The Changing face of the contact centre

Two trends that could shape tomorrow’s contact centres

Increasingly we see larger organisations opting to move contact centre operations back from outsourcing countries to their client base. A recent example of this was highlighted by the fact that EE is set to transfer 1,000 contact centre jobs back to the UK. The move appears to be driven by a focus towards improving the quality of service and dealing with more technical queries that require a greater amount of guidance.

 

EE is not the only large company to move their contact centre operations back to their client base, in recent years we’ve seen; Barclays, Santander and RSA make the trip back to UK shores. If the aim of relocating contact centres back is to improve performance and increase customer satisfaction then it is vital that recruitment strategies match this ideology and ensure they recruit contact centre agents who will provide exceptional service. The second trend we have observed is that a number of clients move their agents from contact centres to work from home, we expect this trend to continue and grow.

Revolutionary as it may seem, it is actually rather logical for lowering office overheads as contact centre agents often work isolated and communicate through software and phone systems. The difficulty is keeping agents motivated and performance high without supervision; this can mean selecting agents based on how self-motivated and driven they are. Due to the nature of the job, contact centres are often looking for agents with good people skills and the ability to build rapport with customers and prospects. These skills whilst commonly associated with social interaction are not exclusively linked. Some might argue that working from home stifles social interaction and therefore could be detrimental to performance. Any potential danger can be overcome by building a robust assessment process for selecting contact centre agents to fit this style of work environment, by investing in technology to allow agents to communicate with colleagues and by making sure agents regularly get together as a group.

If you want to know more about assessment for contact centres, please contact us at info@tts-talent.com

Reference from Saville Consulting

July 16, 2015