Improving the performance of a contact center doesn’t have to break the bank. Drawing on years of research and insights, here are six practical, proven strategies—”Can Dos”—that will enhance your contact center’s impact on the business, customers, and employees.
1. Advertise What Your Contact Center Can Do
Contact centers often have an unfair reputation as a “necessary evil” within corporations. But the truth is, they deliver immense value. For example, one best-practice organization turned their agents into heroes by spotlighting their impact through internal newsletters, intranet features, and even posters in the break room. Highlighting how the center resolved critical customer issues or generated valuable insights transformed the company’s perception.
Imagine this: Jane, a contact center agent, solves a long-standing billing issue for a high-value customer. The company’s internal communications team shares Jane’s story, emphasizing how her actions preserved the customer’s loyalty. Jane feels appreciated, and her peers are inspired, reducing attrition and fostering pride.
Takeaway: Become a PR machine for your center—use newsletters, presentations, or even casual conversations to make your center’s value known across departments.
2. Foster Interdepartmental Relationships
Strong interdepartmental ties ensure alignment with corporate goals. For instance, one contact center assigned liaisons to other departments to “cross-pollinate” ideas. A liaison in the marketing department discovered that customers were confused by the wording of a promotional email. By providing clear customer feedback, the liaison helped marketing refine their messaging, boosting campaign success.
This “cross-pollination” avoids silos and ensures everyone’s on the same page. Whether it’s creating targeted summaries or attending other departments’ meetings, proactive collaboration pays dividends.
Story Spark: Think about John, a liaison who attended a product development meeting. His input about frequent complaints saved the company from launching a flawed product, earning him a standing ovation at the next team huddle.
3. Engage Senior Management in Contact Center Activities
Inviting senior executives to witness the contact center in action can be transformative. Imagine your CEO shadowing an agent during a call. The executive gains firsthand insight into customer frustrations and agent challenges, often leading to swift and impactful changes.
Take “Company X”: When their CFO sat in on calls, she realized that unclear billing statements were a root cause of customer dissatisfaction. Her immediate response? Approve a project to redesign the statements, significantly improving both customer satisfaction and call volumes.
Takeaway: Involve senior management early and often—their presence motivates agents and ensures buy-in for contact center initiatives.
4. Be a Catalyst for Change
Instead of tackling symptoms, dig deep to find root causes. Consider the case of a contact center that experienced a spike in calls about their website. Initial plans focused on training agents to handle these inquiries more quickly. But a deeper dive revealed that poor navigation design was driving the calls. Addressing the website’s usability slashed call volumes and improved customer satisfaction.
Customer-Centric Thinking: When tackling challenges, always ask: What would our customers say about this issue? Let their perspective guide your decisions.
5. Bring the Customer’s Perspective to Life
To truly empathize with customers, employees need to walk in their shoes. At a telecommunications firm, employees were asked to sign up for their own services anonymously and report back on the experience. The feedback was both eye-opening and actionable—leading to simplified onboarding processes and faster resolutions.
Cautionary Tale: Be ready to act on feedback. If employees don’t see their input lead to real change, they’ll quickly lose trust in the process.
6. Focus on the Long Term
Building trust and transforming perceptions takes time. Successful managers balance quick wins with sustained efforts. For example, a retail contact center built a storytelling culture—collecting anecdotes from agents about how they’ve delighted customers. These stories became the foundation of their internal communications and inspired continuous improvement.
Visualize Success: Consider creating a timeline of your center’s progress to share during company meetings, showcasing milestones and results.
Conclusion
By applying these six “Can Dos,” you can transform your contact center into a powerhouse of value for your company and customers. Start small, stay persistent, and remember: every improvement you make has a ripple effect throughout the organization.
Kathryn (“Kay”) Jackson is an expert in the contact center industry, a long time CCNG member and regular contributor in CCNG member programs and events, and the Co-Founder of ResponseLearning Corporation. Kay launched ResponseLearning Corporation to provide organizations with consulting, training solutions, and knowledge-based products. She is on the forefront of simulation learning and knowledge-base management.
