If you have to resort to such measures to get people to work for you in a motivated fashion, you're doing something very, VERY wrong.
On Tue, 18 Sep 2007, Steve Totaro wrote: > Anselm Martin Hoffmeister wrote: >> Am Dienstag, den 18.09.2007, 17:33 -0400 schrieb James FitzGibbon: >> >>> On 9/18/07, David Gomillion <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >>> I've stayed out of this thread for a long time, and really >>> didn't read the past comments, so if I'm repeating someone, >>> I'm sorry. I've been thinking this for a while, and just have >>> to say it. If you feel like you have to keep people from >>> turning off the auto-answer feature on a softphone, you don't >>> need a new softphone. You need new people. >>> >>> Yes, but have you ever drawn up a budget for a full-blown meatware(tm) >>> upgrade? >>> >> >> I do not know American work law, but if you tell your people to NOT turn >> off auto answer, and they do for having a break, would that not count as >> work refusal? As long as they get all the breaks they are supposed to >> take, of course. If for example a cashier in a supermarket here in >> Germany would just leave her position for a few minutes for a smoke, >> small-talk or whatever, outside her assigned break times, she could >> afaik get a written warning, and at the second occasion the full wad of >> papers (aka been fired). >> >> On the other hand, if you count only times while they are on-a-call, >> with appropriate logging software, adding a few seconds per-call for >> overhead, as their worktime, they pretty soon will keep auto answer on >> to get the required number of work minutes during their shift, I would >> expect. >> >> But this is not as much a technical problem as a social one: If your >> agents are unmotivated, they might spend time talking off-business to >> any caller/callee on the phone that seems to be interested in >> small-talk, and _that_ you could hardly find out technically. >> >> So you might get an upgrade without paying for the deinstallation of the >> previous "meatware", but the installation process of course has costs. >> >> BTW putting too much pressure on your agents might do bad things to >> their effiency, motivation, even mental health. Getting the balance >> between control and good atmosphere right is not easy, and something >> that cannot be generalized but must be tailored to the situation. The >> value of a "human asset" (imagine me vomiting my way through those >> words) can materialize in the number of sales, calls, ... and also in >> the customer experience he creates, which is hard to be counted in >> numbers. >> >> For example, I recently bought some music instrument and accessories at >> a phone-order company. The people there were relaxed, friendly, helpful >> and made the effort of giving me competent, quick information that I >> needed. All contact with them was extremely positive. >> >> As I needed some more stuff that I knew was a bit cheaper at another >> store (which only deals with customers in a matter-of-fact way), I >> decided to honour that effort. I also recommended the company to >> friends, which they probably will never know about and as such cannot >> count in as a bonus for their sales personell. >> >> *Just my loose change. Man, there were lots of coins in that purse.* >> >> >>> Makes Vista look like a picnic. >>> >> >> IMO Vista is an apple short of one ;-) >> >> To get the Asterisk relevant topics: >> >> You could >> - count on-call minutes to rate agent performance >> - track off-call intervals on a certain line and so track the turned-off >> auto answer >> - do some "social engineering" or "policy work" to get this sorted in a >> non-technical way (work contract terms, etc) >> - pay some softphone manufacturer to implement needed changes >> >> BTW what would hinder your agents from shutting down the softphone app >> when they do not want to answer calls? What would hinder them from just >> not talking to the caller when they do not want to? >> >> Best regards, >> Anselm >> >> >> >> > By "American" (I assume you mean the USA and leaving out the rest of > North and South America) employment laws vary state by state. Maryland > is an "At will" state which means you can be fired or quit at will > (unless you have a contract in place that says differently). > > Agents are the absolute best at finding bugs and ways of beating the > call center system. You can lock them down but they will find other > ways around every time. > > I think holding a company wide meeting about the issue and creating an > official policy on what is acceptable and what is not. > > Make it a zero tolerance policy. > > Then wait a few days, the first one you catch messing around with the > system, make a very public and open dismissal of the employee and make > sure the other agents know exactly why their co-worker was dismissed. > There will be quite a bit of gossip and possibly turnover depending on > the rep that was dismissed but you will see much less of the offending > behavior. Don't stop at one, make sure you let the agents know that > they are being monitored and will receive no warning if in violation. > > Sounds harsh, but you have to lay down the law. Even if you catch your > best rep doing it, immediate termination, that will really get the point > across. > > Thanks, > Steve > > _______________________________________________ > > Sign up now for AstriCon 2007! September 25-28th. http://www.astricon.net/ > > --Bandwidth and Colocation Provided by http://www.api-digital.com-- > > asterisk-users mailing list > To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: > http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users > -- Alex Balashov Evariste Systems Web : http://www.evaristesys.com/ Tel : +1-678-954-0670 Direct : +1-678-954-0671 _______________________________________________ Sign up now for AstriCon 2007! September 25-28th. http://www.astricon.net/ --Bandwidth and Colocation Provided by http://www.api-digital.com-- asterisk-users mailing list To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
