Getting common across call centers? Be prepared for growing pains

Getting common – implementing and enforcing consistent processes across all your call center sites – is essential if you want your business to thrive. As I explained in my last post, getting common allows you to optimize the overall performance of your company so you’re in position to increase revenues and continue growing.

But you should be aware that as you make this necessary transition, you always run the risk of seeing some initial deterioration in performance. After all, most people are resistant to change, whether or not what they’ve been doing has been getting results. You may also see a paradoxical effect at the outset, in which implementing common processes brings up many low performers while bringing down some higher performers, who may actually have a harder time adjusting to a new way of doing things.

So yes, you will very likely see a dip in performance as everyone adjusts. You can anticipate this effect and attempt to minimize it, but you shouldn’t let it stop you from doing what it takes to get common.

Here’s why: over three to six months, you will see a flywheel effect that will ultimately reset performance at a higher level. In addition, once you have consistency across the board, you can perform root-cause analyses and really do something to continue to improve performance.

When you are confident that everyone is doing the same thing, you can quickly and accurately assess performance across the board. And once you have a real handle on performance, you can test new things, which will allow you to find the best approach and continually fine-tune processes.

Getting common may take an initial toll on individual and overall performance. But the long-term payoff will be worth the short-term pain.

–Bryan DiGiorgio

Related posts:

Call center operations: as your business grows, getting common is critical
Multi-vendor data disparities can lead to murky management