Description of the process
It is not a simple undertaking to ensure that value is created for each of the many customers of this process:
- Change initiators who have specific measures of success for their initiative.
- Contact centre employees who are directly affected by the change.
- Contact centre business unit which is affected by the results of change in all key performance areas.
- External customers who expect the contact centre to be up to date regarding changes.
The process starts when a change initiator within the organization makes a request to the contact centre to implement an initiative. It ends when the change has been institutionalized within the contact centre framework.
Characteristics of a best practice
A critical success factor of the change deployment process is to establish a dedicated team responsible for the successful implementation of change into the contact centre. Team members are primarily agents from the contact centre who provide current subject matter expertise. Agents on this team stay current by handling customer contacts on a regular basis.
The team obtains a broad picture of impending change for the next 12 to 18 months and uses a rigorous process to successfully deploy each change:
- Evaluate and influence the impact of each change using a set of criteria that defines the needs of the contact centre, employees and external customer.
- Plan for the required resources and budget to implement the change.
- Ensure fulfillment procedures are clearly defined.
- Design and deliver contact centre training for employees who need to know of the change.
- Validate effectiveness of the training to deliver the desired outcomes.
- Update core contact centre training programs to include the changed items.
- Co-ordinate solutions when things go wrong.
- Obtain feedback from the customers of the change deployment process.
- Provide feedback to the change initiator and assess the measures of success.
- Above all, learn from each change initiative to improve the next.
Relationships to other processes
Input to change deployment process:
- Standards for training design and delivery are from the Skill & Knowledge Transfer process.
- Support for change is a critical component of the Leadership Role and Effectiveness process.
- The purpose of the change initiative does not conflict with the Call Centre Role and Business Model processes.
Output from change deployment process:
- If the initiative involves a change in workload, adjustments are made using the Force Management process.
- There is typically a need to update the Fulfillment process to handle the new or changed transaction.
- If the change involves a new skill such a selling, the Agent Roles/Responsibilities and Call Handling processes are updated.
What’s in it for me?
Reduce damage control
One can decide to either be a victim of change or be the designer of one’s own destiny using this process. A victim spends much time controlling the damage created by a change initiative. The key is to get involved at a point where one can influence the change.