artist, he may not be the best person to advise a client on a broken machine.

The agents of call centers of today's modern and fast paced age must be able to hit three birds with one stone. Multitasking is a very important skill that all call center agents must have. Agents, must be able to assist clients via web chat, answer emails and answer calls.

Lastly, the agents of call centers need to be able to adapt to the call center environment. They have to be flexible to meet certain demands. If they think they've got what it takes, it does not matter. What is important is that if you, as a manager, think they've got what it takes.

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