People are Valuable

About 10 years ago, I had a manager tell me that I would never go anywhere because I cared too much about the people that worked for me. He said that I needed to pay more attention to the numbers and less attention to whether people were happy. Well, here I am 10 years later still espousing the concepts of "loving people." In a recent speech at a call center conference I said, "If you don't love people, then you are in the wrong business!"

After the session someone came up to me and said that out of all of the things that I had said in the past 60 minutes, that he found that statement the most profound. He said that he was struggling with the concept because he was working with people that had been promoted into management but that at their core, they really did not even like people. He said it was good to hear someone say the words.

If you are new to the customer service or call center industry, ask yourself this question - do you love people? Do you love watching them succeed? Do you love the feeling that comes with a successful coaching session? Do you love the people part of your job? If not, it is not too late to find another profession, because I believe managing people requires a knowledge that it really is about the people!

We will discuss more about how to be successful over the next couple of weeks. If you have a passion for people, feel free to tell me your story.

As a buddy of mine likes to say, no one walked to the front of the room in 2nd grade holding a headset and telling the class, "when I grow-up I want to work in a call center." But if you find yourself there now, I believe you are in one of the most rewarding jobs in America. I don't care what Ravi the director told me 10 years ago - you cannot love your people too much!