In the May and June 2017 issue of Harvard Business Review. There are a couple of feedbacks from readers that we found particularly interesting and would like to highlight it to our readers. The feedback is under “Interaction” on page 16 on the issue,

Spencer Davis remarked that “As the authors explain,…They cite one manager who woefully admitted that his contact center has for this very reason become “ a factory of sadness””

This feedback highlighted the importance of contact centre to train employee with the correct skills to handle difficult problems.

This in our opinion should include both technical and soft skills to handle difficult situation.

Without which, centres will continue to face difficulty in recruiting candidates for the contact centre industry.

On the employee front, they have to realize self-service customer service is a stressful environment where customers are usually stressed up themselves due to the lack of resolution to their problems.

There is no easy solution to this industry, we feel that the right approach is to strengthen training on technical skill and arm employee with the right soft skills to handle difficult situation.

From the angle of employee benefits and engagement, allowing employee to take mandatory time off from work could potentially address the issue of stress management.

Shaun Belding remarked “This article provides comprehensive insight,,, The “meeting in the principal’s office” approach does little to improve behaviours in a live environment.”

His remark clearly highlight the importance of service recovery being a core customer service skill. He further acknowledged the shift in approach in this industry.

In conclusion, we wish to share with our readers the shift in approach of customer service industry and why finding the right attributes in a candidate, which have shifted over the years, is even more critical to the success of a search.

From an employee engagement point of view, training and employee benefits will be critical to ensure the performance and retention of customer service employee.

You may read the full review here.