The 10 Skills That a Great Contact Center Manager Needs

An organization can adopt a vision of customer centricity. You can hire very talented customer service representatives. You can invest in a lot of innovative tools and technologies. However, these positive qualities are in vain if the company does not have great leadership.

Contact center managers are the key to the excellence of a call center. They realize the pro-client vision, allow the agents to simultaneously satisfy the clients and improve the commercial results, and help the organization to optimally take advantage of their technological systems.

But not all employees are able to reach this important position. It takes a skill set and a particular mindset to lead a contact center towards success in the present and in the future. CCW Digital has identified the 10 skills that a great contact center manager needs:

1.- Skill for coaching

The CCW Digital research confirms that coaching is the # 1 strategy to improve the performance of a contact center. It is also the most popular strategy for 2018 to improve the agent experience. A good leader knows how to significantly empower each individual agent: he can identify his strengths, weaknesses, learning preferences and unique motivations.

2.- Exhibition in the first line

The most successful contact center managers have spent a great deal of time interacting with clients. Moreover, the best leaders remain committed to the first line even after the transition to management. Aware of the importance of front-line interactions, they take advantage of every available opportunity to interact with real customers. They join agents in calls and even in their own field interactions.

3.- Versatility

Change is the only constant in the contact center environment. The demands and expectations of customers can change at any time, making existing best practices and metrics obsolete. Versatility is a crucial quality for future contact center managers, since they have to be ready to help the organization achieve its objectives and contact missions with the client, regardless of how the specific environment evolves.

4.- Cool Demeanor

Contact center managers are not simply responsible for communicating information and assigning tasks. Through their behavior and language, they must instill confidence that the organization is prepared to handle an unexpected problem with great success.

5.- Business experience

The contact center managers must understand the importance of customer centralization. The best leaders combine their passion for customer centricity with a great sense of business intelligence. They know how to manage (and work within limits) a budget. They know how to detect and address cost inefficiencies. They also know how to identify and educate their team about the connections between customer experience metrics and business results.

6.- Digital fluency

Today’s customers not only appreciate the idea of interacting on digital channels. They expect companies to offer satisfactory experiences in these channels. Therefore, contact center managers must understand the nuances of online channels. They should know what customers expect from digital media and the best way to train agents to meet those expectations.

7.- Passion for technology

Automation and simplification of key tasks offers a more favorable agent and client experience. This technological comfort is particularly valuable in the current era of outsourced based-cloud solutions. It ensures that contact center managers can collaborate effectively with all technology providers, optimizing the ROI of third-party investments.

8.- Presentation skills

Presentations are a key responsibility for contact center managers. They will routinely need to communicate needs, ideas, business cases, directives, good news and bad news to various stakeholders within the business.

9.- Main management competencies

The contact center managers must have an incredible ability to manage time. The great leaders of the contact centers are also capable of instilling culture and inspiring performance. They not only assign tasks, but they build performance-focused environments.

10.- Eye for talent

To create this ideal environment, successful contact center managers build the best possible teams. Taking advantage of a good eye for talent, a strong collaboration with human resources and skill in recruitment, interviewing and incorporation, great leaders bring the right people to the organization.