Hiring A Call Center, and Learning to Let Go . . .
It’s like leaving my kids at school for the first time
It’s that time of year again….
School is about to start and for us this is an exciting time. My 6 year old twins are going to first grade. It’s sad to see them go, they will be gone all day. I’ve realized that I will be having lunch alone for the first time in 6 years! Of course they couldn’t be more excited for school to start.
I joke that my business is the baby of the family, but in a way it’s true. We’ve created this business, nurtured it and watched it grow. When people compliment us on our service, or our products we feel like a proud parents. Just like I am having trouble watching my two children head off to school, I have also struggled with letting go of some aspects of my business.
The first step for me was to outsource to a Call Center. I knew that with two kids my summer was going to be crazy and I wouldn’t be able to give my customers the attention they needed on the phone. The hardest part was knowing that I had to let go of some of the control of my business. Did I mention I am a control freak!
The first few weeks were awful. I compare it to dropping my kids off at a sitter for the very first time. The kids are crying, everyone is telling you to just leave and they’ll be fine but your heart is breaking because your babies are so upset. You walk out and stay by the door but out of site and listen until you hear them stop, until you know they are okay. After a few weeks it gets easier. My experience with the call center was the same. I wasn’t ready to hand over the controls. I love interacting with our customers. I would transfer calls to the Call Center for a few hours a day at first. I would wait by my computer for something (there was no crying, but I still felt compelled to sit, wait and watch). Soon I realized that the baby of the family was doing just fine without me. I also learned that I just needed to get out of the way and let my business bloom and flourish, like a child. By trying to control everything I was actually holding it back.
Now that summer is ending I am grateful that I took the plunge and outsourced to a call center. I have truly enjoyed the summer with my children. I have had more free time to play with them and they couldn’t be happier. And the business…well it’s still blooming!!
6 Comments
Mike Feiman says:
Interesting post Kara! Because you work with a niche product, I was wondering if you have found the outsourced customer service to be up to snuff from a product knowledge perspective. Did you do any training with the call center in order to help them better understand your products?
aonnet says:
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Kara English says:
Thanks Mike! Before we went live we sent them some of our best selling products. We wanted them to see, touch, feel and really experience the top items.
We also stressed that we wanted to be contacted if there were any questions that they felt they didn't know the answer to, even if they felt it was silly, we told them to call us.
This has also helped us to see where we need better product descriptions or where we need add more information about a certain item.
The ride was bumpy at first, there is a learning curve for both sides. But we have been with them for 6 months and we are very happy. The more they interact with our site and our customers they more they learn. I have received many glowing reviews from our customers that just rave about our "employees".
pcpartsplus says:
I am interested in a call center to help out. Any recomendations I would appreciate, and I'm curious if will they be up on my products or can i give them a faq page to help.
Kerry Murdock says:
Following from Kara's post, readers may be interested in a call-center article we published in 2007.
It's called "When Is It Time To Hire A Call Center?"
Kerry M.
PeC
Wes Grasty says:
Definitely make sure the employees of the Call Center understand your product. Also, if you can make sure you talk to each employee yourself that will be handling the calls. You want to make sure they are as personable as you are. www.customer-e-service.com
