Thoughts on Managing Through a Recession
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Posted Fri 20 March 2009 @ 7:17 a.m. by Ernie Newman
I rarely blog here on Mouthpiece but thought I'd make a break after attending a couple of Megan Lacy's "Managing your contact centre through a recession" sessions this week. Megan's going to post a major summary of the conclusions once she's back in Tauranga and has recovered her composure and voice. She did a great job, along with all those who contributed their thinking by video or in writing - thanks from TUANZ to you all.
I guess if I had one big "takeaway" it is this:
Over the years when I've asked contact centre managers what is their biggest challenge in terms of cost, the answer has nearly always been the high cost of staff turnover. This impacts in many areas of the budget - recruitment costs, training, and lost effieciency due to a hgh proportion of rookies in the team.
Right now it is clear that staff churn will be way down for a year or two.
So if during buoyant times staff churn is a high cost, it follows that in recessionary times there is a saving to be made. The challenge is how to capture that benefit.
So if I was a contact centre manager one question I'd ask is this: "Where in my operation will there be underutilised capacity because of more stable staff and underused capacity, and how can I capture the savoings of this for the benefit of the business?"
The answer may not be obvious, but the question is well worth p[ondering.
Thanks to all those who attended. Megan will be back on here very soon.
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