What a statement, this was said by a friend of mine who worked in a call centre!He said that he was so restricted by what he could say in “his script” that he found the work  soul destroying. Furthermore because he was so restricted in his communication style, the potentially interested prospects got really irriated with him and would not engage properly in conversation. This really got him down and he approached every call with the feeling “oh not another one”. Happily he has changed job and is finding his current work rewarding. However I really struggled with how a call centre business could run an operation where most of its employees were just so miserable in what they did! It made me think of entirely the opposite situation when I was engaged by a call centre to do exactly the opposite ie to find ways to make the work more enjoyable and stimulating and above all to ensure that the potential customer was treated with the best possible respect and consideration at all times. The agents first and foremost were taught to consider “the other persons world”, listen to their voice tone to get clues about what they were doing at the point of receiving the call. Then for the agent to adjust their introduction and delivery accordingly. Agents were invited to be curious about the different customer’s or potential customer’s communication style and to adjust their own style so they were in proper rapport and sync with them. When things were not going well, I taught the agents about how to pace themselves and change their state, so they would be in much more resourceful place to carry out their work. The project was a great success not only from the agents and team leaders being happy and more productive in their work but also this was reflected in a significant change in the revenue figures!