Are you one of those people who love using the telephone or are you one of those people who hate talking on the telephone and feel they lack self confidence on the telephone?

Telephones are a constant part of modern day to day life and business. To get the most from your career, you have to be comfortable on the phone. Most jobs require using a telephone, so being confident when speaking on it is a good thing.

Building self confidence on the telephone is easier than you may think. By applying a few simple techniques you will be able to improve your self confidence and feel happier about talking on the telephone.

Firstly, have a positive attitude. This is particularly important if you want to get a result from your call such as a sale or a meeting. Before you make the call take a moment to focus your intention on what you want to achieve from the phone call and keep your attention on this outcome whilst speaking.

This means you know what you want from the call and won't get sidetracked. It gives a message of purpose to the person you are speaking to.

When talking on the phone, make sure you smile. They know hen you are not smiling. Your voice tone changes when you smile, which is something the other person will unconsciously pick up on. Smiling when speaking on the phone will help the other person feel more at ease and relaxed. You will feel happier when smiling, which will help your self confidence much more.

Standing up when speaking on the phone always helps too. Standing like that makes you feel more self confident! Stand tall and straight with you stomach in, chest out, shoulders back and head up, looking forwards.

This is a posture that will make you feel confident. Standing up whilst on the phone transmits self confidence to the person you are speaking to. Having self confidence like this will help you to get your desired outcome from the call.

With the telephone being such an important part of life and business, you need to have self confidence when using it. The more comfortable and self confident you are with the telephone then the better results you will get.

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Forecasting and scheduling the right number of agents is not as straight forward as one might think, especially to someone unfamiliar with call centers.  Call centers are not like production lines or other tasks that are predictable. No one can predict when a call will arrive during a sixty minute time frame. In a busy call center they arrive in bunches, not one at a time, not at the beginning, middle or end of the hour, but randomly during the hour. Let’s look at the following examples:

For a production line, the following might apply:

• 100 presentation packets to assemble
• 5 minutes to assemble one packet
• Project time 1 hour
• Number of people required to complete this project: 8.33 people or 9 people. This is a straight forward math calculation

Now let’s look at a Call Center scenario:

• 100 incoming calls
• Average talk time is 5 minutes
• 1 hour increment
• Number of Agents required: I don’t know

Based on the above example, I don’t know the number of agents required, because other factors need to be taken into account. Factors to consider are after call work, number of abandons, shrinkage (how much of the time are agents actually on the telephones), when the calls arrive.  Let’s assume the following:

• Service Level Requirement: 90% in 30 seconds
• No after call work
• Talk time is exactly 5 minutes
• Callers wait 1 minute to abandon
• No shrinkage – all agents stay on the phones for the entire hour
• Number of Agents Required: 12.5

How did I get the answer. Use this simple tool to calculate number of agents to meet service level objectives.erlang.co.uk, Call Center Calculator. While this calculator is free, it is by no means 100 percent accurate for forecasting agents and calls.

There are many scheduling software programs on the market, but if you are looking for a workforce management software reasonably priced (under $5,000) then take a look at Easy Start Calculator and Agent Time Scheduler. These are two easy to use low cost call center scheduling software products that provide calculations on trunks, agents, after call work and schedules for the agents.

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Phone recorder selection should be based on the application, the reasons why you want to record phone calls.

There are many reasons to record calls, other than spying on someone. These include

• verification of a sales transaction
• financial transactions
• health or medical information given to patient
• legal issues
• insurance claims
• interviews
• improve call handling
• improve customers service skills.

Basically any type of conversation that you feel is necessary or required by law, to avoid any misunderstandings at a later date

In the most simplistic form a single line recorder uses an adapter/device to connect to a telephone line and to the USB port on a computer. Once you record the call it is automatically saved to the computer. Because the calls are saved on a computer, you have the ability to share these calls through email .wav or mp3 file format. You can record from portable telephones as long as the recorder is connected to the base unit.

Depending on the product you purchase, the recorder can be configured to record calls by voice activation, or manually select the calls you want to record. If you are using this in your home, and have only one telephone line, you may want to manually select the recording of calls.

Telephone recorders are available in all sizes, from recording a single line to recording hundreds of lines simultaneously. Ports, channels and telephone lines all mean the same thing. Be sure to check the regulations for your State. Each State has certain requirements for legally recording calls as to how parties to the call are notified the call is being recorded.

Now what about recording cell phones?

Because there is no physical connection to the cell phone, a third party service will handle these recordings. You dial the telephone number provided by the service prior to making the call and then dial the number to be recorded.

If you require cell calls to be recorded on the fly, there is another type of service available that will give you a telephone number to use to record all incoming and outgoing calls. You will be charged by the minute when using a service to manage cell phone recordings.

Recording telephone calls is not that difficult. You can find good single line telephone recorders for under $150. Evaluate the specifications and features to ensure you are purchasing the best recorder to meet your needs. For larger office type recording applications, you will want to ensure the telephone recorder is compatible with your telephone system.

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