First Impressions

A little about the site…Beginning

Let’s start at the beginning… When my company agreed to purchase, this site the prospect looked strong on paper. It was a relatively new facility as well as one of the nicest (New PC’s, flat screen monitors, decent cubicles) that existed within the network, but the site was in constant flex and struggled to maintain financially, and with key indicator performance.

My company represented significant strength in call-center expertise, with a proven track record for building and supporting high-performance organizations.

We’ve all come from the trenches and our scars run as deep as our experience, so a site in crisis was nothing out of the norm and represented great financial opportunity for our organization.

A little about me…

I was a recent casualty of the near-shore off shore “strategy shift”, and as a result, decisions were made, my facility was closed, and our customers were now serviced by Bangalore.

It’s no surprise that call center community relationships are tight, and circles we all run in are small indeed… One of my former Directors, now company owner, needed a Site Director for this new opportunity.

The opportunity aligned with my skill set, and I soon relocated with my wife, two children, and my dog to call center, USA….

First Impressions…

My first impression was that the existing leadership (which was on the way out), was beyond substandard, and no team can be better than it’s coach and no organization can be better than it’s leader. I knew immediately this guy was apart of the problem, and probably couldn’t spell solution…

My human resource manager was young, quick witted, and seemed to be an A level – player. My management team (supervisors, quality assurance, training) seemed to be committed, and were saying the right things, but I had no relationship with them, and their skill level was un-proven at this point…

All seemed to be progressing…