In today's fast-paced work environment, it seems like every office worker's calendar is packed with appointments. Coordination is crucial, and as the world around us becomes increasingly complex, it requires even more attention. This holds true for customer service as well. Team meetings, one-on-one discussions, and training sessions all need to be integrated into an already hectic daily routine. Planning meetings in the call center can be a real challenge.
In this post, we will analyze the impact of poor meeting planning on call center operations and provide 5 tips on how to better integrate meetings into your employees' daily routine.
Imagine a typical day for one of your customer-facing employees. Depending on the day and time, they may not even have a moment to grab a cup of coffee. Yet, no matter how busy the day may be, engaging in discussions with the team, having one-on-one conversations with the team leader, and attending training sessions are essential to ensure your employees continue to deliver the expected level of performance.
Time for meetings becomes an endeavor and must be "carved out" from other areas such as time on phone calls or from periods when the employee would normally take a break.
When it comes to team meetings, the challenge of tight schedules is multiplied by the number of team members. Finding a time when everyone is available? Nearly impossible. Moreover, the service level must also be maintained.
Let's take a look at the specific impacts this can have.
There are pleasant surprises and less pleasant ones. Short-notice meetings definitely fall into the latter category. But even if the meeting was planned in advance, but not communicated transparently, it has the same effect. Your employees are suddenly taken out of their workflow. This can lead to situations where they may have to reassure or even disappoint customers.
Plan meetings as early as possible in advance. This ensures that your employees have enough time to prepare and organize their tasks accordingly.
Why is the meeting taking place? Who needs to be present? Who can attend? What points will be discussed? What preparation is required from the participants? These are all critical questions that should be proactively answered beforehand. Providing answers to these questions allows all participants to prepare and have clear expectations for the meeting.
Communication should be a two-way street. Therefore, it’s important to establish feedback options. This could include a response to the email invitation, or creating a specific channel in the messenger platform. By doing this, it provides your employees the opportunity to actively participate in the meeting planning process.
Talk to the Operations Management, team leaders, and workforce planning to explore how meetings can be more effectively planned. Determine optimal times, such as during less busy periods. Discuss how to ensure that all meeting participants are informed in a timely and comprehensive manner.
We've all sat in meetings wondering why we were there in the first place. In the end, we left with nothing except the realization that both work and personal time was once again wasted. However, it's not as challenging as it seems to conduct productive meetings.
Time frames should be tight to ensure everyone is aware that there's no time to waste. This means the meeting starts on time, regardless of whether everyone is present. And it ends on time, even if not everything was discussed.
Discussions are important. However, the organizer has the responsibility to assess whether the meeting is the right setting, or if another appointment would be more appropriate.
The agenda was sent in advance. During the meeting, these points are adhered to. If someone wants to bring up an additional point, it can be done beforehand, but not during the meeting. If there is no agenda, the meeting is unnecessary.
Make it clear to meeting organizers that participants' time is valuable. Adhering to meeting times is a sign of respect. On the other hand, it's also important to involve all participants. Rotating presenters in meetings ensures everyone contributes. Passing a ball around can also help.
In our business lives, we often operate on autopilot. This also applies to meetings. We've been conducting team meetings in the same way for years. But is that really effective? What flexible alternatives could there be?
Direct conversation between people remains the most effective way to exchange information. However, in today's busy work environment, the possibility of asynchronous communication should also be utilized. We're already accustomed to emails. They can be sufficient especially when it's just about informing a group of decisions.
The next level would be the messenger. Here, everyone can respond when it best fits into their workflow. But be careful, discussions can sometimes escalate in written communication, as many cues conveyed through facial expressions, gestures, and voice tone are lost.
There's nothing worse than a meeting with 20 people, when only two are required The other 18 are sitting around, getting bored, or simply wondering why they're even in this meeting.
Amazon introduced the two-pizza rule. If two pizzas aren't enough for the meeting attendees, the meeting is too large.
Could participants rotate as well? This has the advantage that the responsibility for information dissemination lies with the team.
We understand that changes can come with some discomfort. Nevertheless, you should explore the possibilities of team self-organization and provide input where possible. Satisfied, productive, and motivated employees are the cornerstone of your call center's success.
There are countless technological options that can improve your meeting planning. Below, we'd like to highlight a small selection that might not immediately come to mind.
Alright, this is obvious for those working with distributed teams. But even if you're not working with remote teams, this technology has benefits. See the next point.
When using a video conferencing system like Google Meet, features like transcription and video recording are already available. This allows employees who couldn't attend the meeting to still receive important information.
Especially when it comes to flexibilizing meetings, messengers come into play. Asynchronous information exchange helps employees access information exactly when their time allows.
Specialized tools like our Peopleware Meetings help plan meetings more efficiently by considering the availability of participants and suggesting alternative dates. This saves time and minimizes planning conflicts.
Learn about technological support. We at Peopleware are happy to introduce you to our meeting planner. But other technology providers would also be happy to show you the added value they can offer your Contact Center.
All the tips we've provided so far can bring improvements to your Contact Center. However, it's not a guarantee. That's why you should regularly review the process with your team and see what worked and what didn't.
Retrospectives are meetings where the team gathers to see how the process has changed since the last retrospective. What changes were made? What worked well? What didn't work so well? What changes do you want to try in the next period?
It's important that this meeting should provide a safe space for every employee to say what went well and, especially, what went poorly.
The result of the meeting should be a short list of adjustments to the meeting process that will be implemented in the next period.
Certainly, not all team members will always be able to participate in the retrospective. For this reason, it's worth providing additional feedback options. This could be the good old suggestion box (perhaps in digital form). Or a (digital) board where employees can pin feedback as soon as they identify areas for improvement. Even a moderated messenger channel can work.
Meetings are necessary, yet they can disrupt the efficiency of your Contact Center. It's not only the workflow that's affected, but also customer satisfaction can be compromised.
It's time to question the current planning of meetings in Contact Centers. Are they even necessary, or are there other, more flexible ways to achieve the same goals? And if they are necessary, are they being conducted productively? Are they truly scheduled at the times that are best for both employees and customers? Technology can help answer these questions and develop solutions. In any case, optimization is not a one-time event, but an ongoing process.