How Worcester Bosch Keep Their NPS Above 80

Our very own Megan Jones recently visited Worcester Bosch’s contact centre operation at their Head Office in (you’ve guessed it!) Worcester, UK, to find out how Naomi Smith – Contact Centre Manager – and her team keep their Net Promoter Score above 80, including the initiatives they have in place to put advisor wellbeing front and centre, how they give team leaders the support they need to truly thrive, and what it really takes to manage such extreme seasonal peaks through the winter.

1. Think Carefully About How Closely You Recruit to the Start of a Seasonal Peak

When preparing for seasonal peaks, one of the biggest considerations should be when to recruit into the team – as timing can make or break the success of the new cohort. 

“We’ve learned the hard way that when we recruit is really important. If we recruit too late in the year, the new recruits come out of training and bounce straight into a seasonal peak and have a very stressful time.

However, if we start the process sooner, they have a bit more breathing space to come out of training and build up their confidence on the floor – before the peak hits!

Making this change to the recruitment process has really helped to reduce the shock factor, and we’ve seen a positive impact on attrition and absence levels too.” – Naomi Smith, Contact Centre Manager

2. Host Monthly Team Leader Insight Meetings to Highlight Performance Trends

A great way to keep team leaders up to speed with key performance trends is to ask one of your analysts to host a monthly meeting with them to highlight key areas for improvement.

“These sessions really help to highlight the less obvious trends and issues that aren’t so apparent on the surface, as well as create structured opportunities to learn from one another.

It’s then up to them to apply these learnings to their team, or book some more time with me to deep-dive on the data around a particular issue they want to address.” – Alex Wood, Resource and Performance Analyst

3. Explain Why You Sometimes Need to Say “No” to Holiday Requests

From a resource planning perspective, holiday requests are notoriously tricky to manage – especially in the face of peak demand. However, a bit of proactive communication can really help here.

“Ensuring the team take their holiday and reset is really important to us, so I recently hosted one of our ‘Level Up’ training sessions all around our holiday approvals process.

By sharing the data behind the process, the team have a better awareness of the impact. Consequently, they get their requests in early to avoid disappointment and we can continue to resource our contact centre effectively.” – Matthew Brennan, Resource Planner

4. Give Advisors a ‘Time Out’ AUX Code to Recover From a Stressful Call

If you need to better support your advisors after a stressful call, why not set up a ‘Time Out’ AUX code for them to put themselves into?

Be clear that this won’t have an adverse impact on their performance stats, then make sure a team leader checks in on them and keeps an eye on any additional support they may need moving forward.

5. Have Monthly NPS Meetings to Keep Success Front of Mind

Host a monthly NPS meeting to bring people from across the contact centre together to talk about what’s going well and where there’s room for improvement. This creates a regular opportunity to spot trends as well as schedule top-up training where it will have the biggest impact.

It can also help to create a dedicated NPS Analyst role within the contact centre team, as a dedicated driver for collating feedback, looking for trends, and leading continuous improvement initiatives.

At Worcester Bosch, everyone across the business also has NPS as a target. And it’s all clearly having an impact, as they can proudly toast to their latest NPS of 81.3!

For more information on Net Promoter Score (NPS), read our article: What Is Net Promoter Score (NPS)?

6. Run Top-Up Sessions for Team Leaders on Absence and Disciplinaries

To support team leaders with the more difficult conversations they may need to have with their advisors, why not host leadership-specific training and knowledge bursts on absence, disciplinaries, and grievances?

It can also help to host dedicated team leader events days, where they get to come together away from their advisors for internal networking, problem solving, and knowledge sharing.

7. Introduce Themed Days of the Week to Keep the Feel-Good Factor High

Keep the feel-good factor running high all week long with themed days in your Teams or Slack channels.

“We have #MindfulMondays for inspirational quotes, #WisdomWednesdays for work-related knowledge bursts, and #ThankYouFridays for sharing the highlights of the week!” – Natasha Donnelly, Operational Supervisor

8. Set Up Strategic Focus Groups Involving Colleagues From All Levels

Hosting strategic focus groups is a great way to capture insight and ideas from different perspectives – especially when you involve people from all levels of the contact centre.

Not only is this a good opportunity to put the spotlight on any areas that might need some more attention (e.g. refining a particular process), but it’s a great opportunity to push advisors outside their comfort zone – for example, by presenting their ideas to the group.  

9. Encourage Job Shadowing to Break Down Silos and Nurture Career Aspirations

During the summer at Worcester Bosch, advisors are encouraged to job shadow other roles, as well as go out with engineers on the road.

This not only helps break down silos and increase awareness of challenges in other departments, but also nurtures career aspirations and a wider appreciation of how their role fits into the bigger picture.

“This approach has really helped us to break down any “us vs. them” mindsets across the business, as well as encourage internal attrition.

It’s all about sharing expertise, fostering a wider understanding of the contact centre, and helping people become more understanding of one another.” – Stephanie Hughes, Quality and Processes Supervisor  

To find out what it takes to set out truly transparent and engaging career pathways, read our article: How to Define Career Paths in Your Contact Centre

10. Give Advisors as Much Choice as Possible About Which Mental Health First Aider to Reach Out To

When training Mental Health First Aiders, make a conscious effort to create a broad ecosystem of support, so advisors have more choice about who they feel most comfortable talking to, and aren’t forced to talk to their direct supervisor or teammate about their problems if they don’t want to.

To underpin this approach, Worcester Bosch have trained over 200 Mental Health Champions across the business.

11. Grant Advisors Direct Access to Their Own Performance Stats to Avoid Any Surprises

One way to keep advisors in touch with their performance and avoid any nasty surprises in their next 1-to-1 is to give them direct access to their personal performance stats.

This approach can offer reassurance and visibility into what a normal day looks like for them, as well as kick-starting proactive conversations about their weak spots – although this data should be treated as an optional extra, with no pressure to look at it on a daily basis if they prefer not to.

12. Build Up a Knowledge Bank of Troubleshooting Calls

Make a habit of building up a bank of troubleshooting calls and collecting examples of where an advisor has handled a complex issue especially well.

Over time, this will build a full library of calls for other advisors to listen to as part of their induction or for any top-up training and really help to share best practice in a centralized way.

13. Don’t Just Run Formal Training Sessions – Mix in Some Fun Subjects Too!

Why not mix up your training programme with some fun or extracurricular learning sessions too?

“One of the ways we keep our advisors engaged and motivated in our training programme is to occasionally mix it up with fun sessions too. For example, learning a bit of Spanish for the upcoming summer holidays.” – Elliott Yeomans, Trainer and Recruitment Supervisor

For advice on why you need to keep training and coaching human, read our article: Why Coaching Still Requires the Human Touch

14. Get Your Team Leaders Involved in Advisor Interviews

If you can make a more concerted effort to check the suitability of a candidate in the recruitment process, it can save a lot of time and stress later on.

Bringing team leaders into your interviews can make a big difference here, not only to assess advisor suitability and fit for the team dynamic, but also to kick-start inductions on a positive note by having a familiar face from the interview process around on their first day.

15. Invite Other Supporting Functions Into Your Celebrations

If you’re running internal celebrations and awards – big or small – why not take these initiatives beyond the contact centre and look to see where other teams could also be included?

For example, the Worcester Bosch contact centre runs an annual awards evening that was previously just for colleagues within the contact centre, but for the first time this year, they’ll be bringing other supporting functions and teams into the picture as well, to really maximize the feel-good factor!

With huge thanks to the following members of the Worcester Bosch team for making us feel so welcome on our visit and sharing so many fantastic ideas:

• Naomi Smith – Contact Centre Manager
• Matthew Brennan– Resource Planner
• Elliott Yeomans – Trainer and Recruitment Supervisor
• Natasha Donnelly – Operational Supervisor
• Alex Wood – Resource and Performance Analyst
• Stephanie Hughes – Quality and Processes Supervisor

For more best practices and fun tips from other contact centres, read these articles next:

• Award-Winning Tips From Citizens Advice
• 15 Ideas We Heard at Costa Coffee’s Contact Centre
• 15 Award-Winning Ideas From the Teleperformance Contact Centre
• 20 Innovative Lessons From Simplyhealth’s Contact Centre

Author: Megan Jones
Reviewed by: Xander Freeman