Call Centers

Managing Call Centre in Economic Downturn

Economic recession has been the recent feature of the global business world. It is certainly very challenging and difficult to manage call centers in such a scenario. With the global recession companies were forced to cut the costs, optimize the number of employees and budget resources.

Managing Call Centre in Economic Downturn demands a holistic/ comprehensive approach to optimally utilize the resources and streamline the business services without compromising on service quality. The services must be properly streamlined and the power of upgraded technology must be tapped to combat with the economic recession and yet maintain a qualitative service.

Following are the three essential principles which must be followed for effective monitoring of call center services during recession.

• Cut the operating expenses as it accounts for 55 to60 percent of the entire budget: just identify the areas from where the expenses can be cut without affecting the quality of the service and those areas which need improvement. You may need to invest in getting some efficiency tools or upgraded software tools to improve the operational efficiency. This may seem to be contradictory against your priority of savings in difficult scenario of economic recession but it will let your company stand apart from the crowd and will prove highly advantageous in the long run.


• Optimize your labor force by proper layoffs of mediocre staffs: follow the 80/20 rule of management and get the least productive employees out of your center to reduce the operational cost and let the employees self-manage and work according to the fixed priorities in changed conditions. Providing the tools to the employees to self-manage themselves leaves you with more time to invest it on other more important priorities.


• Winning the confidence of the customers by taking creative measures: the call centers managers and the agents should undertake collaborative steps to measure the confidence level of the customers and


• Should constantly remind the customers that your company provides superior service. Modify or redesign your strategies in the changed scenario to improve your first time call resolution rate and win the loyalty of your customers.