First meeting of the Ministry of Performance a success

At the first meeting of the Ministry of Performance, more than 20 people gathered to discuss what lay ahead for the industry. 

Carl Adkins

Carl Adkins of Infinity CCS said that part of the thinking behind the Ministry of Performance is to share ideas and good practice because, he said, when he travels to different centres he often sees the same mistakes being made over and over again.

And there was one common factor in most conversations – change.

Change was a common factor in most conversations

Without doubt, one of the biggest catalysts of change has been the growth of the internet and its offspring.  Email, now well established of course, has set a customer expectation of a response with hours not the days that were associated with old-style letters to the CEO.

Social networking, powered by the internet, is a recent phenomenon that has left many managers wondering how to deal with it.

As facilitator Mike Havard said, “managers are traditionally used to dealing with linear channels from customers coming into a company – whereas social networks swirl around a company and may never touch it”.

A discussion in full swing

One guest cited the example of Giffgaff – an O2 initiative that seeks to engage users by offering rewards for their help including offering technical advice to other users.  Another said their organisation had invested in a team of graduates – presumably because they are bright and young – to handle their Twitter channel responses.

There was also some debate over the changing nature of employees and the relationship with call centre agents. Perhaps because it is more of a buyer’s market at the moment issues such as employee satisfaction weren’t seen as wildly important.  But employee engagement was slightly different and there is recognition that for agents to provide good service they need to feel connected, supported, engaged and motivated.

And a bit of light-hearted debate along the way

Hosts of this inaugural executive dinner were:
- Infinity CCS, http://www.infinityccs.com
- Horizon2, http://www.horizon2.co.uk
- Bright, http://www.brightindex.co.uk

More information about Ministry of Performance can be found here: MoP