Success doesn’t come by default!

How is that some tele callers sell more than others?

Economist Michael Housman wanted to find out. He collected performance data of over 30,000 tele callers across multiple industries. He compared the superstar performers with the average ones to study what made them spectacular. He couldn’t find one parameter that defined the difference among them.

On a stupid hunch, which proved to be anything but later, he chanced upon the browsers in the laptops of tele callers. And guess what he found.

The majority of the superstar tele callers used Firefox and Chrome while bulk of the average ones used Internet Explorer (IE) or Safari.

Firefox and Chrome users achieved significantly higher sales and their call times were amazingly shorter. The customers they spoke to were happy and gave them higher ratings as well.

Not just that. The use of browsers reflected in absenteeism too. Tele callers who used Firefox and Chrome were 19% less likely to miss work than Internet Explorer and Safari users.

How can browser preferences signal performance?

Actually, their browser preference signalled their habits. And their habits were what that defined their performance!

Most computers come with Internet Explorer in-built into Windows that come along with them. Similarly, Mac comes preinstalled with Safari.

More than two thirds of the tele callers used the default browser without bothering to see if a better one was available.

But many of the superstar tele callers demonstrated some resourcefulness to check for a better browser, Firefox or Chrome, and had downloaded them. Instead of accepting the default, they took initiative to seek a better option.

Tele callers who accepted the default IE or Safari restricted their efforts to the sales script given to them without caring too much about the results. They saw their job descriptions as fixed and hence were uninterested in trying anything new or different. The monotony also made them unhappy with their work and it resulted in their absenteeism.

At least some of the Firefox and Chrome-using tele callers approached their jobs differently. They looked for new ways of selling to customers and novel means of addressing their concerns. Their continuous improvement and initiative resulted in better performance and hence the better incentives they got. And they had less reasons to stay away from office.

You could see the same among cell phone buyers who bother to change their ringtones vis-à-vis those who wish to stay dormant with their default ones.

Moral of the story: Say say no to defaults in your lives and success will find you. By default.