Member Asking - cell phones, pda, games in the call center:

We are an average sized incoming call center. (150 agents) In the past we have been fairly restrictive in not allowing agents to have cell phones, PDA's, handheld games, etc on the Res floor. What we are currently finding is that many employees use their cell phones as a clock, to know if a family member is trying to reach them or to play games in between calls.

We have had much discussion about why reading a book (which is ok) is any different than playing a handheld game as long as it is not distracting to others. Also, many phones and PDA's help employees track their schedule, trades etc. We are wondering if it is time to revisit our policy with the many changes in technology but are very curious how other call centers are handling this.

Members Answering:

1. We have a formal policy document on this, but I'll cut to the chase. Cell phones - On vibrate or no ring, and only for emergency contact. Internet - Standard no bad sites, no burning up toner on non-business stuff. PCs - Refrain from downloading the world. Don't download games. Set temp files to clean.

PDAs and other technologies - If it makes noise, or your not working, it doesn't work for us.

Here is where I deviate from most other call centers.  For the most part, I really don't care if you’re on the Internet when I'm walking by. My policy is "At the end of the month, your stats are yours to own. If you are performing, then I have no beef with you. If you are not, I'm going to ask you why you are on the Internet when your stats are in the toilet. Also, we are rarely slow enough to have time to read books or surf online. If we are this slow, I start pulling people off the phones to perform other duties including cleaning the marketing materials reference cabinet, re-writing training manuals, answering letters from Consumer Affairs, or other.

The noise restrictions are simply to keep the office disturbance down.

2. Hi, I would be happy to share our thoughts on the issue with [name withheld].  We do not allow cell phone use in the call center.  However, we allow games to be played as well as Internet searching allowed (appropriate sites).  We don't allow cell phones as we don't want a rep getting a call while on a call with a consumer and then try and put the consumer on hold to answer the call.  However, they can use their cell during breaks and lunches.  We do ask, however, that they leave the call center area when using their phone so as not to disturb others. 

With game playing and Internet searching we allow it as long as it does not in any way impact quality or efficiency.  If someone's wrap and idle times goes up, we may look at the person's Internet activity.  If it is high, we'll suggest this could be a reason for the efficiency issues.

If we are noticing while monitoring that a rep sounds distracted or is having trouble listening we again research to see if the issue is game play or internet (or book reading or whatever else).  If we find in our conversations with reps that it is negatively impacting consumers, we would agree that game play or whatever, be suspended until performance improves.  We have seldom had this be an issue.

Hope that helps.

Note: this is from Nintendo

3. We do not allow this kind of thing. No cell phones, PDA, Walkman’s, Games. In fact we don’t allow anyone to be on the Internet except for business use.

4. Because we wanted to foster a supportive environment (family life balance) at both xxx and here at xxx, we let people have cell phones as long as on vibrate, with a few policies:  not allowed to put customer on hold to answer phone or leave meeting to answer unless urgent.  However, I told them my family "code" of <if I don't answer first time calling and it's emergency, call back again> - and suggested they use the same thing.  I found it better to have my staff focused on the job knowing their family could get a hold of them when necessary. In turn, I found they respected their work time because I allowed this freedom. Also, we found it cut down on calls through the xxx switch reserving it for customers and long distance charges too. 

As far as PDA's - I encourage my staff to use technology.  Partly because of the nature of xxx's business but also because they could keep their schedule synced on it so they wouldn't have excuse to be late. Additionally, keeping them excited about technology tends to foster the excited about solving technical problems.

If they chose to play game in their own break time (vs. reading a book, go for walk, etc), that wasn't something I felt I had right to ask them not to do.  It's their time. I considered it a brain-break.  As far as doing this between calls, they typically had enough to do that it wasn't a problem.... We assigned project work to everyone whether it be reviewing/writing Knowledgebase articles or internal training procedures, etc.  

5. We do not have a policy around cell phone usage although I believe we have "unwritten" rules similar to what [name withheld] has at xxx.

We do however have a strict policy about playing games at work and the answer is it's not allowed - period.  We do not even although this to occur during breaks or lunches at an employees desk.  We have found that there is a huge perception issue when playing games, even if on your own time.  It never fails that this is when the VP's walk through the department.  We then are put into a position of explaining why we need as many people as we have (which is never a good conversation to bring on in a call center

environment).

We currently do not have a lot of employees with PDA's so this is not an issue for us at this time.

6. We don’t allow things that make noise or that distract people like games or cell phones when they are in the work area.  We ask analysts to return personal phone calls on breaks or lunches, and all analysts have direct extensions to help eliminate the need for a cell phone. Silent games, books, web surfing are allowed when analysts are on break/lunch in their work areas, and anything, noisy or not, is allowed outside of earshot.  We also have a foosball table in a nearby room for stress relief.