How to Fight the “We Don’t Have Time” Mindset

Working in a contact centre, you’ll know that most of the time everyone’s running at full speed! And if someone suggests a training session, a process review, or, heaven forbid, an improvement workshop, it’s a chorus of groans: “We don’t have time.”

Yet the busier you get, the less time you make for fixes. The less you fix, the busier you stay. It’s a vicious loop. But if you never make time to step back, you’ll never get out of the chaos.

So, what do you do in this situation? Let’s take a look…

10 Ways to Break the “We Don’t Have Time” Mindset in Your Contact Centre

1. Ask Your Team “Where Did You Lose Time Last Week?”

A powerful question to ask your team is “Where did you lose time last week?”– as we heard from visiting Bupa’s contact centre.

You never want anyone to feel like you’re blaming them, or accusing them with this one (and it can turn that way if you refer to it as time ‘wasted’ or anything of that sort).

But when done compassionately, this question will encourage conversation around the routine tasks and processes where there are opportunities for time-saving, and creates a better awareness of where time may be slipping away.

2. Nip Naysayers in the Bud

You may find that there will be a few people who are hesitant to make any new changes, and in these cases, it’s your job to help your team reframe “no time” into “not yet prioritized”.

If you’re able to identify the main gatekeepers within your contact centre who are always rolling their eyes and muttering, “We don’t have time” whenever an idea for improvement comes up, that attitude isn’t just deflating, it’s contagious.

Fortunately, you can usually shift this with an encouraging word like this, for example:

“I get where you’re coming from, but trust me, we’ll save more time in the long run if we give this a go.”

Once the initiative is implemented, be sure to then follow through and show them where it’s actually saved time, as this will help with buy-in for the next time they try to say “We don’t have time”.

Contact centres may also have toxic employees that bring the team down. For advice on dealing with them, read our article: How to Identify and Manage Toxic Employees

3. Introduce a “Level Zero” Support Strategy Into the Mix

Level Zero support is everything your customers experience before they even think to pick up the phone. It’s your self-service tools, FAQs, in-product prompts, proactive updates, and friction-free design, working together to answer questions instantly, without human intervention.

When it’s done right, customers get what they need immediately, and your agents get to focus on the more complex vulnerable cases where human skill really matters.

This practice is all about clearing the blockages, so your team isn’t tripping over the same problems every day.

Quite simply, when everyone is focused on achieving “Level Zero”, it changes the nature of the conversation from “We don’t have time” to “What can we do next to save even more time?” 

4. Let Data Do the Talking

Data can show your team exactly what impact your proposed changes could make.

If a repetitive query takes five minutes to handle and happens 50 times a day, that’s over four hours lost daily. When you show the maths and the data, it becomes obvious why investing an hour to fix the root cause is a bargain.

Suddenly that “no time” excuse doesn’t look so strong when, say, a faster knowledge base search could make their lives so much smoother in the long run.

5. Hunt Down Your “Time-Wasting” Root Causes

It can also help to find out what your time-wasting root causes are, as James Lawther, Director at Squawk Point Consulting and author of Managed by Morons, explains:

“Listen to customer calls (one hundred will be plenty) and five-bar gate (tally) all the messed-up reasons your customers call you!

Perhaps you didn’t change their address correctly, or marketing sent them the wrong details, or the package didn’t arrive when it should have.

This will soon give you a clear picture of the work you are asked to do, and which parts of it you should never have had to do or could be prevented from happening again.”

You could even focus on one key area as a pilot exercise to take your teams on the journey of seeing the difference this approach can make.

6. Stop Cancelling 1-to-1s Because “We Don’t Have Time”

When things get hectic, 1-to-1s and training sessions are usually the first to go.

However, this approach generally guarantees more errors, escalations, and repeat contacts – the exact things stealing your time.

When you regularly do this, you’re also sending a message loud and clear that it’s ok to give into the “we don’t have time” mindset and making it ok for others to follow your lead. So, stop letting it happen!

For quick wins on staying on top of your agents’ training, take a look at our article on How to Keep on Top of Training in a Short-Staffed Contact Centre.

7. Encourage a Culture of Regularly Discussing “What’s Working” and “What’s Not”

Encourage all agents to have a voice by using your weekly or monthly team huddles as an opportunity to share examples of customer conversations and talk through common objections.

For example: “When the customer says X, I say Y…”

Done regularly, this can nurture a safe space for open and honest conversations where agents feel confident to talk through issues and learn from each other, as well as from their team manager. That’s where the crucial culture of your contact centre will start to truly thrive and grow.

As Mark Evans from Ocado’s contact centre says:

“It’s culture that moves the dial from excellent to outstanding. At Ocado, people feel like they’re being listened to and we’re all in this together.”

This prevents the daily ins and outs of the work from becoming something your agents simply “phone in” (pun not intended!), but rather something that can inspire a further sense of workplace camaraderie.

If you are looking for ways to improve your communication, read our article: The 7 Cs of Effective Communication

8. Protect Reflection Time at All Costs

If you can’t find time for process improvement, you’ll stay in the cycle forever.

One way to start to ring-fence time for this is to book a monthly away day or run an Apprentice-style challenge to fix one operational headache. The solutions you find when you’re not juggling live calls will more than pay for the time away!

9. Turn the Phones Off for a Full Department Get-Together

Be brave! Sometimes you have to close the phone lines (even if just for an hour) and bring everyone together for maximum impact – making sure everyone is having the same solution-focused conversation at the same time.

Leaning into technology can help.

For example, support from voice assistants can take some of the pressure off and create breathing space for some thinking time, as Paul Cuglietta, Head of Contact, Claims & Operations at Simplyhealth adds:

“We’re able to turn off the phone lines with more confidence now when required, due to the support we have in place with our voice assistants.

So, when we need to engage with our teams, we are reassured that our customers will be signposted to the right place and able to self-serve.”

10. Share Your Customers’ Perspective to Drive a Greater Sense of Purpose

It can be challenging to engage your teams in your mission, but Leeds Building Society have discovered a good way to achieve this goal: by sharing compelling statistics with their colleagues – highlighting the challenges customers are facing.  

You can also try sharing customer feedback and complaints.

After all, when the facts are clear to see, it can help to change the conversation from “We don’t have time” to “Where can we make the experience more time-efficient for our customers?”

Start Championing a Different Mindset of “We’re Busy, but We’re Smarter”

Everyone in a contact centre knows the “we don’t have time” mindset, but that doesn’t mean it’s unfixable.

You can push back by keeping 1-to-1s and training in the diary, tapping into the wisdom of the Level Zero strategy and carving out time – whether via quick wins or away-day-style deep dives – to reflect and improve.

The message you’ll send is simple: “We’re busy, but we’re smarter.”

For more information to help you improve your contact centre and make the best use of your time, read these articles next:

• How to Effectively Manage a Team Leader’s Time
• How to Make the Best Use of Coaching Time
• Why You Should Embrace the Complexity of Longer Talk Time

Author: Stephanie Lennox
Reviewed by: Xander Freeman