Another Point-of-View

My Cubicle - I'm patriotic all year around and not just only in August

Before I begin to write about my life working as one of the senior member of the management team in a contact centre, I think it is only fair for me to do some proper introductions.

My contact centre is part of a customer service department for a privately run utility company that deals with a certain commodity service in Kuala Lumpur, Selangor and Putrajaya. We operate on a monopoly-basis. This goes without saying and for the sake of anonymity, I shall not disclose my company's name. However, I guess my good readers will have no trouble at all in guessing which company this is.

The contact centre, in which I am one of the administrator, works with a very simple yet structured hierarchy. I shall introduce each key-players in the organization chart and what roles they play in shaping the direction of office. Again, real names will not be use here;

An experienced old-timer on the inner workings of the company. He was employed by the state and is in his late 50's. Expert in many areas of the field but has no experience whatsoever in customer service. Just a recent addition to the customer service department, he was before a general manager in charged of one of the 10 district offices my company administers. He was also, before that a general manager for one of our more technical departments. He reports directly to the Executive Director (ED) of corporate affairs.

An 11-year expert in the art of managing contact centers, Mr.A is a person not to be reckoned with. His outlook is a bit slanted to the feminine side but once you get to know him, you'll find that you will not want to mess with him when it comes to work and operational issues. Stern, strict, and sometimes uncompromising when quality is at stake, you know for a fact that he means business. He's 36 and some say that he's a bit young for this role. I feel that coming from a large multi-national telco before, he has a lot to prove in this Malaysian/Malay centric organization. A man with a multitude of ideas but is sometime hampered by the poor judgements of the general manager. He currently reports directly to the General Manager of the customer service department, Mr.Y.

In his early 40's and was once a manager in another unit under the customer service department. He has been with the contact centre for nearly 2 years but has been with the company for nearly 6 years now (I will confirm on this later). A calculative type of person and would only do something significant if there are clear cut and direct instructions from top management. An unwilling risk-taker and will only embark on a project if there is black & white attached to it. Over his 2 years rule, he has made many unpopular decisions concerning operations and needless to say, the majority of his management staff are vary of his decisions. As the manager, Mr.H reports directly to the Senior Manager, Mr.A.

A year younger than the Senior Manager, he has been working for the contact centre for nearly 5 years. An open minded individual that takes life with a happy-go-lucky attitude. Friendly with the staffs but can also sometimes be opinionated. Stubborn at times, especially when he feels that he is right and will not back down from any arguments. He has a close relationship with the supervisors and a few of the staffs - which often lead to conflicts of interests. Most of the writing posted on this blog will be from his opinions and point-of-view. He reports directly to the Manager but usually goes directly to the Senior Manager. Hopes to become the Manager of the contact centre in the near future.

There are currently five (5) supervisors taking charge of the day-to-day operations of the contact centre. They are divided into two (2) males and three (3) females, with each of them given a specific group of staffs to micro-manage. The supervisors are the pillars of office and they are the actual individual that pushes forward any directive from management onto the floor. Their main role and focus are to ensure stability and all of the set KPI(s) for the contact centre are achieved/maintained. Additional tasks are also given to them and these are known as "secondary tasks". These supervisor reports directly to the Assistant Manager, Mr.S.

They are what makes the majority of the contact centre's population. They consists of 45 male and female individuals with the bigger portion slanted toward female staffs. These staff works on shift and currently there are three (3) shifts available - one in the morning, which starts off at 7 and ends at 2pm the afternoon, another shift starts right after that and ends at 10 p.m., and the last shift is from then onwards till 7am on the next following day. The prominent individuals from the pool of agents will be discussed and talked about in the posts to come. From this point onwards, let's just say that the agents themselves are divided and the challenges faced by the management team are focus/revolves around the performance of these individuals.

In my future postings, I will discuss things that happen in and around my contact centre. The decisions made by any levels of management will be highlighted and I will try my best to justify why I am pro or against it. On a final note before I end my debut post, I would just like to say that one of the main reasons behind why I have decided to write about this is that because I think a career in a contact centre is exciting. Live is never dull and I think then public have often took us for granted. I hope to make the public realize that a contact centre is an integral part of any organization that deals with the public/consumers. It is also my hope that my readers understand why we do things in such a way and why we think sometimes, the customer isn't always right.