Five common contact centre planning mistakes

Preparing to overhaul your contact centre this year? A resilient, well run operation is a powerful asset that can help keep your enterprise ticking over, regardless of what’s unfolding in the wider world.

Many Australian business leaders learnt the hard way that their contact centres weren’t up to scratch during the COVID crisis. Now, they’re preparing to invest in new solutions and processes to ensure it doesn’t happen again.

But implementing a contact centre is no straightforward matter. Here are some of the most common planning mistakes.

Failure to plan

Planning is the key to success in many things and some businesses don’t do enough of it before they embark on a contact centre upgrade. Understanding the channels and services you want to offer and researching the market before selecting a technology platform will help you build an operation that meets the needs of your enterprise now, and in the future.

Mission unknown

High performance in the contact centre begins with focus. Some businesses aren’t sure what theirs should be and it can show in the service. Whether it’s to sell up a storm or collect debts more effectively, being clear about its mission from the outset will help your contact centre to soar.

Interaction information

Having the ‘right’ number of agents on shift to resolve calls in an acceptable time frame is the hallmark of a good contact centre. Failure to anticipate interaction volumes – the number of enquiries you’re likely to receive in a given timeframe – sees some businesses fall down on this front. Analysing your traffic levels and using workforce management software to inform your rostering will ensure yours isn’t one of them.

Failure to launch (well)

The best way to launch a new contact centre? Slowly and quietly. Too many businesses flick the switch at an arbitrary time, often throwing their agents into the telecommunications equivalent of a peak hour snarl. Selecting an off-peak moment to go live allows them to ease into a new platform and iron out any hiccups.

Team clueless

A well supported, cloud based contact centre platform will set you up for success – but only if it’s used by a crack team. Scrimping on agent training is not uncommon but it’s always a mistake. Invest upfront in getting your people up to speed then watch them deliver customer service that sizzles.

Wanting to see how to optimise your contact centre?