"Many of the changes we have made challenge the typical contact centre assumptions. We all know that people are generally trustworthy, that most people are not bludgers, that workers are motivated more by intrinsic factors like meaning and belonging, that people will return the respect that we show them. But it is uncommon to see contact centres model their front-line staff this way. The changes that Anand and the team have made position us for continued growth and success”
Andy Sheats, Chief Growth Officer, Open Universities Australia
The Challenge
Many companies want to perform a "digital transformation", but few want to go through the difficult and often painful process of change that leads to cultural transformation.
Open Universities Australia's transition to becoming a lean and agile contact centre is a fascinating journey. It's one that required brave leadership, vision and a steadfast commitment to holding the course even when experiencing some moments of pain and doubt. Contact centres are traditionally "anti-agile" environments with numerous and sometimes conflicting KPI's, individual targets and incentives, limited trust in individuals, and old school hierarchical management processes and procedures that remain unchanged and unchallenged for years.
What they did
So applying agile methodology into a contact centre is always going to be challenging – if not for the above reasons than purely for the fact that it requires buy-in from all contact centre staff at all levels.
So how does it look two years into a transformation?
Significantly different. "We've moved from front line agents having individual targets, to team-based targets." Says Anand Rego, Head of Sales at OUA.
Even in 2020, this is still quite radical for a sales-based contact centre.
"This ties into our whole agile philosophy – and it provides a better outcome for our customers. When you incentivise staff around individual performance, it means their motivation centred entirely on their personal benefit above that of the customer, the team and the organisation. We have seen the bad behaviours and conflicts of interest that this can cause. Removing individual targets has allowed the agents to relax more and focus solely on assisting the customer rather than worrying about making a sale for the sake of making more money or keeping their job. "
The structure of each team has also changed.
Most contact centres organise by channel (e.g. inbound, outbound) or product type (e.g. Savings accounts, Mortgage, Insurance).
You will experience this with "Press 1 for ...". At OUA, every contact goes to the next available agent. OUA has blended these channels and skillsets into semi-autonomous "teams of experts" who can serve any customer on any OUA product or issue they are likely to have. Each team handles new enquiries, inbound and outbound sales, digital messaging, retention, general enquiries and emails.
Who takes what call types on what day is decided by the team at their pre-shift huddle.
Individuals can play to their strengths and move between channels to suit demand and personal preference. The team has a collective focus on getting the work done, rather than on individual performance. Each shift and every week finishes with a retrospective review to celebrate success, learn from failure and consolidate learnings into tomorrow's improvement. Continuous change and improvement is core to adopting agile methodology.
What they achieved
OUA has fostered a culture where collaboration is key. Responsibility for outcomes becomes the responsibility of everyone – and success or failure is shared. This requires a change too for Team Leaders and Senior Managers who need to allow teams to self-direct as much as possible, and resist stepping in too often.
These changes can be a challenge because they require significant "unlearning" of past behaviours and norms. Two years into OUA's agile transformation and Rego is more than pleased with their progress. There is a stark difference when listening to Rego speak compared with leaders from other contact centres. The word "transformation" gets thrown around lightly. Still, at OUA the agile methodology is present in everything they do and every conversation they have now – whether they realise it or not.
So what do the results look like?
• In the period before the transformation began, OUA experienced 23 consecutive quarters of decline. Since the change started, the company has 12 straight quarters of growth. The improvements in the assisted sales channel and built on a similar transformation of the broader business.
• Contact centre staff turnover has gone from 50%+ to less than 10%
• Sales productivity has increased by ~50%
• Staff satisfaction has improved markedly (Staff NPS from -20 to +50)
• Historically the contact centre had the lowest NPS; now it is high than company average
Rego says, "At first it wasn't easy, and there have been many challenges, but the change has been the best thing we've ever done for our staff, our centre, and notably our customers'“