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Recent posts have discussed the impact management training and agent training has on results. In this post, however, the focus will be on demonstrating in cold numbers what the negative impact will be if you are not managing your lead pool effectively. The example below applies to a call center or contact centers but could be applied to automotive dealerships or any industry where business is conducted over the phone. (Financial products, Insurance, Real Estate et al.)
Time to crunch the numbers!!!
We have two teams of ten callers, who work an eight-hour day.
Team A handles 25 calls per hour and converts 5% into sales.
Team B handles 27 calls per hour but converts only 4% into sales.
The next day, the Site Director or GM does not notice that Team B handled 27 calls per hour and converted less. Or maybe they do not feel one percent less in conversion is a lot. Well, is it?
Let’s see what the math shows us.
Group A: 10 callers x 25 calls = 250 calls/hr x 5% conversion = 12.5 sale/hr.
12.5 sales/hr x 8 hours= 100 sales at the end of the day. Nice job, Team A!!!
Group B: 10 callers x 27 calls = 270 calls/hr x4% = 10.8 sales/hr.
10.8 sales/hr x 8 hours= 86 sales at the end of the day.
That means Group B converted 14 less sales while using 160 more leads.
Let’s see what the math says when we extrapolate this out over time.
14 sales x 5 days = 70 less sales for the week from Group B
70 sales a week x 52 = 3,640 less sales a year from Group B
3640 sales x (fill in the blank) let’s say $50 a sale = $182,000 less in earnings for Group B at the end of the year. ( not counting the cost of the 41,600 extra leads you would need to purchase to keep Group B working the same amount of hours as Team A. )
That’s $182,000 flushed down the drain because Team B team was allowed to take two extra calls per hour and not convert but more importantly, the GM or Site director did not address it.
Now, multiply 10 callers by how many you have in your call center, maybe 20. $364K lost, 40 callers? That’s ¾ million dollars lost.
That seems like a lot to me. And that is just two calls. How many of you who oversee sales teams notice calls per hour going up and down 3-4 calls per hour or more?
Open the window and let the $$$ flow out.
There are two ways a site director, GSM, or call center manager can fix this:
1. Monitor your daily reports and speak to the people whose calls were much higher than the room before they get on the phones again. Ask them questions to find out what they are experiencing. Maybe you can address something very simple right there. By doing this, you let them know what you expect from them moving forward, as well as letting them know their supervisor will be giving them extra training to rectify this issue and help them improve their performances.
2. Use your report screens/CRM effectively. Every 30 minutes, check the room average for calls per hour. Focus on those who are exceeding the room and ask the supervisor on duty what they are doing to help them improve, what they heard when they listened in, etcetera. This will accomplish two things: The caller will improve, and your supervisor will know that he needs to aware of what is going on with his team at any moment of the day.
Remember follow up is important to anchor in changes in behavior. Check the next day to see if the people you focused on improved. If they did, congratulate them. If they did not, remind them of your expectations. Then, find the supervisor who worked with them yesterday to see why they did not improve. Was the caller not applying the training? Or was the supervisor not doing his job?
Leads are expensive. Managing your lead pool takes focus each day. If you do not pay attention to this, you are wasting valuable income you could utilize for growing your business or finding new incentives for your employees.
Let me know your thoughts.
Glenn Pasch is the President of Improved Performance Solutions, found at http://improvedperformancesolutions.com. Improved Performance Solutions is a consulting firm that specializes in helping organizations improve their customer interaction. They provide the proper training to convert conversations into sales and positive customer service experiences.