Your call center team leaders are some of the most important staff members who can help you attain your goals. For this position, you have to find people you can fully trust.
Team leaders are in charge of relaying a brand’s customer service goals to the people in their team and ensuring that everyone’s working hard toward those goals. To execute their job well, they need a combination of strong leadership qualities and an in-depth knowledge about contact center metrics.
Hiring the right people to fill this role can be challenging. You’re looking for a very specific combination of characteristics, and the professionals who possess those qualifications may be difficult to find. Use these tips to hire a dynamic leader for your support teams.
1. Define the kind of leadership you want.
Every leader has a unique management style. Some are a bit relaxed and friendly to their agents, while others are strict with policy adherence and performance. Both approaches have their pros and cons, but you should choose leaders who can easily adjust to your organizational culture.
It’s therefore important to define the kind of leadership you want so you can create a list of the skills and characteristics that a team leader must have. For example, some companies implement an open door policy, which lets agents directly interact with top executives. For these organizations, managers who seem distant and unapproachable won’t be a good fit.
2. Create a catchy job ad.
Attracting qualified applicants is very much like advertising. Remember, employees also scrutinize the companies they intend to be part of. Thus, through your job ad, you have to highlight what makes your company a good choice for professionals who seek dynamism and growth.
You may use rich media such as images and videos to generate more buzz around the career opportunities in your call center. A lot of organizations also create a separate landing page for prospective employees, which usually enumerates the job details, requirements from the candidate, and application instructions.
3. Get to know the candidate well.
With technology available right at your fingertips, there’s no shortage of the channels you can use to research about your job applicants. Aside from taking a look at their resumes, you may go to social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn to get to know more about them. You’ll gain a good idea about who they are based on their posts and photos.
During the interview stage, however, take time to probe into the personality of the applicant. Prepare a list of questions beforehand, and pay attention to the candidate’s responses and how well they express their thoughts.
4. Assess both their hard and soft skills.
Call center team leaders manage two main things: people and performance.
To manage agents well, leaders must be excellent communicators. They must be willing to interact with their team both in and out of the office in order to build a great relationship with them. Good leaders pay attention to the needs of their employees before their own to encourage them to do their best and stay with the company.
In addition to people management skills, they must also be knowledgeable about performance measurement, contact center metrics, and customer service technologies. Therefore, your recruitment process must take into account both the hard and soft skills of the candidate for a more accurate assessment.
5. Make the screening process challenging.
To make sure you’re hiring the right person for a leadership position, make the application process challenging. After the interview, some recruiters—usually higher-level managers—give the candidate additional assignments. You can ask applicants to come up with possible solutions to a customer support issue or to revise an existing strategy. Putting them under a challenging situation will allow you to assess how well they’ll perform in your company if you decide to hire them.
