Teamwork is an important part of the workings of any contact center. The individual performance of each agent is, of course, vital to an organization’s success, but each individual should never lose sight of the fact that they are a member of a larger unit and that their interactions within that team have a very real impact on their team’s performance as a whole.
If you have a team in your contact center that is underperforming, it can be hard to know how to help them improve their teamwork. It’s one thing to train and coach an individual on their call center skills. It’s quite another to help an entire group of people learn to work together effectively.
To help, we’ve compiled a list of tips to assist you in getting any underperforming team back on track and moving forward again, together.
You already know which results are not being achieved and which goals are not being met – what you need to do now is identify the actual behavior causing these lackluster results. Is your team not working to build rapport with customers? Are they not communicating important information to each other? Maybe they’re not asking customers about their further needs? Diagnosing the problem behavior is a vital first step in improving performance. To do so, sit down with each team member and have a one-on-one conversation regarding their performance, the team’s performance, and the individual’s view on what the issues are. Then, identify points of consensus among the team and discuss these points in an all-team meeting. Have them be part of the creative process in improving their performance. It will work better if they are involved!
When you say teamwork, you may mean individuals working together closely in a coordinated way, like an orchestra or even a football team. If your team members think of teamwork as individuals simply providing moral support for each other as they all work separately, this is an issue and this disconnect will cause problems. Let your team know exactly what you expect them to do as a team so everyone is on the same page. It may help to conduct a teambuilding exercise to show each member that they need each other to achieve a specific goal, and that they need the strengths/talents of each other team member to succeed.
Effective teams have certain methods of interacting with each other that produce the desired results. Where is your team missing the mark? Do they all get involved in the decision-making process? Do they all feel a sense of shared responsibility for the team’s results? Do they understand why the team exists? Are they willing to try new things? Do they discuss issues early on before they become real problems? Finding out where things are breaking down will allow you to lead your team towards improvement in that area. Again, it is important to get your team involved in this process. As an outsider, you may have an idea of what’s missing, but the individual members have a first-hand point of view. Their feedback is crucial when it comes to making changes.
Discussions of ideas and opinions are important to the function of a team, but the way each person’s ideas are treated will affect participation and morale. Do holders of the majority opinion shut down the minority’s comments disrespectfully? Rather than bringing about consensus, this leads to resentment and a lack of commitment to the team’s goals. Help your team learn to hear everyone out, by taking every comment seriously, giving it the consideration it deserves, and never allowing disagreements to become personal. If you find that discussion alone does not help, there may be more under the surface that is causing these issues and it could be time to call in a third party to assist in handling the situation.
Every little step in the right direction is a milestone that should be recognized. It can take time for groups to learn to work together effectively, especially if they have a history of dysfunction. Be sure to celebrate every single accomplishment on the way to your final goal, to keep your team motivated and moving forward together. These recognitions don’t have to be grand; a simple “Thank you!” goes a long way in boosting and maintaining the morale of a team. When a team overcomes a hurdle or meets an important goal, consider a bigger celebration such as a catered lunch.
When it comes to managing an underperforming contact center team, the worst action you can make is to place blame and attempt to correct the problem on your own. Dissect the issue at hand by getting feedback from the team and their view on why the team is underperforming. They can provide insight you don’t have and help come up with a plan to improve. If they participate in making the changes, it will be more likely to stick.
