Successful contact center leaders design an organizational structure that facilitates collaboration among and across job roles and business units. They tap into the principles of good organizational design and revisit their structure often. They continually work on identifying positions they need and defining the responsibilities that go alon
g with each. They gauge whether agent-to-supervisor and supervisor-to- manager ratios are working as they should, and adjust them as needed.
Above all, successful leaders know that communication is the glue that holds the whole thing together. They work hard to maintain effective communication, including across distributed teams. Although cultures and communication styles vary, there are predictable and notable commonalities among successful contact centers. Among the most important are:
• Commit to keeping people in the know
• Cultivate a supporting culture
• Establish appropriate communication tools
• Develop formal and informal channels of communication
• Ensure that structure and policies support communication
• Listen actively and regularly
• Don’t overdo it
Successful leaders understand how communication creates meaning and direction for people, and they are committed to keeping a common vision at the forefront of the culture and daily activities.
Excerpt from Call Center Management on Fast Forward, Brad Cleveland.
This blog post is part of a series on the 12 Characteristics of the Best Managed Contact Centers. Read about:
- Characteristic #1: They Produce High Levels of Value
- Characteristic #2: They Have a Supporting Culture
- Characteristic #3: They Know that Their People Are the Key to Success
- Characteristic #4: They Build Plans and Services around Evolving Customer Expectations.
- Characteristic #5: They Have an Established, Collaborative Planning Process.
- Characteristic #6: They Leverage the Key Statistics.
- Characteristic #7: They View the Contact Center as a Total Process.
- Characteristic #8: They Leverage Technology to Support and Further Their Mission.
- Characteristic #9: They Get the Budget and Support They Need.