9
Managing Your Time Rather Than Letting It Manage You

Learning Objectives

By the end of this chapter, you should be able to:

• Increase your ability to multitask.

• Identify time robbers and learn to eliminate or control them.

• Develop a system for better time management.

Time is what we want most, but what, alas, we use worst.

William Penn

THE NEED TO MULTITASK

Like many professions today where organizations have reduced staff, increased technology and focused on increased productivity, customer service requires an ability to handle more than one task at a time (multitask). In a call center this might require listening to a customer on a headset while simultaneously looking through her or his historical call information on a computer monitor in an attempt to find out information about the customer. It might also mean entering summary notes from a customer call into a computer while connecting with the next caller (this should be avoided when possible in order to ensure accurate entries into customer files and full attention to the new caller). Couple all this with the fact that many call centers are “time controlled” where both on and off the phone time is monitored closely by supervisors. Maximum effectiveness and efficiency is expected and facilitated to help ensure higher levels of accomplishment.

Whatever your job requires, the bottom line is that there is often is not enough time to accomplish all the assigned tasks. Depending on your industry and the type of service you provide (e.g., help desk technical support, customer support, or teleservices) you may perceive the number of calls per hour that you are expected to handle to be relatively high. For example, if you were responding to customer billing questions you might average 8 to 12 calls per hour. On the other hand if you work in an outbound sales environment where predictive dialing systems and other technology are used to do the customer number identification and dialing, then pass calls to the next available agent, phone time will often be much higher. This is often true because CSRs have technology doing the dialing and screening out busy numbers. The result is more “real” customer calls being distributed in a more timely manner to CSRs.

Like you, customers have less available time and more responsibilities. To better provide service to your customers and to help reduce your own stress level, it is important for you to become aware of how you spend your time throughout the day. Then, you can develop a system with strategies for better usage of your time.

TIME ROBBERS

Throughout your day you may find lost productivity time due to a number of reasons, some in your control and some not. By recognizing the impact of these “time robbers” you can sometimes modify behavior or change the way you do things in order to become more efficient in your time usage.

Internal Time Robbers

There are several internal time robbers—problems that stem from your own deficits related to time management. The following are some of the more common internal time robbers:

• Attitude toward service. Personal attitude often hinders effective service for some service providers. Typically this comes in the form of looking for reasons or opportunities to go out of service so that they do not have to deal with a customer. If you find yourself doing this excessively, you will likely hear from your supervisor or team leader. In any event you need to examine your reluctance to handle customer situations. This is especially true if you are new to the call center profession. A likely motive is fear of rejection or having to deal with stressful situations. If you identify this as an issue, speak with your supervisor or more experienced peers to see how they handle it. If your reluctance persists, you may need to honestly analyze if you are in the right profession.

• Disorganization. Many people have learned poor organizational skills throughout their life. In a call center environment this can result in poor service to customers. For example, postponing entry of summary notes in a customers file and then putting them in the wrong file. This can cause someone else a problem later when they are speaking to the customer again and reading incorrect entries. Another possibility might be that you are given information to share with a CSR on the oncoming shift and you misplace it.

• Procrastination. You may have heard the cliche “never put off until tomorrow what you can do today.” In effect the meaning is for you to avoid procrastinating. Putting off tasks can frustrate others and can also allow a backlog of tasks that either you or someone else will eventually have to face. Often the tasks put off are the ones we do not enjoy doing (e.g., calling negative customers, making cold sales calls, giving negative feedback to a customer and explaining why something cannot be done, or handling routine administrative tasks). Use the priority system described later in this chapter, or some similar process, to ensure that you do not procrastinate. This is especially important when the tasks in question are customer related.

• Over-achieving. Based on your background and behavioral style, you may be the type of person who must do as much as humanly possible and then some more. Or you might be the type of person who will not stop analyzing or working on a project (even if established goals have been met or the job is complete) because you feel that there is still more that you can do to perfect it. If you fall into either of these categories, the chances are that you are not being as productive as possible because while you are laboring over one task for excessive periods, other things are likely being left totally undone. Additionally, you are likely frustrating others who are depending on you for assistance. If any of these waiting people happen to be customers who are on hold, you are in fact delivering poor customer service. At some point when others are saying they are satisfied or when you have met minimum standards or policy requirements you should stop and move on to something else. Later, if you have available time and the opportunity to return to the task, you can do so.

• Lack of self-discipline. Discipline is a learned behavior that usually starts young in life (early childhood). If you were allowed to sleep late as a child, you likely hit the snooze alarm as an adult. If you were not held accountable for job assignments as a child, you probably have difficulty accepting responsibility in the workplace. Just as you learned such behaviors, you can unlearn them ... if you want to. That’s where the attitude issue mentioned above comes into play. Take the time to list areas related to self-discipline in which you need improvement (e.g., procrastination, missed deadlines, or tardiness). Once you have your list set personal development goals. Seek the help of your supervisor or others to reach them, if necessary.

• Inability to say “no” diplomatically. Too many people have a need to be accepted, to seem helpful, to feel productive, and a variety of other reasons for taking on additional tasks. Some people do so in meetings when volunteers are solicited simply because they are uncomfortable with the silence and the fact that no one else speaks up. Call it guilt, or dedication, the fact is that sometimes you have to pick your assignments and not take on busy work that detracts from your ability to better prepare for and service your customers. When possible ... “Just say no!”

External Time Robbers

External time robbers are issues stemming from forces outside your immediate control. Some of these forces include:

• Poor planning by others. While the inability to plan and organize effectively by others should not generate more work for you, it will happen. Depending on who the person is and the importance of the task, you may have to put aside your priorities to assist him or her. This is typically true when a customer, someone of higher authority, or someone with a customer-related issue that will impact the organization approaches you for help. In such cases, you should do your best to assist. Later, if you are dealing with an internal customer and feel it is appropriate, apply some of the effective communication skills you learned earlier in this text to approach him or her. Give honest, nonthreatening feedback on the impact of the person’s actions and work jointly to develop a strategy to prevent the incident from happening again.

• Technology failure. In a workplace full of technical systems and equipment, it is only a matter of time before something will break down. The key is to plan in advance for such an occurrence and have a contingency plan ready. Speak to your supervisor/team leader about possible backup files, systems, and procedures to substitute in case of technology failure. Develop some standard language you can use to inform customers of such situations and be prepared to provide service in alternative ways. Remember that customers typically do not care about your problems and processes, they simply want service. They want to know what you can do for them, not what you cannot.

• Drop-in visitors. Often, the person “interrupting” is a customer. In this case, you should do your best to serve him or her and not show signs of annoyance or irritation. You should remind yourself that the customer is your reason from being in the organization in the first place and is not an interruption. When a customer calls or comes in, stop what you are doing and focus on providing service. Once the customer contact has ended, then reevaluate your previous project and refocus as necessary.

Another type of drop-in visitor is sometimes a peer (possible internal customer). For some reason, a few people in any organization seem to have enough time to make the rounds visiting throughout the day. These employees or vendors are applying the technique of effective networking in doing so. Unfortunately, you may be busy serving customers or handling tasks and not have the luxury of visiting with them. In such instances, be polite and assertive in finding out the purpose of their visit. If it is obvious that they are on a social call, let them know that you are working on a deadline, have an appointment or meeting to prepare for, or whatever the case might be. Then offer to call or meet them at a later time, if you desire to do so. Most people will get the message. For those who don’t, try a more direct approach. For example, “It’s great seeing you again. Thanks for stopping by, but if there isn’t some work-related issue I can assist with, I really have to get back to work right now.” You can then offer to call or meet later, if desired. Remember that if you spend time “visiting,” you are not serving customers. If you spend ten minutes a day with six people, you lose an entire hour out of your schedule. Think of how much you can typically get done, or how many customers you can serve in an hour.

MANAGING YOUR WORKLOAD

Part of good time management is knowing how to get the most out of your workday. The better you are at preparing for and moving through your daily tasks, the more time you can save for other activities. The following are some ways in which you can save or retrieve precious minutes.

• Use a proactive approach to service. Providing proactive service means that you plan in advance for possible situations and have the knowledge, information and tools readily available to deal with them. This includes having a contingency or backup plan in the event that the standard course of action does not satisfy a customer or resolve an issue. If you are not sure how to do this, go back to Chapter 7 and review some of the suggestions outlined there.

• Maintain a positive attitude. As you have read numerous times throughout this course, attitude is one of your primary tools for success in dealing with a customer. Stay focused on what works well and the more positive customers who appreciate your efforts rather than on those few rude and inconsiderate customers with whom you deal. By taking this approach, you can keep yourself motivated to deliver quality service.

• Learn to control calls. Using some of the communication techniques you have read about in this course you will be able to better maintain control of calls while communicating positively with customers.

• Anticipate customer needs and requests. If your organization introduces a new product or service and begins to advertise and market it heavily, you can anticipate that you will be getting calls and inquiries related to information or orders. Prepare for these calls in advance by becoming thoroughly familiar with any literature mailed to customers and if possible get your hands on the actual item to check out it’s functions and capabilities. By doing this, you will be prepared for many of the questions and comments from customers when you receive calls or other requests. Additionally, if there are standard questions or requests that you receive frequently, work with peers and your supervisor or team leader to develop responses. This is similar to the Frequently Asked Questions section on many Websites and on IVR systems.

• Work smarter. Continually look for ways to make the processes and procedures you and your coworkers use more efficient. For example, if you are required to submit reports or other information, look for ways to consolidate information and to reduce duplication of effort.

• Prioritize tasks. Develop and use a system to prioritize tasks. Many people create a list of tasks to be completed the next workday putting those of most importance at the top of the list. The first thing they do is to check their list before beginning work in the morning. If new things have surfaced to take priority, they reprioritize the list, then begin work. Anything not accomplished goes towards the top of the list for the following day. One simple way to make sure you get to your priorities relatively soon is to break tasks into manageable chucks. Doing a little at a time when you have a spare minute can accomplish the task and still not overwhelm you.

A simple system for prioritizing taught in many time management courses is to break all tasks down into one of three categories.

Category A— Must do items go in this group. These might be callbacks or follow-ups to customers, meetings to discuss customer related issues that need immediate attention, or other matters of significant importance (e.g., responding to a memorandum from a member of upper management regarding a customer complaint letter).

Category B— Should do items fall into this category. Items that may not be top priority, but need to be addressed relatively quickly. For example, replenishing supplies or forms used when serving customers so that they are readily available when a customer contacts you

Category C— Like to do items go at the bottom of your list. Tasks such as, going through old e-mails or files to catalog or destroy them as necessary would be such an item. Not doing this will not negatively impact customer service. Also, it is not important enough to be off the phones when customers are calling in and need assistance.

• Take periodic breaks. A big mistake made by many service providers is that they fail to take scheduled breaks or go to lunch. Many times this is to make up lost time because they had to report to work late or because they want to earn overtime pay. Whatever the reason, if you follow this practice, especially for long periods, you are setting yourself up for increased stress levels and burnout. Your brain needs a break occasionally. This is especially true if you work in a high pressure, timed, productivity based call center. You are not doing yourself, your customers or your employer any favors by failing to take breaks. Ultimately, it will catch up to you.

If you work in an environment where your on and off the phone time is strictly monitored and controlled, make maximum use of your break time. Do this by planning or preparing in advance to do something that relaxes you—read a short bit of a book, chat with friends, go for a walk in the fresh air, listen to your favorite music, or whatever else you prefer.

With a shrinking workforce, increased technology, and a drive toward increased productivity, you will need to continually work toward more efficient use of your time as a CSR. To be successful, you must be able to perform multiple functions almost simultaneously in some service situations.

Unfortunately, you have both internal and external time robbers working to prevent you from reaching goals and accomplishing all the tasks that you have been assigned. From an internal standpoint, you must deal with personal service attitude, potential disorganization, procrastination, a need to over-achieve, a struggle against losing self-discipline, and an inability to say no as others attempt to dump tasks on you. All of these potential self-induced time robbers can easily derail your service efforts. On top of these, there are external forces at work that can interfere with service delivery (e.g., poor planning by others, technology failure, and drop-in visitors).

To be successful in managing your workload and time, you’ll need to use a proactive approach when serving customers while at the same time maintaining a positive attitude. Additionally, you will need to learn to control calls, anticipate customer needs, work smarter, prioritize tasks, and take care of yourself with periodic breaks.

Only through conscious effort and the development and implementation of an effective time management strategy can you get everything done during a given day.