Back in the early days of contact centres, we were constantly monitoring people on every lost minute, from handle time or speed of answer to adherence and toilet breaks. For managers, team leaders and real-time teams it was often about hitting targets and getting everyone online, as if that were all that really mattered. Only now are we uncovering the true costs of the high turnover and low engagement this generates. The recruitment and retention challenges of 2022 have caused us to rethink priorities and the pandemic has opened us to doing many things differently anyway. Furthermore, digital growth, technology developments and marketplace changes all shift our understanding of what we require in customer service operations. The Future of Work, global research by MIT, makes the case for moving away from our outdated paradigm for contact centres, where attrition and absence were seen as “the cost of doing business”. Why?

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This article was first published in the 2023 Best Practice Guide - Strength in Numbers: The Value of Community

To download a full digital copy of the Best Practice Guide, click here.