Call center hiring on a shoestring budget? It may sound like a pipe dream, but with a few tips from AnswerNow, you can make the most of your call center hires without breaking the bank. With limited time and placement of priority on customer service, it can be difficult to find quality recruits while saving time and money. However, you can utilize internal resources and comb out inadequate candidates ahead of time to find the call center agents who can best serve your business needs.
Recruiting Through Your Resources
An optimal place to look for referrals for call center recruits is through your social network. Business partners, associates and your current employees can often lead you to a wealth of possible call center candidates. After all, business partners and associates find sharing leads a great way to create lasting partnerships in the professional world. People also like to work alongside their friends and loved ones.
You can increase your networking capabilities, while increasing employee satisfaction, by hiring those in the networks of your partners and employees. Want to know what is best of all? This form of recruiting is virtually free! If you are looking to branch out, you may also want to connect with local schools and universities, and have them post current openings on their career listservs and job boards.
Hiring on a Dime
Stop throwing money away with costly hiring practices including training new hires only to determine they are not going to fit with your company’s culture. During the recruitment phase, filter out those candidates who do not have the basic qualifications or experience required for the call center position.
Contact references and follow up on all past employers to ensure their resume is on the up-and-up. In a short period of time, you will have a solid understanding of a candidate that moves past your basic trust and instinct in what they have provided you with on their resume. Other ways that you can examine the skill set of a recruit include:
- An online typing test for measuring speed and accuracy
- A writing test that demonstrates their on-the-spot ability to communicate effectively in print
- A personality assessment to ensure the candidate’s preparedness for certain customer service situations
Once you have vetted your recruits, it is time to move to the next stage. Set up a phone or online meeting through sites such as Google Hangout or Skype in which you can virtually meet the candidate. You can gauge their personality to a degree that shows whether or not they are going to fit with your corporate culture. Plus, it’s free to use these services, pending you aren’t using Skype for international calls.
For the next part of the process, have the recruit come into your office for a face-to-face meeting with you and if you prefer, have a few other coworkers attend to get their opinions as well. If the candidate is a success in the office and you feel it is necessary, request one final step—a phone or in-person meeting with a coworker who will be working directly with the person.
The layers of recruiting will weed out those candidates who are not willing to do what it takes to get the job. At the same rate, you are saving valuable time and money in mis-hires through this cost effective recruiting route. Everyone wins with this hiring solution! Request a free quote today to see how our call center can help you!
