07/04/2022
Having started his contact centre career as a ResQ Sales Advisor over 15 years ago, Matt Gray, now Director of Operations at ResQ, has witnessed huge amounts of change in the Team Leader role. Most notably are the advances in technology, which are providing today’s Team Leaders with a wealth of insight and the opportunity to focus more on the core element of the role – that is, to support, nurture and lead their team to success, both personally and collectively. Here, Matt talks about some of those fundamental changes….
The Team Leader of yesterday
Although the Team Leader role has changed, there are some aspects that remain a central part of the role.
Taking on a Team Leader role is the first step onto the managerial ladder and also one of the most difficult jobs, but one that gives you enormous satisfaction. The title, Team Leader, is the perfect description. Much like a sports team captain, you are part of a team, and you lead your team members. You’re not separate from the team – you’re very much part of it, sharing your experience, developing, encouraging each other, and ultimately, creating an atmosphere where everyone works together. This is no easy task, but it is still an absolute priority of Team Leaders today.
I was fortunate enough to be part of teams just like these and we shared nothing but success. Sure, there were bad days, but we dusted ourselves off, believed in ourselves and put things right. It’s important to understand each member of the team completely – their strengths and their weaknesses. Celebrating their successes and nurturing/supporting them when they may have been having a tough day.
The fundamental change is technology. I remember, less fondly, spending a lot of my time having to build excel spreadsheets from scratch. Pulling information from tin diallers into .csv files to create macro-enabled spreadsheets that gave me basic agent stats in real-time. Yes, it was laborious and slow, but they were essential and at that time, my only option. I needed to have a clear picture of what was happening through data and management information because without it, I couldn’t nurture or support my team to deliver results that we were all proud of.
Pioneering technology at Team Leader’s fingertips
These days, it’s not such a cumbersome task for our Team Leaders, thanks to ResQ’s commitment to building and delivering technologies that solve real business problems. ResQ Anywhere, for example, not only allows agents and team leaders alike to see their real-time performance figures throughout the day, but it also merges all our platforms into one comprehensive app, allowing agents to save time and increase efficiency.
Through ResQ Anywhere, our Team Leaders have every metric you can possibly imagine, available, at the click of a button. How are we performing so far today? Click! You want to see yesterday’s stats? Click! What about last week or last month? Click! This time last year? Click! This type of detailed information is priceless and having it readily available has allowed us to continuously deliver for our clients and set a new bar on what can be achieved.
Football teams don’t wait until the full-time whistle blows to analyse areas for improvement. This happens throughout the game, with tactical changes taking place all the time. Half time team talks and strategy tweaks. It’s no different with a team of Sales Advisors. If it’s broken in the morning, we will fix it by lunchtime! This has always been the ResQ motto.
This is further enhanced through our Rosetta technology platform, which can run efficiently alongside our client’s voice platform, delivering 100% accurate real-time statistical analysis, meaning that the data extrapolation is less labour intensive and allows for highly accurate improvements to be made irrespective of the client system.
Empowering agents through self-management
ResQ’s attrition has reduced significantly by giving agents access in real time to their own figures. This in turn has increased ALL customer experience metrics, including CSAT and NPS. Our agents can now see a whole new level of information through ResQ Anywhere, giving them huge insight, control and autonomy. Gone are the days where Team Leaders need to tell their agents they ’have been in wrap too long’ – they can see it for themselves. There is no need to advise agents how many sales they are on for the week/month – the information is right there in front of them. Calculating an agent’s daily commission for them? No need. They can see it in real-time. All the stats in the Agent Dashboards are the same figures that I had to monitor, track and communicate regularly as key to success.
Now, we embrace technology to do it for us. This has empowered our agents to self-manage and has made our Team Leaders more productive. The time this saves Team Leaders means they can now do so much more. More time with their agents listening, coaching, developing and encouraging. Speed to competency is better than ever and agents are so much happier as they are more successful and are earning more commission. A win-win for everyone.
Technology with purpose
Technology will continue to play an integral role in the modern contact centre environment, but for ResQ, it’s not just ‘technology for technology’s sake’ – it’s technology with purpose. Technology that looks to solve real-life business challenges such as improving operational efficiencies, empowering our agents to be the best they can be and continuing to deliver a world-class experience for our clients and their customers. To find out more about our technologies, get in touch today.