David Filwood

David Filwood

TeleSoft Systems
David Filwood is the founder and principal consultant of TeleSoft Systems, a call center improvement consultancy in Vancouver, B.C., that helps contact centers find, hire and train better employees. TeleSoft Systems is also the publisher of Service Personnel Appraisal Software (SPAS), a Suite of call center agent pre-employment screening tools.
  • 0 comments 1,861 reads
    Posted on 2010-10-26

    While most everyone can use a telephone - not everyone is cut out to work in a Call Center environment. Finding ways to hire better quality Call Center Agents is consistently placed as a priority by senior management. The majority of the costs associated with operating a Contact Center are labor costs — and hiring the wrong Call Center Agent is a significant drain on your profitability, the budget, customer satisfaction levels, sales results, and on overall Agent Team morale.

    Employers have more media options than ever before with which to publicize their Call Center jobs: Newspaper/Online Job Boards/Craigslist/Social Media/Video Recruiting, etc. In today’s economy, these new media tend to generate a near instant ‘tsunami’ of Resumes & Job Candidates. The majority of these Candidate Responses occur within the 1st 48 Hours after a Job is posted.

    Even during these times of high unemployment - a Job Candidate who is a strong fit for a Call Center Agent position is...

  • 2 comments 4,041 reads
    Posted on 2008-03-20

    Hiring the Wrong Call Center Agent is the Root Cause of most Contact Center Performance Issues, and it is a Significant Drain on your Budget & Bottom Line, Customer Satisfaction Ratings, Sales Results - and on your overall Call Center Team Morale.

    Every Failed Hire Causes You to Throw Wasted Dollars Down the Drain Hiring & Retraining Recruits for the Same Call Center Agent Position. Not to mention the Lowered Productivity, Poor Morale and Higher Absences associated with Hiring a Poor Job Fit.

    Typically, you will find 3 Different Types of Agents working in Call Centers:

    • Top Performing Agents - “Grade A” Agents with the “Right Stuff” that pushes them to Succeed, and a Natural Compatibility with the Duties of the Position. You probably have a few in your Company now and wish that you could duplicate them.

    • Adequate Agents - “Grade B” Agents who Perform their Duties Adequately Enough “to get by” - but No Better.

    • Marginal Agents - “Grade...