Companies strive to reach a level of success that requires expanding operations to serve more customers. However, when a company needs to grow drastically and support more customers, they’ll most likely also need to expand their contact center operations. In a recent article, Leonard Klie shares insight on the topic of expanding business and call center operations from a major gaming and hospitality organization that expanded their services and contact center.
The organization’s philosophy on guest service and customer service can be summed up as simplifying the employee experience in an effort to provide great guest service. Basically, the organization tries to eliminate as many unnecessary procedures as possible to enable the employees to be freer to focus on greeting, engaging, and thanking every guest. Every guest should have a memorable experience and feel like they’re appreciated by the organization. The key to accomplishing this experience is by having the employees make a personal connection to the guests and go beyond simply meeting expectations in an effort to provide a positive overall experience. So, when it came time for the organization to expand their operations, it was also important to expand their contact center.
Currently, the organization has two contact centers with over 100 agents who handle thousands of reservations and inquiries every month. This is a result of the organization opening three new locations in the last seven years and also due to feedback they were receiving from guests on social media who expected quicker answer times. The contact increased their response times from 80% to 96% of calls being answered within 20 seconds. These improvements have been great, but it took a lot of time, effort, and resources to make it happen.
First, the organization completely revamped their original contact center with new computers, furniture, technology, etc. Second, they opened a new contact center instead of expanding on their existing one. In total, two million dollars were needed to open a new call center and modernize the existing one in addition to increasing their operating budgets by over one million dollars. All of this, of course, needed to be approved by the board after utilizing a major consulting partner and presenting a business case for change and a scaling strategy. Once all of the locational expansions were complete, it was time to hire and train new contact center agents.
After interviewing and hiring near 100 new contact center agents based on their qualifications and how well they fit into the company culture, it was time to train them. The organization made sure that they didn’t rush their new hires into taking guest calls because they felt it was more important that they had time to build their service habits by shadowing experienced agents and working up their abilities until they’re ready to deliver the proper level of service. The key was to avoid overloading the new hires with information and instead building the information over time in an interactive, nurturing, and fun environment.
Ultimately, the organization was successful in their call center expansion, and it’s due to proper planning and ensuring the goals are flexible and scalable. The most important factor was making sure the people involved were being properly briefed, utilized, and developed while making the expansion a team effort. If your company or organization is looking to expand its operations or contact center, it can learn a lot from Leonard Klie’s article. Be ambitious and collaborative throughout the process, but never lose sight on the most important aspect of success: the people in your organization and your customers.
This blog post is based on an article from CRM Magazine. To read the original article, please click the link below:
Anatomy of a Contact Center Expansion – Leonard Klie
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