Internet addiction in Contact Centres

Subscribe To RSSRSS

Posted Thu 11 December 2008 @ 3:36 p.m. by Megan Lacy

Do I dare to blog about this? How much time does a Contact Centre lose daily, weekly to the internet addiction? Am I over reacting? Has anyone done at research on this? I believe there is reason to be concerned. I bet every centre at one time or another have performance managed a staff member due to high internet use.  

I am always amazed to watch staff that are on the internet and on a phone call at the same time and they actually believe they can talk to the beloved customers and simultaneously check whether they have been out-bidded and still give great service?  Or more frustrating is when staff get to work and have that look in their eye ‘Can’t focus yet, need online fix’. 

My last role, we were unfortunately blessed with really bad management reporting of internet usage, it was no one’s fault, it’s just the way it was.  If we suspected internet use was unacceptable, we went through a long winded process through our IT department (I’m sure I even jumped through several burning hoops on one occasion) to get this valuable information.  The IT department had its own process for checking usage, (which sounds reassuring), however 1-2 months after the fact doesn’t help real time management of staff.

I have no doubt that some centres have some wonderful  ‘at their finger tip’ tools to help in the management of usage, however I suspect for the smaller centres they are again restricted by budgets and priority of tools to than can be brought.

I know with many centre, they have set up internet only PC's in a quiet room, it’s such a great idea.  Staff can access these PC's in breaks without people or management wonder whether they are on a break or not.  This is a wonderful perk to the staff.  Who would have thought that 10 years ago, employers would be saying ‘Here’s a PC that you can use in your breaks so enjoy’! (And here is a bowl of fresh fruit too)

So is it an issue or not? Is it just the minority again who can't self manage this addiction that is making it an issue? Simply, it should be used at the right times and in moderation when it's for personal use at work.

Categories: Lifestyle | Technology

ADD YOUR COMMENTS

     

1 comment

  • Giles Potter says:

    For centres that have Call Quality evaluation with screen data recordings, the Evaluators will be able to make comments on internet usage. The screen recordings find those who are on the net during calls, and of course it does happen. Is it endemic across our profession? My experience says it is centre dependent, so you have to look at your own centre to understand why it is happening. It is a behaviour, and like all other behaviours, strongly links back to the values of the centre and the communication of the organisation's values to the agents. The challenge I see is how do you get your agents to buy-in to your values, which are centre specific - you have to work out an approach. Can we start a blog on communicating Values?

    Added: 13 December 2008, 10:35 a.m. Flag as Spam  |  Flag as Offensive
  • Comments are now closed