15 Ideas We Heard at Costa Coffee’s Contact Centre

Our very own Xander Freeman and Megan Jones recently visited Costa Coffee’s contact centre operation in High Wycombe (UK) to find out how Deborah Woods, Louise Dew, and the team pull out all the stops to drive ever-more efficient customer service.

1. Use Video Chat to Help Customers Fix Things Side-by-Side With an Agent

One of the stand-out differences at Costa Coffee is their use of video chat – used by less than 1% of contact centres, according to our latest What Contact Centres Are Doing Right Now report. All to help customers fix their own coffee machines quickly and efficiently, “side-by-side” with an agent.  

“There’s been a real shift to video as the norm. People were more reluctant to use it pre-Covid – especially clicking a link on their phone – but people now see the benefit and are definitely more open to using it.” – Deborah Woods, Contact Centre Manager

2. Give Agents a Confidence Matrix So You Can Ask THEM How They Feel

When did you last ask your agents how confident they felt about the training they’d received?

Rather than just waiting for issues to be screened out during the QA process, Costa Coffee also have a confidence matrix they share with their agents, which asks questions such as, “Are you confident on this machine?”

This helps to ensure customers get the support they need from an agent who is confident in the training they’ve received and feels they can speak up if and when they need any extra support.

3. Put a Fun “Question of the Week” on Your Team’s Whiteboard

A great way to promote team bonding is to add a “Question of the Week” to your whiteboard.

For example, “Which TV series are you watching right now?” or “What would you do if you won the lottery?” Then agents can write their answers up on the board to create talking points and banter across the week.

4. Teach Agents How Their Attitude Influences How Customers Respond

Don’t just teach agents the basics, teach them about how their attitude also impacts customer behaviour.

For example, the agents at Costa Coffee recently received training to teach them about the benefits of being in a positive state of mind, as Louise Dew, Contact Centre Manager, comments:

“The way agents behave on the phone ultimately dictates how the customers respond, so our recent training was all about the power of being more positive.

The trainer encouraged agents to reflect on “What puts YOU in the red (a negative mindset)?” and “What puts YOU in the black (a more positive mindset)?” and how they can shift the balance to have better customer conversations – exploring everything from tone of voice, language choice, and even putting yourself in the customer’s shoes.”

5. Always Bring Your Strategy Back to “Will It Make the Boat Go Faster?”

Have you read the book “Will It Make the Boat Go Faster?”?

The leadership team at Costa Coffee have it down as a must-read for improving their contact centre efficiency, as Deborah Woods explains:

6. Get Your Agents Involved in The Great British Spring Clean

For a community day with a difference, the Costa Coffee team proudly support the Costa Foundation.

They also support the local community in other ways – including The Great British Spring Clean, where more than 342,000 #LitterHeroes from different communities unite to help tackle litter and reduce the impact on wildlife.

Spring cleaning doesn’t have to occur outside of the contact centre, you can start with your agents’ wellbeing. For advice on this, read our article: Top Tips to Spring-Clean Your Team’s Wellbeing

7. Break Down Your Goals Into Key Focus Areas to Better Engage Agents

Discussing how to drive continuous improvement across the contact centre can feel overwhelming (and even boring) to frontline agents if it’s not pitched correctly.

To help boost engagement and bring everyone along on the journey, the leadership team start by running a group mind mapping exercise, visually breaking down the overall mission and goals into the key focus areas of:

• People
• Customers
• Finance
• Processes

Not only that, but the initial phase is very much around capturing all ideas – big and small – in a combined wish list.

The next phase then is around focusing on what’s going to have the biggest impact, refining the list into a clear all-encompassing strategy where everyone understands what’s being changed and why.

8. Think About What It Would Take to Achieve a “Level Zero” Support Strategy

Another key way to drive customer service improvement is to focus on your “Level Zero” support – where customers don’t have to call at all!

This comes down to understanding the financial and commercial drivers behind your contact volumes and where there’s opportunity to automate and simplify, so customers don’t have to call in in the first place.

Putting the spotlight on “Level Zero” support at Costa Coffee has led to changes to self-service guides (for example).

9. Link Customers to Your Webchat Support Via a QR Code

One initiative the team are particularly proud of is how easy they’ve made it for customers to find their webchat – by putting a scannable QR code on their coffee machines!

It’s worked so well it even featured in their British Quality Foundation (BQF) award entry where they were named a finalist.

10. Give Agents a Safe Space to Discuss Survey Results and Come Up With an Action Plan

To get the most out of your next employee engagement survey, don’t just analyse the results amongst the leadership team.

Instead, take it further by also giving agents time together to review the findings and come up with some next steps themselves – without a manager present.

By giving them the opportunity to take ownership and be honest amongst their peers, you’ll get deeper insights and fresh ideas.

For some great advice on making sure your staff surveys truly engage your teams and drive actionable results, read our article: 29 Ways to Transform Your Call Centre Staff Surveys

11. Delegate Bite-Sized Management Tasks to Agents to Keep Their Work Varied (and Free Up Management Time Too)

One way to empower agents is for their team leader to delegate additional tasks and responsibilities to them, as Nazim Hussain, Contact Centre Team Manager, explains:

12. Put a Nice Spin on It If You Realize a Customer Is Talking to Another Colleague at the Same Time

Sometimes customers can come through on more than one channel – which is (of course) a very inefficient use of your team’s time.

If it comes up during a phone conversation (for example) that the customer is also speaking to another agent via webchat, one of the nicest ways to position this is to say “Would you like to carry on the conversation with me, or continue on the chat? What’s easiest for you?”

13. Play a Game of Bingo Based on What Customers Are Calling About

A fun game agents can play between calls is “Bingo”, where instead of crossing off numbers, the squares feature common customer issues. For example, a fix about a certain type of coffee machine.

The agents can then participate based on the luck of the draw of what customers are calling them about and you can give out prizes across the day as people get a line or full house.

If you are looking for more ideas on games and activities you can use with your teams, read our article: Can You Recommend Any Games I Can Use to Motivate My Agents?

14. Give Out Pin Badges to Recognize Agent Achievements and Decorate Their Lanyards 

If your agents wear lanyards, why not give them the opportunity to earn pin badges to decorate them with?

This helps them to become unique items and something they are also proud of.

For example, pin badges could be given out based on going above and beyond for company values.

You could also buy in sets of pins in different icons to represent where they’ve helped out with extracurricular activities.

For example, agents at Costa Coffee who supported the team in Paris during the Olympics received an Eiffel Tower pin badge to help remember their time fondly.  

15. Don’t Assume Everyone Is Going to Want to Do Fancy Dress

When trying to raise the profile of good causes, don’t try and force everyone into fancy dress or similar big displays, as it won’t always be well received.

Instead, give people choice. A good compromise here is to give everyone a sash they can decorate and wear over their own clothes, if they wish. It’s about everyone feeling comfortable in what they are wearing and having some creative freedom to express themselves – as much or as little as they wish.

Don’t just focus on the fun elements either! It’s also vitally important that your people know how to handle any challenging conversations they may encounter with customers sharing strong views.

For more best practices and fun tips from other contact centres that we have visited, read our articles:

• 15 Award-Winning Ideas from the Teleperformance Contact Centre
• 20 Innovative Lessons from Simplyhealth’s Contact Centre
• Behind the Scenes at Ocado – 21 Simply Soup-erb Ideas
• 15 Ideas You Can Use From Bupa’s Contact Centre

Author: Megan Jones
Reviewed by: Jo Robinson