When was the last time you used a good old #2 pencil? Remember those?  They’re the preferred writing instrument of elementary school students and standardized test takers all over the country.  (I clearly remember filling in those little circles with my #2 pencil.)  It’s back to school season and packs of pencils are popping up in stores everywhere.

I read something recently that amazed me – did you know that a pencil, on average, can produce 50,000 English words?  50,000 words!  That’s the equivalent of a 200-page novel.  There’s an incredible amount of potential in a little pencil.

That got me thinking about the potential in our call center staff.  I see some parallels to our pencils.  Pencils come in all shapes, colors and sizes – so do our people.  However, there are some things that are consistent for all of them.

Here are three that stand out to me:

First – they must be sharpened. A pencil’s 50,000 word potential can’t be unlocked until it’s sharpened.  It’s worthless before that.  Your people are the same way – then need to be sharpened…challenged…developed into something more than they were when they came to you.  Do you train them on new things regularly?   Do you give them regular feedback so they can sharpen their skills as excellent service providers?  You hold the key to unlocking their potential by offering to sharpen them regularly.

Second – sometimes you need to erase. My 9-year old son has a tendency to write his spelling words so fast that you can’t read all of the letters.  He has to erase and make it right.  I don’t yell at him for that – I encourage him to do the right thing with his homework.  In the same way, sometimes our call center agents do something that needs to be erased.  I believe we unlock lots more potential in our staff by creating an environment where admitting and correcting a mistake is an erasable – rather than unforgiveable – event.  People don’t come to work each day thinking about how to mess things up – but they do sometimes because they’re human.  Help them fix it and move on.  They’ll work hard to do it right for you the next time.

Finally, pencils wear out. Although there’s a lot of potential in a pencil, eventually, it wears out.  Great call center agents, eventually, want a new challenge.   Do you offer a clear career-path to your agents?  Can they progress into other areas of your company easily?  I always encouraged my agents to apply for jobs in other areas of our company (after spending awhile with us in the call center of course!).  I told them they were our ambassadors to other departments – letting others know about the challenges of being in the call center and serving our customers.  They carried our philosophy of being great service providers throughout the organization – and that benefitted everyone.

So, here’s my challenge for you: go find a pencil – or a call center agent – and unlock some potential today!