Three Practical Ways to Inspire Contact Centre Advisors

Orit Avital, General Manager at Ottorita, suggests three practical methods for inspiring the contact centre floor.

What Role Do Contact Centre Managers Play in Inspiring Advisors?

To be a successful contact centre manager, you need to be a leader. A manager does not only manage advisors through tasks, they also lead and manage beliefs and perceptions regarding working at the contact centre.

So, make sure you relay messages about your beliefs and values within the contact centre’s team – both verbally and practically, on a daily basis. The power of managerial leadership is much higher than the power of formal authority.

To be a leader, walk the contact centre floor, engage with advisors as they work, and communicate with the whole team. Speak the values that you want to inspire.

To be a leader, walk the contact centre floor, engage with advisors as they work, and communicate with the whole team. Speak the values that you want to inspire.

What Does Inspiration Mean in a Contact Centre Context?

There are all kinds of definitions of inspiration. Here are three definitions that are best applied to the contact centre:

Someone or something which give us ideas for action
A sudden idea/thought/insight which “dawns” on us
Someone who we appreciate and wish to resemble

The Three Practical Ways of Inspiring Advisors

Below are three key ideas for how you can provide inspiration to contact centre advisors. Along with each idea are practical suggestions for how implement it in the contact centre.

1. Encourage and Establish ‘Positive Self-Esteem’

Communicate the value of positive self-esteem with advisors. The greater the self-esteem, both at an individual and team level, the more positivity is generated. This helps to improve advisor activity and their ability to confront complex situations.

I am sure you know people in your lives who radiate ‘positive energy’. Who doesn’t want to be around them? This is exactly how you want to meet your advisors every day. This is how you want them to come across to customers, and this is how you want the entire organisation to be perceived.

How Can You Establish Positive Self-Esteem?

Here are four quick tips on how you can encourage greater self-esteem in the contact centre.

i. Start the day with an expression of appreciation and recognition to one or all of the team members together for the previous day. Even if it is not simple and even if you are not meeting your targets, this can provide a nice boost to morale. Find the one thing which you can strengthen and thereby empower the team.

ii. Make sure to use the “Yes Language”. Think about what can be done and what is possible. Do this even though reality is often complex and restrictive: “Yes – we can!”

iii. Encourage your team to share happy and positive events in their lives – at work and in general.

iv. Give a personal example – value yourselves, yes, yes, yourselves! Share a significant achievement in the contact centre or a happy event which happened to you. You will start and they will continue.

2. Focus on Internal Motivation Factors

Is it true that the team members are all happy with a motivation plan which includes a financial bonus? It seems clear to us that the effect of such a bonus is translated into results in the contact centre, right?

Perhaps not.

Inspiration by financial compensation and external motives has limits – motivation needs to be intrinsic. This is a point that Martin Hill-Wilson makes in the article “The New Rules of Customer Service” – “stop motivation by chocolate”, as he so eloquently puts it.

Inspiration by financial compensation and external motives has limits – motivation needs to be intrinsic.

So, inspiration should ideally stem from organisational culture. This means focusing on strong contact centre values, advisor development and good relations. These all have great importance in creating a goal and motivating values.

How Do You Build Internal Motivation?

Creating an organisational culture from which internal motivation stems is easier said than done. It takes time. But here are five practical ideas to get the ball rolling.

i. Define the contact centre’s values (it is recommended to do that together with the team) and make sure that they are visible on contact centre walls and, more importantly, in practice.

ii. Hold enrichment gatherings, even outside working hours. Expose your team to an array of topics which will broaden their knowledge, not necessarily directly related to their work at the contact centre.

iii. Show mutual respect, in any condition and in any situation. This is something which should always be ensured.

iv. Identify those who need time off and suggest a vacation, while focusing on their personal needs and addressing them directly and empathetically.

v. Ensure open and authentic communication. There is really nothing to conceal nor any reason to fake anything.

3. Show Passion for What You Do

Your team, just like you, and actually, like all of us, strive to create a sense of enthusiasm and importance about their work. Naturally, you want to harness this productivity.

A manager who consistently shares their workload/frustration with the rest of the team is definitely not an inspiring manager.

A manager who consistently shares their workload/frustration with the rest of the team is definitely not an inspiring manager.

Instead, be an example of enthusiasm for your action in the contact centre. Show your team that you love what you do. That despite all the workload, you are passionate in your daily activity.

Having this enthusiasm is much more infectious and it also sets a material reminder to your team about what they are doing and why.

How to Show Passion to Build Enthusiasm?

It’s easy to say that you’re passionate about what you do. However, it’s another thing to show it.

Here are five practical ways to share your enthusiasm with the team.

i. Share the achievements of the contact centre on a regular basis, as well as the focused and significant activity which led to the success of the entire organisation.

ii. Share success stories of advisors who made progress in the contact centre and in the company in general.

iii. Share success stories of support and service provision to customers.

iv. Share success stories of the entire organisation – impressive achievements and past and current success stories.

v. Share your success stories – as a manager and the positive stories that enabled you to reach your position.