The Olympics: What can we Learn in our Contact Center?

The 2012 Olympics held in London are viewed by billions of people worldwide. It is estimated that over 15 million calls will be handled by volunteers in the venues. The games are exciting and promote worldwide sportsmanship and fair play. It’s about the athletes and their accomplishments.

So what can we learn from the Games? Like a true champion each of our agents must be champions! It starts with “sourcing” the best people. It’s about daily training and measuring results; following protocols; rehearsing; knowing how to best contribute to the success of the organization; it’s about doing better each day with the help of coaches & mentors and utilizing technology to give each person and each “performance” an advantage. It’s all about “standing out” and winning on each call, whether it’s just answering a question, taking an order correctly and “upselling” to settling a dispute to creating a great impression.

So ask yourself: If my Contact Center team were in a head to head competition with another team…how would they fare? Would they win? Have I selected the “best” performers and relentlessly trained and coached them for peak performance? Is excellence the goal in every call with a desire and commitment to “give it their best” to satisfy the customer and the client company? What about the “management” of the team? Are they dedicated to continuous improvement in a proactive manner by always providing metrics, measurements and to “beat” previous standards and improve performance daily?

The Olympic teams and organizations that compete at the highest levels can teach us a lot! It’s about representing your brand/client company to the world in the best light with a first place attitude, performance and customer experience! While there may not be stadiums filled with people in your contact center, there are still thousands and thousands each day engaged with your Champion agents and those people are expecting a great performance and outcome! Just like the Olympians, it’s about finishing in the medals, because nobody remembers the people who don’t “medal.”