Whether a few miles up the road or in another country, different contact centre sites can quickly become operational silos – creating friction and driving inefficiencies.
So how do you get this right? To find out, our Editor – Megan Jones – spoke to Adrian Hawes, Karl Fletcher, and Vinay Parmar to hear their best tips and advice on how to foster strong relationships across multiple contact centre sites.
10 Ways to Strengthen Relationships Across Multiple Sites
1. Start Up a Site Exchange Programme So More People Can Meet Face to Face
Give your colleagues opportunities to get to know those working on other sites by organizing in-person site exchanges.
“At one organization I worked for, we arranged site exchanges, so we had people from Head Office come down to Oxford and also took people from other sites back to Head Office.
This really gave people the chance to see other sites with their own eyes. We also had a shared internal network (Facebook Workplace) connected across all the sites, so the people who took part in site exchanges could share stories and photos of what they’d learnt for all their colleagues to see!
This really helped to amplify these messages and bring the other sites to life, as well as share examples of best practice that everyone could learn from.” – Vinay Parmar, Keynote Speaker & expert on the art and science of winning customer loyalty
2. Never Pitch Sites Against Each Other (It Just Doesn’t Work!)
Try to avoid any approach to managing multiple sites that involves pitching teams against each other – whether that’s for C-SAT scores, overall profit, or even fun Halloween decorating competitions. It can have the opposite effect to what you’re trying to achieve.
“I’ve been in organizations where they’ve deliberately created competition between sites because they thought it would drive greater performance.
But it doesn’t! It actually creates conflict, causes problems, and holds everyone back from achieving their goals. If you’re setting teams against each other, guess what?
They’ll do everything they can to beat the team they’re competing against. Instead, you’ve got to see yourselves as one big team and keep talking as often as possible to help them, as well as to help yourself.” – Adrian Hawes, Award Winning, Transformational Resource Planning & Contact Centre Professional
3. Make Time to Celebrate Key Milestones Together (Even If It Needs to Be via Video Link-Up)
Make sure you aren’t just talking about the serious stuff every time you have any cross-site communication! Set aside time to celebrate too!
Just like this great example we spotted on LinkedIn from Larayn Wilkinson, Head of Customer Service at BargainMax:
4. Set Up a Centralized Platform for Sharing New Ideas and Initiatives
Site cultures can quickly become very different when grass-roots ideas and initiatives are trialled and rolled out in isolation of the wider organization. One way to overcome this is to centralize this information.
For example, when we visited Bupa’s contact centre in Staines we heard how they have a centralized platform for new ideas and initiatives – so everyone can see and implement them, no matter which site they are working at.
This helps to make sure that great ideas aren’t trapped behind closed doors (and efforts aren’t being duplicated) as everyone strives to work more efficiently and improve the customer experience across the entire organization.
5. Set Up Daily Check-Ins to Make Sure Everything Is Going Well
Communication is key, so make sure to have a robust strategy in place – including a scheduled daily check-in to make sure everything is going well.
“Any manager working across multiple sites should make sure they are consistently communicating with every site, whether that be through a cross-site morning briefing session at 9am bringing key decision-makers together, or simply by calling a key contact at each site individually just to check in and make sure everything is going well.” – Karl Fletcher, Resource Planning and MI Manager at Novuna
6. Send Your People Overseas to Immerse Themselves in a Different Culture
Working across cultures throws up additional challenges and opportunities for miscommunication, but a great way to get ahead of this is to send people abroad to experience these differences first-hand.
“Working across sites can be very difficult, particularly when you’ve got long-distance and different cultures to navigate (and a lot of organizations have gotten this badly wrong over the years!)
However, when I was working with sites in India, we were forever sending our colleagues out there just to talk to people and keep the relationship going. There’s a lot to be said for face-to-face time! It helps break down cultural barriers as well as show a commitment to the relationship.” – Adrian Hawes
7. And If You Can’t Get There in Person, Have Regular Video Calls Instead!
However, if you don’t have the budget to be flying your colleagues out to different countries on a regular basis, video calls are a great and more cost-effective alternative, as Larayn Wilkinson, Head of Customer Service at BargainMax.co.uk shared in this LinkedIn update:
8. Make Sure Everyone Is Working to a Unified Goal
Another challenge that can arise when working across multiple sites is inconsistency of process – including induction, training, and onboarding – and how you make sure they’re all aligned.
“If you have planning, training, projects, and communication managed centrally while still having site-specific teams acting as satellites, you can maintain consistency across all sites.
Of course, each site will have its own uniqueness – different people, locations, and setups – but if you have dedicated people in different sites fulfilling the same role under central leadership, that works really well! Alternatively, some organizations have separate planning, training, and HR teams for each site.
That can work too, as long as there’s a unified goal. That’s the key – having one overarching goal and a clear measure of success that everyone understands. If all the teams across different sites are working toward the same objective, it creates alignment and success.” – Karl Fletcher
9. Bring Operational Leaders From Different Sites Together for Face-to-Face Strategy Meetings
Make an extra effort to bring everyone together for end-of-year strategy meetings and similar important events. It’s worth the time and investment to strengthen relationships and the flow of ideas, just like this great example we spotted from Lego on LinkedIn:
10. … And Cross-Site Managers Should Visit Each Site at Least Once a Month – in Person!
And it’s not just about teams feeling connected, it’s about managers having a strong presence too. That’s why setting aside regular time to visit your sites is crucial, as Karl Fletcher explains:
“If you’re managing multiple sites, you have to visit them, get your face out there and be recognized! There’s nothing better than being personable when you’re on-site. Of course, it depends on your industry, your company size, and other factors.
But I would say, at minimum, you need to visit each site at least once a month. If you can do that, you create visibility and it shows commitment. It demonstrates to the advisors and employees that they’re important to you!”
This approach also helps you avoid falling into the trap of the “Head Office Bubble”, as Vinay Parmar concludes,
“One of the big challenges of being part of the leadership team in an organization with multiple sites is that you can fall into this trap of the “head office bubble”, where you think everywhere is like the head office because that’s where you spend most of your time.”
What’s Been Your Experience of Managing Relationships Across Multiple Sites? What Lessons Have You Learnt Along the Way?
Join our LinkedIn community to share your experiences with us.
With thanks to the following people for sharing their thoughts and experience for this article:
- Adrian Hawes, Award Winning, Transformational Resource Planning & Contact Centre Professional
- Karl Fletcher, Resource Planning and MI Manager at Novuna
- Vinay Parmar, Keynote Speaker & Expert on the art and science of winning customer loyalty
If you are looking for more advice on uniting your workforce, read these articles next:
- 10 Strategies to Help Agents Feel Less Lonely
- 12 Inspiring Tactics for Sharing the Call Centre With the Wider Company
- 10 Ways to Improve Your Team Meetings
Author: Megan Jones
Reviewed by: Xander Freeman
Published On: 27th May 2025
Read more about - Call Centre Management, Adrian Hawes, Karl Fletcher, Leadership, Team Building, Top Story, Vinay Parmar
