Contact centers are the heart of any business. They not only shape customer experience but also play a key role in driving revenue. However, shaping an effective contact center culture isn’t just about adhering to KPIs and maintaining quality scores. It’s about identifying the core values that will drive the center’s operations, aligning those values with your business strategy, and instilling them in every member of your team. Two fundamental aspects we identified at our contact center are Attitude and Effort.
Defining Contact Center Culture
Before we could start shaping our center’s culture, we had to define what we valued most. Unlike internal contact centers, our contact center is also our core business. It is how we generate revenue, making the stakes significantly higher. So, we focused on aspects such as attendance, quality scores, and key performance indicators (KPIs).
However, beyond these metrics, we also wanted to ensure we had agents who were naturally positive, eager to learn, and willing to make an effort. The contact center experience wasn’t our top priority; instead, we looked for people who could bring a sunny disposition and an entrepreneurial mindset to the table.
In essence, we wanted our culture to be defined by attitude and effort.
Recruiting for Attitude & Effort
Recruiting for attitude and effort involves going beyond resumes and looking deeper into a person’s character. We don’t just hire people with years of experience in the contact center industry; we hire people with the right mindset. Our HR team focuses on digging into the candidate’s personality during interviews, seeing if they can naturally carry a conversation, laugh, and handle situations calmly and confidently.
The attitude and effort model doesn’t only apply to our agents. It applies to everyone, from our IT staff to our HR supervisors. Whether we’re hiring new employees or promoting existing ones, we put emphasis on these two core tenets of our culture.
Incentivizing Attitude & Effort
To encourage the right behavior, we needed to incentivize the right attitude and effort. Quantifying effort was relatively straightforward – it’s about showing up consistently, being open to coaching, and demonstrating commitment to improving.
Quantifying attitude was more challenging.
The advent of analytics helped us address this issue. With analytics, we could measure agents’ tone during conversations, enabling us to quantify attitude. It also allowed us to pay our agents more for demonstrating a positive attitude – thus incentivizing them to maintain a good demeanor during their interactions. Sentiment scores allowed us to finally do this analytically and not subjectively.
Defining Cultural Aspects for Different Contact Centers
Attitude and effort work for us, but defining the cultural aspects depends on the type of contact center you’re running. For instance, if you run a sales-focused center, your focus might be on persistence and performance. On the other hand, a customer service center might prioritize empathy and excellence.
Meanwhile, a technical support center might value problem-solving and patience, whereas an outbound center might emphasize resilience and results. Regardless of the type of center, the key is to identify and foster the cultural aspects that align with your organization’s goals.
Changing the Culture of a Contact Center
Even if you’re stepping into an existing organization with a set culture, it’s possible to instigate change. To initiate this change, you need to engage the team leaders and supervisors who are committed to the long haul. Having a cultural committee and brainstorming sessions can be extremely helpful in redefining the culture.
Change should be a team effort. It’s crucial to have HR onboard because they play a key role in recruiting the right talent. If the change becomes agent-driven, it becomes even more powerful as agents can see the benefit and are incentivized to embody the new cultural aspects.
In conclusion, a winning combination for a thriving contact center culture is the right attitude, effort, and a strong focus on the core cultural aspects. It’s not just about hitting service levels or maintaining schedule adherence, but instilling the right culture that aligns with your contact center’s goals. By doing so, you’ll build a contact center that thrives on positivity, effort, and the right approach to customer service.
We would love to show you firsthand how our culture is real different maker! Check out our full website at www.expiviausa.com!