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What can call center employees do to become invaluable to their company? Listen.

(Burlingame, CA) – “Listen to your customer and they'll tell you what you need to do to make them happy.”

That's what Linda Arellano, a teleservice consultant and president of Las Vegas-based Customer Assurance told employees of the Burlingame, CA-based call center for the American Heart Association. The center, which handles contributions from throughout the state of California and other locations in the western USA, has managed to process over $40,000,000 in contributions every year and has proven themselves to be invaluable to their field sales teams – that according to Ms. Deborah (pronounced De-BOAR-ah) Kemper, the Vice President of the call center.

“When we started, we had to consolidate 26 call centers into one operation,” explained Ms. Kemper. “I was brought on board as the Director of Customer Service to help bring everything together,” but what Ms. Kemper didn't have time to tell her superiors at the association was that she had never built a call center from the ground up.

“I just went to the Internet and started searching for someone who could lend a little advice,” confessed Ms. Kemper. “That's how I found Linda (Arellano). Her background in telecommunications and IT was just what I needed, I just didn't have any money.”

The budget, or more accurately, the lack of a budget was not a deal breaker for Ms. Arellano who was looking for a pro bono cause at the time. “When Deborah called, we just clicked and I knew it was the right thing to do,” explained Ms. Arellano.

“I just had one question for her,” recalled Ms. Kemper. “How do you build a call center?” Although she laughs about it now, the situation was serious back in July of 1999 when she called Ms. Arellano the first time. “We were behind schedule and needed someone who could really help us out at the time.” Said Ms. Kemper.

It was the beginning of a working relationship that has lasted five years now.

“There are plenty of times when I think I should call Linda and when I pick up the phone to dial her number, she's already on the line,” said Ms. Kemper. “It's just how our relationship has worked these past few years. She's really in my head.”

Life Changing Consulting

One area where Customer Assurance's Arellano has spent a great deal of time with the AHA's call center personnel is in the development and fine-tuning of an active listening process she calls “Positive Monitoring.”

“We use lots of positive feedback,” explained Ms. Kemper. “Our rule is for supervisors to say at least four positive things about their direct reports every day.”

“Positive Monitoring” works at home as well as in the workplace, according to Ms. Kemper. “It's changed my relationship with my seventeen year-old daughter,” she said.

The process has produced some outstanding results for the center. In addition to handling a significant portion of the proceeds donated to the AHA nationally, employees at the call center demonstrate a high degree of interest in what they do and in the success of the field staff. “I've always been a very positive person,” said Ms. Kemper. “Linda has helped bring that into the workplace through our work together.”

Apparently, the word gets around. While most call centers have a problem with high turnover and employee retention, the AHA center has a waiting list. The center's careful selection of employees plays a rule as well, “We're careful to make sure every employee is a good personality fit with our team,” said Ms. Kemper.

Those active listening skills are supported through dispute resolution counseling provided by Customer Assurance's Arellano. Ms. Kemper recalled a recent call with an upset contributor: “We had one agent in tears when a caller was yelling at her, so I stepped in to handle the call. In those situations, I consider my job to be ‘reverse logistics' and I usually win out on those tough calls where people want their contribution back.”

Putting Active Listening To Work In the Field

The American Heart Association relies on the California call center to help coordinate the Subway Heart Walk promotion sponsored by Subway Restaurants. While the AHA field operator in a specific market may help initiate the program, the responsibility for implementation falls on the shoulders of the operators at the Burlingame CA facility.

“We just finished raising $22,000 with the help of around 500 Subways in Southern California,” reported Ms. Kemper. Through a proactive campaign of calling stores to make sure the promotion is clearly explained and successfully implemented, the center is able to remove much of the coordination duties from the AHA person in the field. “But we make sure they stay in the loop,” said Ms. Kemper.

AHA field staffs are able to work on larger contributors and public awareness programs that require more personalized attention because they have come to rely on the support they receive from the call center.

Of course, the center does get an occasional call or two that would qualify as a request for some individualized attention. “We recently received a call from an LA-based fashion designer who offered to host a fashion show to support the American Heart Association,” reported Ms. Kemper. “That call came in after midnight one night (when the center is closed) and we made sure all the proper details were handled first thing in the morning.”

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Customer Assurance, LLC was founded by Linda Arellano, a Frontline Talent Leader. specializing in the customer contact industry using techniques that provide unique customer insights and improved customer service.

For more information or assistance, please contact: Linda Arellano