The Manawatu Contact Centre Cluster held their first meeting of the year today and I was lucky enough to be invited to make a presentation to the group. About 30 managers and team leaders were present from 9 centres around the Manawatu and lower North Island.
It’s such a vibrant area for contact centres and I was left wondering how much of this is down to the fact that those who work in the region are committed to getting together on a semi-regular basis (about four times a year) and sharing their experiences. Each meeting is hosted by a different centre and today it was the turn of Massey University. We met at a grand old homestead on the campus, which has been beautifully restored.
I spoke about the contact centre profession from the national TUANZ perspective, and talked a little about the work our organisation does in the telecommunications sector. At the end of the presentation we had a round table and everyone spoke about their individual centres. I thought it would be useful for Mouthpiece readers if I briefly described the issues that were discussed. But please note that other than Massey University and Palmerston North City Council, I didn’t get express permission to publish the organisation’s names, so I will just refer to them as A, B, C etc. After all, it’s the ideas that matter the most. But, if any members are experiencing a similar issue and would like to get in touch with the contact centre manager who has raised it, please contact me directly and I’ll facilitate an introduction for you.
A: A large chunk of the company’s business is now being managed by another organisation, so they are facing the difficult issue of separating out half their contact centre operation.
B: The contact centre had previously been centralised in one centre in Auckland and is now being broken up and spread through branches around the country. The primary challenge for this centre is workforce management, or – to put it more simply – ‘getting the rosters right'.
C: Centre C is updating its software and working on improving the quality of their customer interaction, in particular written communication.
D: This centre’s company is undergoing a massive rebranding exercise and the manager was very pleased to report that the marketing department is working closely with the contact centre to ensure that customer service is at the heart of the transformation. (Often we hear about the opposite occurring – Marketing has a ‘great idea’ for a promotion but neglect to tell the contact centre, and they’re the ones that have to deal an unforseen spike in calls.).
Massey University: Contact Centre manager Tina Hilliam reported briefly on her centre’s major technology upgrade using products from Interactive Intelligence. It all went live in December and the contact centre has sailed through its busiest month – student enrolments at the beginning of the year. Among the very cool applications that Tina now has in her centre is a ‘call back’ system, whereby if a caller is waiting for longer than 3 minutes, they receive a message telling them that their place in the queue will be held and the centre will call them when an agent is free. Tina is so confident about this application she’s reduced the time to 1.40 minutes before the caller is sent the message.
E: Recruitment and retention issues were at the forefront of this Contact Centre manager’s mind. In particular, staffing the centre’s three-hour evening shift - how do you attract the right agents to this role? how do you ensure they turn up for work and remain engaged in customer service delivery?
F: This centre is looking at a major technology upgrade and was in town to view Massey University’s contact centre. Tina noted that when she was shopping around for new technology she visited other contact centres and learned plenty from the experiences they’d had with different products and service - it really helps to get honest, user-feedback when contemplating major technology purchases.
Palmerston North City Council: The centre is now 24/7 – the catalyst for this being the Floods – and it now handles after-hours enquiries for 14 other councils. The biggest challenge here is to combine the knowledge bases of all councils onto one system. At the start of the meeting Palmerston North business development manager and Manawatu Cluster Chairman Mike Manson joked that Palmerston North City Council aims to become the after-hours centre for 50 councils. (At least I think he was joking…).
G: This centre is on a major recruitment drive. The architect’s design has been approved and all they need now are people to fill the seats located inside the flash new building extension. The centre held an open day and entertained 130 people, from which they hope to employ about 18 new agents.
So there you have it, a raft of issues on the table. Thanks to everyone in the Manawatu Cluster for making me feel so welcome, and especially thanks to Tina, Mike and Penny for inviting me. See you all at Conference!