Why you need a social media policy NOW

With the increasing use of social media sights such as Facebook, Twitter, blogging and others, it is increasingly important to realize how social media can both help or hurt your company’s reputation.  Social Media can help your brand reach millions of potential customers.  However, negative comments can potentially hurt your reputation as well.

A negative comment from an employee can have devastating consequences for your company’s reputation.  With proper management, you can minimize the risks. Implementing a social media policy is probably the most proactive way to control this behavior leading to a negative reputation.  A social media policy well let employees know their responsibility and expectations when handling social media outlets.

Many websites and articles exist informing you what needs to go into your social media policy. However, one article that I have found particularly helpful is attached below. It discusses the 10 “must-haves” of a social media policy.

Don’t wait to start a social media policy. Your employees need to know what is expected of them and waiting until your reputation has been tarnished is too late!

10 Must-Haves for Your Social Media Policy

Katie Liquori

Social Media Manager
www.accurate800.com

Feature Employee August 2011- Sue S.

Our feature employee this month is Sue.  Sue has been with the company now for 35 years this month! She has seen many changes with the company over the years.  In 1976 when Sue started with the company, there were 6 operators- 4 of them were named Sue! She recalls, “Customers thought it was either a code name or Sue just worked all the time”!  Back then, Sue explains, the owner worked answering the phones every morning from 8:00am until 10:00am and it was not a 24/7 service- they answered phones from 8:00am-6:00pm Monday through Friday, and on Sunday from 8:00am-12:00noon.

Sue recalls that most of the changes she has seen have been with the technology.  There were only three work stations for the operators then and all message tickets were written on paper and hand time stamped by the operators. Customers had to retrieve their message tickets from the office to read them.

Sue names the primary reason she likes working at Accurate so much is the people!  She also mentions she is never bored!

Help us in thanking Sue for a wonderful 35 years of service!!

Productivity Goals in a Call Center

Agent/Company Productivity: The age-old question

So I asked the question:  For those of you that track agent productivity, what ranges are you experiencing?

My “logged in” productivity goal is to have agent available time of 90% and my “billable” goal is 80%.  Billable time is determined by dividing talk time by paid time; I also track reassigns and error margin.

Logged in means the agent is available for a live call. For instance, on an 8.5 hours shift, we look for 90% logged in time; that is, 459 out of 510 paid minutes.  We pay for a 30 minute lunch and two 10 minute breaks. We look at “billable” time as highlighted time; this includes talk and wrap time.

Here are the summarized responses that I received:

·        Those who pay for ON/highlighted time only have around 84% productivity with an average call of 1.5 minutes

·        Most companies answered that they have a one hour, unpaid lunch and breaks

·        Very few companies averaging 1 minute calls have accounts that pay per minute.

·        Overnights are a problem for many companies with productivity dropping to 65-69%

·        Company-wide talk time versus paid time ranged from 48-55%

·        Many felt that when productivity increases, the quality of service starts to decrease and agents start to get burned out

·        Many utilization/productivity/occupancy ranges averaged 40-70%, but would like to see it around 55%-75%   

·        Many companies with productivity averaging 69-72% believe these ranges are higher than the norm.  If programmers and managers comprise 10%, then the total is still around 60%...still higher than the norm.

·        Many companies said they can’t see striving for 80% productivity in a typical TAS environment without serious danger of agent burnout, and that 50% utilization is fair.

It appears that those who track productivity agree that 50% utilization is an average number, and that 55-65% is achievable and could be a goal.

In calculating these numbers, it is important to understand the calculation—Paid agent time divided by billable time. We are discussing productivity and for the purpose of this discussion, management labor is not included.

- Owner, Jeff Zindel

We would like to hear your feedback- tell us what you think!

Accurate Communications

www.accurate800.com