What types of things does a team manger do in a call centre?

[humdimbdippy]

If you work in a call centre what does the team manager do on a day to day basis? I'm keen to know if this is a possible direction I'd like to progress into

Usually they do the same job as the call centre team, answering/making calls, knowing the customer service inside out, plus training/retraining staff where needed, plus the job of managing the team, helping them meet their targets, return to works, etc. Doesn't the job description tell you what is required?

I mean she spends a lot of time crying in her office, if that helps.

She deals with the gripes of the employees (which are constant and dramatic in call centres for some reason), tries to make sure all call statistics are kept where upper management expects them to be, deals with call escalations and complaints (which means taking on the majority of the difficult or abusive callers), works alongside the department managers to try and keep different areas working together smoothly, manages holiday and absence requests and everyone crying and raging because they didn't get the holiday they wanted, monitors all call recordings and holds regular meetings with staff to assess the quality and professionalism of their calls.... Lots of other things I'm probably forgetting.

• escalated calls/complaints
• call auditing and feedback
• KPI monitoring
• 1:1 meetings
• sickness / return to work meetings
• watching the call volumes and making sure people are answering them and not in code
• disciplinary/performance improvement
• training/coaching
• call trend analysis - why are people calling, when and could we reduce it
• team meetings

That ^^
And complains it's like herding cats

Sorry I should say I've literally only started my role in this call centre. Everyone is so lovely and everyone promises (with sincerity) that once you get past this initial horrible, training, 'new' phase that is the best place to work. Culture seems brilliant and there's lots of fun stuff happening all the time. I come from
Retail which isn't for everyone either but the call centre hours will work well for me. I'm just a bit 😬 will the information overload on week one. I know all
Jobs are like this until you settle. But I'm
Thinking way down the line what I'd like to progress to.

I traditional high volume call centre with 100+ employees is different smaller centres. Assuming it's one of those:

Absence management, sickness lateness, return to work, conducting investigations and disciplinary hearings for absence.

Performance management, quality checks, call listening, coaching reviews, 121s, spot feedback, training new processes, team briefings.

Conduct issues, behaviour management, sorting out squabbles from the team WhatsApp group no one is supposed to have, canteen enemies, fights and affairs etc

Complaints, taking escalated calls and managing ongoing more complicated issues that front line advisors can't do. Approving credits and gestures of goodwill.

Productivity, explaining to your bosses why x minutes we're lost from your team's productivity yesterday and how you will improve. Stopping Steve from having a shit at work every day, after he's just got back from his lunch break and is signed back in on company time for instance.

Giving ideas to management for how to improve things for customers and staff.

It can be a thankless job. I've done it for 20 years and progressed to Head of Contact Centre roles. The money is pretty OK in the right places, but awful in others. I see Call Centre Manager roles advertised in NW for as low as £28 but would expect it to pay £40-50k for 100 people sized centre or a regulated environment like banking.

Most definitely like herding cats 😂

I really enjoyed the job when I did it, but eventually reached my limit with the pettiness of the staff complaints. I worked in a few different teams/companies at various levels from advisor to overall call centre manager and there's only so long you can care about stuff like:

• my team leader says I need to wear proper shoes not trainers because that's what the dress code says and I want to complain because I think he's discriminating against me because he doesn't like me.
• I need to swap my evening shifts, i know I always swap my evening shifts and the rest of the team thinks it's unfair but I dont like evening shifts and get bad quality scores because I'm in a bad mood so I don't think I should have to work them.
• I can't sit next to Jack anymore, I overheard him says something to Jane and then Jane saying something to Sarah and I don't like Sarah because she once said something to Joe about me so now I think they're all bullying me and it started with Jack.
• I know I was supposed to be on my lunch at 12 but I went at 12:15 because 12 is too early for me. No I didn't speak to anyone about it before hand or swap with someone because I just didn't.

Ah we are lucky, very mild compared to that! There is only about 20 of us though and my manager is stringent in who he recruits, they HAVE to fit in the team
He does occasionally sigh and open a can of red bull at 8.07am though when we are really annoying him