Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Call Center Manager

🎯 Role Definition

The Call Center Manager is responsible for leading day-to-day contact center operations to deliver exceptional customer experiences, meet service level agreements (SLAs), and drive continuous improvement. This role oversees workforce management, quality assurance, performance coaching, reporting and analytics, technology integration (CRM, telephony, IVR), and cross-functional collaboration to optimize cost, efficiency, and customer satisfaction across inbound and outbound channels.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

Senior Team Lead / Senior Customer Service Representative
Workforce Planner / Quality Assurance Analyst
Operations Supervisor (Customer Support)

Advancement To:

Director of Customer Service / Director of Contact Center Operations
Head of Customer Experience (CX)
VP of Customer Support / VP of Operations

Lateral Moves:

Workforce Management Lead
Quality Assurance Manager
Omnichannel Support Manager

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

Lead and manage all daily contact center operations across inbound, outbound, and digital channels to ensure teams meet or exceed service level targets (ASA, AHT, FCR) and customer satisfaction (CSAT/NPS) objectives.
Develop, monitor and report on operational KPIs and dashboards (AHT, ASA, FCR, CSAT, NPS, abandonment rate, occupancy, shrinkage) to senior leadership with actionable insights and monthly/weekly performance reviews.
Build and execute short- and long-term workforce plans by forecasting call volume, scheduling staff, managing shifts and shrinkage, and partnering with workforce management tools to maintain optimal coverage and cost efficiency.
Recruit, hire, onboard and retain high-performing agents and frontline supervisors by defining role profiles, conducting interviews, and establishing career development pathways and succession plans.
Design and manage comprehensive training and coaching programs including onboarding, continuous learning, product updates, soft-skill coaching and calibration sessions to improve agent effectiveness and consistency.
Lead performance management including regular 1:1 coaching, performance improvement plans, calibration of QA scores, goal setting, career development conversations, and formal performance reviews.
Own quality assurance strategy and processes: define quality criteria, conduct monitoring and scoring, drive calibration sessions, and implement remediation plans to elevate service quality and compliance.
Implement and maintain contact center technology stack (ACD, IVR, CRM, CTI, call recording, speech analytics) in partnership with IT and vendors to ensure reliable operations and improved agent productivity.
Drive process improvement and operational excellence initiatives (Lean, Six Sigma, Kaizen) to reduce handle time, increase first contact resolution, and lower operating costs while improving customer outcomes.
Manage vendor relationships for outsourced services, cloud telephony, workforce management platforms and BPO partners; negotiate SLAs, contracts and ensure vendor performance aligns to business objectives.
Ensure compliance with regulatory, privacy and security requirements (PCI, GDPR, HIPAA where applicable), and maintain accurate call recordings, documentation and audit readiness.
Plan, manage and optimize contact center budgets including headcount planning, labor costs, operational expenses and vendor spend while identifying cost-saving opportunities and ROI for new tools.
Handle escalated customer issues and complex complaints, collaborating with cross-functional stakeholders (product, legal, billing) to resolve root causes and reduce recurrence.
Create and maintain agent scripts, knowledge base articles, and decision trees to ensure consistent, accurate, and efficient customer interactions across channels.
Implement omnichannel strategies by integrating voice, email, chat, SMS, social media and self-service channels to deliver seamless customer journeys and reduce channel friction.
Lead change management efforts for new product launches, system upgrades, process changes and large-scale initiatives ensuring minimal service disruption and strong communication to agents and stakeholders.
Conduct regular capacity planning and contingency planning for peak seasons, promotions, outages, and disaster recovery to maintain service continuity and SLA adherence.
Develop incentive programs, recognition initiatives, and engagement activities to drive morale, reduce attrition, and improve productivity across remote and on-site teams.
Prepare and present executive-level summaries, operational reviews and business cases to senior leadership, clearly articulating trends, risks, and recommended actions.
Champion customer-centric culture and cross-functional collaboration by partnering with product, marketing, sales and engineering teams to surface customer feedback and influence product/service improvements.
Monitor industry trends, emerging contact center technologies and best practices to recommend strategic investments and maintain competitive service standards.
Oversee accurate and timely workforce administration activities including attendance, payroll inputs, time-off approvals and adherence to labor laws and company policies.
Analyze contact center data using business intelligence and reporting tools to uncover root causes for issues and recommend data-driven corrective actions and strategic initiatives.
Drive initiatives to improve FCR and self-service adoption, including optimization of IVR flows, FAQ content, chatbot training, and knowledge management to reduce agent workload and improve customer experience.

Secondary Functions

Support ad-hoc analytics and special projects such as pilot programs for new channels or tools and post-implementation performance assessments.
Partner with HR to design leadership development and succession planning programs for supervisors and senior agents.
Serve as a key stakeholder in cross-functional workstreams focused on customer journey mapping, product feedback loops, and operational readiness for new releases.
Coordinate with IT to prioritize system tickets, outage responses and telephony incidents to minimize downtime and backlog.
Contribute to the design and governance of data collection standards and reporting taxonomy to ensure consistent metric definitions across the organization.
Participate in vendor selection processes and RFP evaluations, providing operational perspective and technical requirements.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

Workforce management and forecasting tools (e.g., NICE, Verint, Teleopti, Aspect) — capacity planning, schedule optimization, intraday management.
Contact center platforms and telephony (e.g., Genesys, Avaya, Five9, RingCentral) including ACD/IVR configuration and routing strategies.
CRM and case management systems (e.g., Salesforce Service Cloud, Zendesk, Freshdesk) — ticket workflows, escalation rules, data hygiene.
Quality assurance and monitoring tools (e.g., Calabrio, Observe.AI, Playvox) — call scoring, calibration, speech analytics.
Business intelligence and reporting tools (e.g., Power BI, Tableau, Looker) — dashboard creation, SQL or data query familiarity, KPI reporting.
Omnichannel support technologies (chatbots, SMS platforms, social media management) and integration best practices.
Call recording and speech analytics technologies with experience in deriving insights for coaching and compliance.
Knowledge management systems and content governance to maintain up-to-date scripts, FAQs and knowledge base articles.
Strong spreadsheet analysis (Excel pivot tables, formulas) and basic data analysis to interpret AHT, FCR, retention and cost trends.
Project management skills for rollout of new programs, policy changes or technology implementations, including stakeholder management.

Soft Skills

Strong leadership with a demonstrated ability to coach, motivate and develop teams in high-volume environments.
Excellent communication and presentation skills for frontline coaching and executive reporting.
Analytical mindset with the ability to translate data into actionable operational plans and improvements.
Customer-first orientation and problem-solving skills for resolving escalations and improving customer journeys.
Change management aptitude to lead process and technology adoption with minimal disruption.
Conflict resolution and negotiation skills for handling escalations, vendor relationships, and cross-functional trade-offs.
Time management, prioritization and resilience in high-pressure, time-sensitive operational settings.
Empathy and emotional intelligence to mentor agents, manage stress and build trust with cross-functional partners.
Influencing and stakeholder management skills to secure resources and align organizational priorities.
Detail-oriented mindset to maintain compliance, accurate reporting, and consistent quality standards.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

Bachelor's degree or equivalent combination of education and progressive professional experience in customer service or operations.

Preferred Education:

Bachelor's degree in Business Administration, Communications, Management, Operations, or related field; MBA or advanced certification a plus.

Relevant Fields of Study:

Business Administration / Management
Communications / Organizational Psychology
Operations Management / Industrial Engineering

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range: 3 - 8 years in contact center roles with at least 2+ years in a supervisory/management position.

Preferred: 5+ years managing medium to large scale call center operations (50+ seats), demonstrated success with workforce management, QA programs, omnichannel support and cross-functional leadership.