No Time for Losers: Creating a Champion Culture of Success

How to develop a winning contact centre culture.

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: corporate culture works in mysterious ways. When it comes to driving your contact centre to success, you have to look the part. That means investing time, energy and planning into creating a great contact centre culture, motivating your agents and leveraging the right tools and technology to enable you to outperform yourself. It’s called a culture of success, and corporate experts have long been aware of its impact on employee performance.

Start at the Source: Manage Up

Managerial staff has a responsibility to represent company culture to contact centre agents. Managers of a contact centre should not only be enthused about customer service, but also set an example of excellent leadership qualities and a go-getter attitude. Managers who embrace challenges, accept constructive criticism, listen empathetically and respect their employees can inspire similar behavior and attitudes in their agents.

To manage up, contact centre leaders should:

• Respect and listen to employees questions, concerns and frustrations
• Actively seek timely solutions to challenges and problems
• Watch the way they talk to, and talk about, others — keep communication professional and refrain from company gossip

Set Good Goals and Celebrate Small Achievements

The road to each milestone or major company achievement is riddled with frequent, smaller achievements that may or may not have been recognized along the way. Yet, these small, everyday achievements and successes are just as important to recognize as the annual milestones. In fact, employee recognition can reduce voluntary turnover rates by up to 31 percent, according to research by Bersin & Associates.

But how can you ensure that you’re setting the right goals? While many contact centres obsessively track their metrics and focus on quantitative goals, such as keeping agent handling time to a minimum, or churning over as many customers as possible in a short amount of time, these goals don’t help your agents connect with customers for a lasting impact.

To practice setting good goals and celebrating the small stuff, try these tips:

• Set goals based on quality rather than quantity. For example, encourage agents to achieve first-contact resolution.
• Encourage an environment of friendly competition where agents compete for the most positive customer feedback. After, you can reward the winning team with a bonus, or something more fun and casual like a catered lunch or a round of drinks after work.
• If you sense that a particular agent is struggling with self-confidence, try giving them an easily tackled project, then celebrate their success, boosting their sense of competence and motivation.

Coach Agents to Outperform Themselves

All agents should be coached, not only the weaker ones. This is because in a culture of success, each agent should feel challenged to continue improving. To effectively coach agents, managers should not only pay attention to metrics, but also note general work habits, trends in punctuality, attitudes and levels of customer satisfaction. Then, engage in regular coaching sessions with each agent, setting follow-up sessions to discuss any relevant progress. Make an effort to empathize with agents during coaching sessions. Try to understand each employee’s motivator at work and how this can be used to further their success.

To coach agents for maximum growth, consider the following:

• Provide a balance of positive feedback, encouragement and constructive criticism.
• Set realistic goals and map out a plan for how to achieve them. Ensure that goals are clear, objective and measurable, and that agents understand the necessary steps to take.
• Follow up in a timely manner to let agents know you’re dedicated to their improvement.
• Prepare for coaching sessions by reviewing your notes on the agent and planning goals to set out rather than winging it.

Creating a culture founded on the principle of success is one of the most effective ways of encouraging agents to be successful in turn. Corporate culture must pervade every level of the corporation, from your new hires all the way up to the managerial team. Setting a positive example, celebrating small, everyday achievements, arranging plans for improvement and seeing goals through to the end are all important habits of managers in a successful company culture. For more information on how to create a culture of success in your contact centre, download our free whitepaper.