Behind the Scenes at Ocado – 21 Simply Soup-erb Ideas

In 2024 alone, the Ocado team have been recognized at The Forum Awards and the UK National Contact Centre Awards, and have also been named as Finalists in the North East Contact Centre Awards and European Contact Centre & Customer Service Awards.

So, what are the secrets to this online grocery store’s success? Our Editor, Megan Jones, visited the Ocado Customer Hub in Sunderland to find out exactly what’s making their team feta than ever – with top tips covering everything from creating a truly great place to work to empowering your agents and helping your team managers to thrive.

Top Tips for Creating a Great Place to Work

Here are just some of the top tips and ideas that help to make the Ocado Customer Hub a great place to work and an employer of choice in the local area…

1. Set Up a TikTok Channel to Attract Fresh Talent

The team at Ocado manage their own TikTok channel called OcadoCustomerHub.

Not only is it fun for employees to get involved and showcase what they love about where they work, but it’s also a great recruitment tool – attracting fresh talent by opening a virtual door to Ocado’s culture and opportunities.

For example, the team have recently been able to do some video interviews with their current employees who are students to help attract more students to work for them.

2. Work With Your Local Council to Secure Free Parking for Employees

Make it easier and more attractive for people to travel into work by offering free car parking as a company perk.

For example, Ocado have successfully worked with their local council to secure free parking for their employees in the city centre.

3. Rethink Your Approach to Charity to Take Some of the Financial Pressure Off

In tough economic times, it can be insensitive to ask agents to be supporting local charities when they may be struggling themselves, as Sarah Graham, Senior People Development and Training Manager, says: “It’s about being mindful of personal circumstances, but still giving people the opportunity to give something back – without putting them under pressure.“

Employees are also given the option to donate some of their internal currency “ocadough” (earned through meeting performance targets) to a good cause through their MINT (Centrical) gamification platform.

4. Choose a Name That Really Resonates With Your Teams (When Rebranding Internal Systems)

Where personalization is possible, rename your internal systems with a name that really resonates with and engages your teams, as Suzanne Reay, Learning & Development Partner, shares:

“We internally rebranded the Centrical gamification platform to MINT for 3 reasons:

• We are big on food, and mint is a widely used herb
• The association with The Royal Mint makes it a good fit for money and rewards
• And last, but not least, “Pua Mint” is local slang for “It’s Amazing!”

5. Add Squash Options to Your Water Cooler

Put different flavours of squash on top of your water coolers to give your agents more choice.

6. Give Every Team the Same Items to Make Decorating Competitions Fairer

When everyone has different budgets and, let’s face it, levels of enthusiasm, motivational incentives such as a Halloween decorating competition can quickly become unfair.

To ensure this doesn’t happen at Ocado, every team receives a bag of goodies – with the exact same items – to decorate their workstations.

7. Make It Easier for Agents to Keep Spaces Clean

Put cleaning items out on the tables in your breakout rooms to make it quick and easy for colleagues to maintain a hygienic environment, to defend against the spread of cold and flu.

8. Only Open Your Internal Reward Shop Twice a Year to Give Agents a Chance to Accrue Spending Money

Through their gamification platform, Ocado employees can earn “ocodough” – a virtual currency separate to points – as a reward for good performance and more.

This can then be spent at their virtual shop on a wide variety of items, from donating to charity, to buying mugs, games and pet toys, and even raffle tickets for bigger ticket items – including a Hotel Chocolat Velvetiser, holiday voucher, or even ice cream maker.

However, the shop only opens twice a year to allow colleagues to build up their “ocodough” and make sure everyone has a healthy budget to enjoy the shop when it opens.

9. Turn Your Engagement Calendar Into a Big Wall Display

Don’t just leave your employee engagement plans locked in a spreadsheet no one can see!

Instead, turn your Engagement Calendar into a big wall display to build excitement about what’s coming up and when.

Top Tips for Empowering Your Agents

Here are just some of the ways the Ocado leadership team empower their agents for a proactive approach to employee engagement and wellbeing…

10. Create a Goodwill Matrix So Agents Know What to Offer Customers and When

Why not create a goodwill matrix for agents to reference when customers are unhappy?

This visual guide maps out what to give unhappy customers depending on the severity of the issue and the loyalty of the customer, empowering agents to make fair and consistent decisions – without needing to escalate to a supervisor.

11. Provide the Freedom to Pick up the Phone if an Email Needs Extra Attention

The Ocado team practise a “pick up the phone” mindset, giving agents who are handling emails the freedom to pick up the phone if they feel a customer needs some extra attention.

This approach is often a nice surprise for customers (who are simply expecting an email reply) and can help to proactively to clear up any confusion, as well as create opportunities to verbally tell customers they’ll be receiving a goodwill gesture.

Overall, they’ve found this approach has had a positive impact on their average NPS for email.

12. Give Agents the Flexibility They Need to Make Their Day Work for Them

Another way to empower your agents is to give them better control over their day, as Stephanie Mann, Team Manager, explains:

“Our agents really like using the Calabrio WFM system – especially our new shift trade board and the autonomy to move their own breaks, as they can make their day work for them and even choose to go on break with their friends.

“I love using it too, as I can keep a close eye on adherence and conformance to breaks. I can also easily check up on other teams if I need to (for example, if another team manager is in meetings), which is really handy. It’s so easy to use and it’s great to see where everyone should be and what breaks they are taking.”

For first-hand experience of how best to manage agent breaks in the contact centre, read our article: Is It Best to Schedule or Free-Style Agent Breaks?

13. Don’t Make Assumptions – Ask “What Would You Like to See in Your Wellbeing Room?”

When introducing or redesigning a wellbeing room, don’t make assumptions about what should be in there. Instead, ask your colleagues “what would you like to see?”, as you may be surprised by the ideas they come up with.

For example, Ocado employees have recently suggested putting in a docking station to play music, as well as adding oil diffusers, to make it a more relaxing space.

14. Set Individuals Up to Race Against Themselves – Not Each Other

Instead of encouraging agents to compete against each other, set up games so they race against themselves and focus on beating their own results from the previous week.

This puts the emphasis on self-improvement and rewarding people for trying their best – instead of trying to beat their peers, which can be very demotivating in a large team.

15. Encourage Agents to Say “What’s Working” in Team Huddles

Encourage all agents to have a voice by using the team huddle as an opportunity to share examples of customer conversations and talk through common objections. For example, sharing, “I say this……… when the customer says this………….”.

Done regularly, this can nurture a safe space for open and honest conversations, where agents feel confident to talk through any issues and learn from each other, as well as take advice from their team manager.

As Mark Evans adds, “It’s culture that moves the dial from excellent to outstanding. At Ocado, people feel like they’re being listened to and we’re all in this together.”

16. Make It Quick and Easy to Share Peer-to-Peer Recognition

Keep morale high by empowering agents to give out peer-to-peer recognition.

For example, Ocado colleagues can give each other ‘Kudos’ – a virtual “pat on the back” – to thank and recognize one another.

They love it – collectively sending over 1,000 points to each other every month.

If you are looking for other ways to recognize employees and examples of goodwill gestures that will help leaders strengthen employee relationships in the contact centre, read our article: 18 Goodwill Gestures to Build Better Employee Relationships

Top Tips for Helping Your Team Managers Thrive

Want your management team to thrive too? Here are just some of the ways Ocado are helping their leaders be the best that they can be…

17. Don’t Forget to Retrain Your Team Managers When Ditching AHT

When the cost-of-living crisis hit, Ocado made the decision to shift their metric focus away from quality scores and Average Handling Time to just NPS and ASAT – and it’s made a big difference. Their overall call handling efficiency has improved and NPS is up 3 points this year to 56.

There was also a concerted effort to make sure that their coaches and team managers were prepared to handle the shift in focus too, as Mark Evans explains:

18. Recognize Managers as “Gurus” for Sharing Top Tips and Advice

Through their gamification platform, managers at Ocado can share top tips and advice with their colleagues, which can then earn them gems on their account and help to raise their profile in the company as a “guru”.

19. Set Up a Separate Category to Properly Track “Thank You” Emails

Add a query code for “thank you” emails, so agents can file them separately.

It’s common for customers to reply with a quick “thank you” to close off a conversation, but these can be logged against the original complaint category and skew the data, making it harder for managers to see what’s actually happening.

One way to add clarity to this is simply to add a query code for “thank you” emails, so agents can file them separately.

20. Give Managers More Time Back in Their Day to Focus on Their People

When supporting a large team and trying to keep up with all the associated admin, team managers can quickly feel time-poor and under pressure, but it doesn’t have to be this way, as Suzanne Reay says,

21. Promote Trainers Internally So They Can Use First-Hand Experience to Bring the Role to Life

At Ocado, all their trainers are promoted internally from agent roles, so they’ve done the job and can really bring it to life for new starters – adding another dimension to their training programme of classroom and online learning.

For more best practices and other fun tips from other contact centres that we have visited, read our articles:

• 15 Ideas You Can Use From Bupa’s Contact Centre
• Take Your Employee Experience to the Next Level – Lessons From Leeds Building Society
• 15 Ideas We Picked Up at WeAnswer’s Contact Centre
• 18 Ways to Reboot Your Contact Centre Operations From Fasthosts

Author: Megan Jones
Reviewed by: Xander Freeman