If you run a business, you shouldn’t take any chances with customer service. The customer is the best advocate you can find to promote your business. A great customer experience guarantees positive word-of-mouth. Poor customer service will be serious trouble. How you hire call center agents is crucial to the quality of customer experience. This guide provides the information you will need when hiring call center agents. The costs you will incur when you hire a new call center agent won’t be minimal. Think about it, the investments you make for the training of the new hires will be a hit or a miss if you have hired wrong. In the long run, hiring the right call center agent saves your time and budget. Never skimp on resources or overlook details when you hire call center agents. 

The Phases Behind the Efficient Hire of Call Center Agents

For definite productivity, you should approach the hiring cycle in phases. Make sure you put in adequate effort and attention during each phase before you move on to the next.

Understanding the Role Yourself 

Even before you start the hiring cycle, you need to have a vision of the outcome. You should be able to define what you look for in the new hire. Your understanding of the role and the skills required should be crisp. Take note of all the traits you would want. Hiring call center agents who are communicative and versatile is crucial. Along the same lines, identify your threshold. Know about the requirements you may be willing to compromise. Ask yourself about the skills that can take the place of another qualification. Identify those that are an absolute necessity as well. Build your ideal candidate profile and use those attributes for the job description.

Communicating Your Requirements 

Your communication about the job to prospective candidates will be through advertisements. A foolproof way to ensure only willing applicants is to add as much detail as possible. Provide a picture of what it would be like to work with you. An applicant should be able to judge whether your company will be a fit for them. Be clear about all the duties and expectations. Highlight the required and desirable requirements. Outline the skills, qualifications, experience, and traits you seek. Be detailed about the perks of the job along with the compensation. Maintain transparency throughout the job description for hiring call center agents. The details should be upfront for anybody who reads. Include further instructions on how to apply. Provide an overview of the hiring cycle and interview process. After adding all the required information, post the description under the job title.

Shortlisting the Applications

At this phase of hiring call center agents, your understanding of the role comes in handy. Skim through the applications and look for ones that cater to your requirements. Move on if any deal breakers stand out to you in an application. Look for evidence of the predominant personality traits needed on the candidate’s resume. Also, look for evidence of experience with those traits. Keep an open mind about candidates without telemarketing experience who have relevant skills. Once narrowed down to a few, call them for an interview and begin the preparations on your side.

Selecting the Ideal Candidate

Selecting candidates is the final phase of the hiring cycle. If you have shortlisted more than a few candidates, start with an initial phone screening. During the screening, you can start doing the groundwork. First, listen to the applicant’s voice because having a pleasant voice is an important trait for a call center agent. The best prospects will use emotion and vary pitch when speaking. Listen for a friendly and confident demeanor. Assign them a prompt to see how they respond to a probable customer scenario. Schedule an interview if everything goes well. The importance of the interview in hiring call center agents is a given. Prepare a list of questions beforehand but engage in small talk to ease the candidate. The questions should help you assess whether the candidate fits your ideal profile. Make sure you run a test for Windows literacy. An effective call center agent should navigate the operating system well. The ability to type without excessive errors and comprehend speech well is necessary. Push your candidate’s buttons to see if they can handle conflict. Allow queries in the end before you wrap it up.

Onboarding and Training New Hires

Although training and onboarding continue to be a part of the recruitment process after the hiring process, your work doesn’t end after extending an offer. The key to shaping efficient call center agents is their training. You can start by routing calls to the new hires that are simple and provide live training. Train the new hires till they gain the confidence to handle more complex calls. Assess reviews from customers and equip the new hires with skills as needed. Share resources with your new call center agents and clear doubts along the way. Be attentive to their progress and shortcomings and keep giving feedback. Remember to be patient and support your new agents.

Conclusion

Your work begins right from the moment you decide to hire call center agents. Make sure not to skim through steps or be casual with resource handling. This guide helps with breaking it down into checkboxes to ensure complete adequacy. You can also outsource Dedicated Customer Support like that offered by Helplama. All you would need to do is hire our services. You get customer support set up with local agents with no room for compromise.