Contact centers are known for occasionally being tough environments to work in, but as a manager, you have the power to change that and make your agents love coming to work. Any workplace can benefit from a strong, positive company culture, especially those that are based on human relationships, like contact centers. Here are five tips that can transform any business from difficult to delightful.
It’s said that every professional should perfect an elevator pitch: that is, a 30-90 second speech that sums up their accomplishments and skills to give during networking events. The elevator speech is to the professional what the mission statement is to a company. Create a short, snappy summary of what your call center does and make sure every employee knows it by heart. Every major change your organization goes through should support this mission. Create a code of ethics to complement it, and voila! You have the core foundation of your company’s culture. Display them both around the office—when your customer service representatives know the clear goal of the contact center, they will start taking responsibility for its success or failure.
As a contact center supervisor or manager, one of your biggest jobs is to quell any gossip, rumors, or negativity, which are poison to a productive environment. The easiest way to do so is to make sure employees are kept in-the-know about important changes and decisions; this clear communication will eliminate the need for speculation. Still, there will be times that you’re privy to more information than you need to give your representatives. Even in this case, it’s important to avoid dishonesty, evasive answers, or lies through omission.
The clear communication need not only flow one way, however. Provide your employees with an easy way to give your their feedback as well, and establish that no one will be punished as long as their comment is constructive.
Many companies are instituting a weekly event called Friday 15 for their team members to flex their creative muscles. For 15 minutes every Friday, the group attempts to complete a challenge, whether it is a silly Iron Chef-esque competition or a contest to design a better script for handling difficult client calls. These weekly get-togethers are used as opportunities to bond, build trust, outsource lingering difficulties outside their originating departments, and to continue educating great customer service professionals and great managers alike.
The best ideas don’t always come from management, and this routine time shows that your company welcomes new ideas and accepts errors as learning opportunities.
As we’ve said before, a good contact center manager invests in his or her team as people, and that means celebrating them for their accomplishments. Encourage your team to encourage each other, and you will end up with a better work environment—which will flow downwards all the way to the callers.
Meetings are one of the most frequently grumbled about aspects of the workplace—and luckily, are one of the easiest to tweak. In the United States alone, businesses hold 11 million formal business meetings a day and waste over $30 billion (with a B!) on unnecessary meetings per year. Parkinson’s Law says that work will always expand to fill the time it’s given, and meetings are no exception. Keep a timer handy, and keep your meeting on track.
When you improve your contact center culture, you improve your contact center. Contact us today to learn more about KOVA’s Verint Media Recorder Workforce Optimization suite, which can free up a busy manager to spend more time training, inspiring, and leading his contact center to success.
