The Top Five Challenges of Today's Call Center Professional

Knowledge is power. A cliché, yes, but also true. In our fast-paced industry, it can be easy to sacrifice knowledge for more pressing matters – like making sure your call center makes it through the day. What's important to realize is that in order to be the best resource for your call center, you need to stay on top of your professional game. As a manager or supervisor, or even as an agent, your value to the organization is crucial, and staying on top of industry standards, as well as trends, is essential.

As a trainer, I get to speak with graduates of our certification programs rather frequently, and through our conversations, I’ve noted that five leading challenges emerge as the most common. In this blog series, I will take a closer look at each of these challenges and offer valuable tips for how to better present yourself in the professional call center environment.

1. To Obtain Job Security In these uncertain economic times, companies look to retain their best and brightest talent. As the industry has matured, more and more companies are realizing the value of good, experienced managers to run their centers. Call center management has truly become a professional career, and managers need to step up and prove themselves as leaders.

2. To Be Recognized As A Leader in My Organization To be acknowledged as someone who has experience and comprehension in call center management, leadership, business acumen, people management and customer focus needed in their organization to provide the kind of leadership that companies need; especially in this day and age.

3. To Create A Framework for My Professional Development Do you have a professional plan for yourself? How will you develop yourself in the industry? Take the time to look at your professional goals.

4. To Showcase My Value in the Marketplace While on the path to a management position, or even if you are currently in a management position, having professional credentials can indicate your value to your company, and to the industry in general.

5. To Satisfy a Company Requirement As companies make professional certification a prerequisite for hiring, many are also requiring it for those already employed. As we see this new trend in the industry, it sets not only a standard for all of us, but it also gives us a common language from which to operate.

Through the upcoming blog articles, I will take a closer look at these topics and show you that as our knowledge and skill-sets increase, we bring call center management and services to a new level of excellence.