Resistance to a Contact Centre Strategy

Over the last year I've led a small team of people charged with the setting up of a contact centre within our business. Although progress has been made it has been painfully slow with open and covert resistance coming from colleagues who have a vested interest in the status quo.

I would guess that I'm not alone in this experience and would welcome any pointers that anyone has on making the transition process easier or if anyone knows of any case studies I can use in my future arguments!

Thanks in advance for any response received.

Hello Gene

Our market is private sector and is a traditional buy in bulk, store it, break it down into smaller quantities, sell it and deliver to multiple points.

Historically it has been serviced through a number of regional sales offices all responsible for the sales activity in their own geographical areas and as such each office has always enjoyed a degree of autonomy.

The business has long offered a one service fits all which means that all customers, irrespective of size, spend or value, have had a salesman calling on them, a dedicated inside sales contact, next day delivery and a wide range of products available at low margin irrespective of quantity ordered.

In recent years the squeeze on margins has meant that this practice has become unsustainable; if it ever was.

The concept of a centralized contact centre grew out of this realism and an understanding that part of our customer base could be made profitable if the cost of service could be reduced.

To this end customers, who were identified as being, obviously unprofitable, were transfered out of each region and a contact centre set up to look after them.

All aspects of proactive and reactive sales and service, for these customers, are now handled via voice, e-shot and mailings, through the contact centre.

Despite best attempts to explain what was being done, and why, this transfer process has been seen by many as a threat and whilst the end game, for me, would be a move to a multi channel option we are struggling to get past a sizeable number of colleagues who want to hold on to the traditional one service fits all.

I hope the above helps to provide a bit more clarity?

Kind regards

Good afternoon Nick

I agree with everything said so far but, assuming this is a positive move for your business and the people involved, there may be more that can be done from a people perspective. Most people in this country have a behavioural profile which suggests they don't like change so what you are seeing is the norm. Their response to it is to dig their heels in and bury their head in the sand. My guess is that you would have the same reaction if you'd changed the numbers on the coffee machine.

Nevertheless it must be beneficial to take the people with you and I think there are a few things that would be worth considering if you aren't doing them already.

First off is communication - an absolutely open but sensitive communication, ideally in writing explaining what is happening (importantly with timescales), and why it is happening is vital. Not only will people not want to change in the first place but their very nature means they need to time to get clear in their head what the future looks like and rationalise it. The more you can do to firm up their picture of where you are heading the better. By putting it in writing they can reread and the communication is not open to misinterpretation or miscommunication. You haven't mentioned redundancies but I think putting people's mind at rest or being clear about the consequences would help.

The second part is about playing to people's fears as well. You are obviously making the changes for a reason and making people aware that maintaining the status quo is not possible would also help. As Gene says - one argument is that you are forced into this position because of competitive activity - if you dont make the move your costs are uncompetitive and you want to avoid the associated problems - this is the best for everyone!

Finally, something I like to look for are the "on-field captains". There will be a much smaller group of people you really need to convince - the one's that everyone turns to to see if the situation is OK (or the ones who complain the loudest). One other tactic may be to spend some one-on-one time with them explaining the strategy and trying to engage them without explicitly explaining your reason. Flattery is no bad tactic - "as a senior member of the team I really need your help. What do you think people are concerned about because to me this seems like a really good opportunity for everyone".

Good luck