Every call center or contact center manager wonders how to make his or her unit more productive.

Here is my list of 20 points of leverage, things you can do and have your CSR's and telemarketers do, that should boost your results.

(1) If you want to decrease turnover in service or telemarketing, double the pay! This sounds radical, but it isn't, if you factor in the true costs of recruiting, hiring, training, and then promptly losing good people.

(2) If you want to create turnover in your service unit, implement outbound telemarketing! Say, you need to downsize, but you don't have the heart to let anyone go. Enlarge the job to include selling duties, and you'll thin the ranks, pronto!

(3) Casual dress in your contact center may be getting you casual results, or worse. A major car manufacturer actually measured differential performance based on casual versus formal dress and found tatters less productive than ties.

(4) Stave off boredom & send the right message by playing