Brad Worthley’s New DVD:
“Creating a Service Culture in a Call Center or Help Desk”

February 2007 - #2

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Complimentary Tele-seminar - IRS Call Center

Resources

New DVD by Brad Worthley

Job Opening

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Events

The 6th Annual Government Customer Support Conference and Expo
May 7-9, 2007
Alexandria, VA

The 9th Annual Help Desk Professionals Conference and Expo
October 22-24, 2006
Phoenix, AZ

Be an Event Sponsor Government Customer Support Conference 2007

Click for more info or email GCS@hthts.com

Does the idea of change make you tighten up and give you a pit in the stomach? Do you feel anxious, insecure, or scared about the change?  Are you having sleepless nights and getting touchy about things that might not otherwise set you off?

An excellent way to understand how most people feel when they are asked to make a change is to think about moving.  The move may be to another home in the same area, another state or country or a new desk.  If you have ever gone through a move, you know how it feels.  Things are "different from the norm" which is why change is hard.  Change puts people outside of their comfort zone.

Researchers have indeed found a positive correlation between change and physical illness. The "Life Change Scale" is a psychological tool which measures the amount of change experienced by a person over a given time interval (Holmes & Rahe, 1967). Individuals with high life change scores are significantly more likely to fall ill. (Source: Change and Information Overload: Negative Effects)

Working in the call center and help desk industry means enduring constant change. There are a variety of ways to cope with change.  Try some of these ideas to help you deal better with change and to help your staff.

1. Don't be a martyr. "mar·tyr: One who makes great sacrifices or suffers much in order to further a belief, cause, or principle."  A level two technician in our help desk group was a Cobol mainframe programmer. He said, Cobol was always going to be there and he wasn't going to learn any of the new PC languages.  He did not embrace the opportunity to learn something new, deciding to stay where he was comfortable and holding to his belief that mainframes and Cobol were here to stay.  Guess who was without a job a year later, after 20+ years with the same company?  He left the company without a career or a skill in high demand.  Embrace change - it can mean opportunity if responded to with the right perspective.

2. Hug or pet an animal. This is my favorite way to deal with stress, change, sadness and happiness.  I have two horses, three cats, and two dogs.  They are my escape from negative situations. They  are wonderful to share happiness with too.  Think of a time a dog jumped up to greet you with love in their eyes and the "smile" on their face. It can make you forget the negatives quickly. The energy you can receive from animals is indescribable.  If you are interested in animal spirit energies click here and for more animal energies click here. And yes, horses do hug.

3. Scream!  When things get really tough - scream.  It really does release anxiety.  If you are sitting in the call center or help desk, it might not be a good idea to stand-up and scream - go stand in the janitor's closet.

4. Use Meditation techniques: Sleeping pills might put you to sleep during anxious times, but the sleep may not be restful. Meditation works wonders. Many people find Yoga useful too.  Though not this kid.  I can't get into those positions.  Here are a few of my favorite resources to get you started: http://www.freemeditations.com, http://www.wildmind.org, http://www.helpguide.org/mental/stress_relief_meditation_yoga_relaxation.htm

5. Transform your attitude and become an agent of change.  My title at US West Communications (now Qwest), was Change Agent.  I embrace change because it typically  means a new door is opened. It is important to "see" the door open and know how to run through it to grab the opportunities.
   
   When the "real" telephone company was going through major change after divestiture, many people were invited to leave the company with a nice severance pay.  Most people panicked because they had been there for 15, 20, 30+ years. People who worked for the "phone company" planned to retire there.  I had already put in 16 years so it was scary to think of leaving but this Change Agent went for the door.

Ivy Meadors
High Tech High Touch Solutions

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Special recognition: Thank you to Christine Cameron for her skilled editing of our newsletter.

COMPLIMENTARY TELE-SEMINAR - Mark your calendar for April 4th, 2007 (top)

yolunda davis and Deborah Eaton from the IRS call Center present how they built a collaborative culture through employee engagement.

High Tech High Touch Solutions is now offering complimentary tele-seminars presented by speakers of our upcoming conferences. This session will be presented in its entirety at the Government Customer Support Conference in Alexandria in May. Yolunda and Deborah have loads of good info to share on this call but much more will be presented in the live interactive session at the conference.

Session Description:

There is one thing that plagues most businesses - CHANGE. The ERC is the single point of contact for all IRS employees to request administrative products and services. We have morphed from a Call Center to a Customer Service site. There has been no significant turn over in employees. How did we do it? Two words, Employee Engagement.

In this seminar, you will see how change was effectively managed through building a culture that emphasizes individual skill. Employees expressed a need to modify the work distribution system. As a result, employees were empowered to develop a solution that addressed both their concerns and management objectives. The new process not only met the immediate needs of the employees but it increased productivity.

Benefits of attending:

• Learn how to use collaboration and influence to maximize operations
• Hear how employee driven solutions lead to increased productivity
• Discuss negotiations strategy to gain union support
• Tips on building an employee engagement program

Meet the Speakers:

Deborah Eaton has 32 years of IRS experience, in administrative services, help desks and taxation. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Education from the University of Memphis, and a Masters of Science in Management from National-Louis University in Chicago.

Yolunda Davis has over seventeen years of experience as a Management Analyst, has been a part of the IRS Employee Resource Center from it’s inception in 2001. Yolunda holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Alabama in Birmingham.

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