Hello, and Happy Tuesday!

At some point in your online store’s upward success, you may become frustrated with the performance of your contact center: They used to be great, but now they’re not.

While you could blame a merger, or throw shade at the new program manager, or shake your head at the latest group of hires, for many new and fast-growing ecommerce brands, the problem has to do with how well or not well they scaled alongside their partner.

The original service agents who were passionately trained by the owner have all moved on. The beautiful SOPs that were designed as part of your partner’s onboarding process now have 2-3 steps agents “just have to remember.” There’s been a new ticketing system, a new warehouse, a new return portal, and 2.5 rebrands all in the last year.

Without intentional action to prevent it, like a game of telephone, “the right way of doing things” starts to get lost.

How do you bring your BPO partner along for the ride?

View your contact center team like your own team, working out another office.
Involve your contact center team throughout a change process, as opposed to asking them to act on the result at the end.
Take the time to explain the WHY behind processes, changes and actions.
Invest time in documentation. After your 30-minute training meeting, the documentation is all that remains.
Visit your contact center and meet agents face-to-face. Even if your team is remote, with some financial assistance, they can often gather in one place.
Routinely share updates about the company: new products, sales channels, marketing events, and more so agents feel connected to the brand.
Regularly review your service volume against your agent headcount to ensure your staffing is adequate and your KPIs make sense.
Invite direct communication and feedback from all levels of your contact center partner.

Enjoy your day!

Kristen Szustakowski (she/her)

The CX Coach

kristen@tcxcoach.com