Wallboards are a common sight in contact centres.
These large screens typically display information about the contact centre’s performance, such as first call resolution (FCR) statistics, calls waiting and average wait times.
But are these screens genuinely good for your contact centre? Do they fulfil a meaningful function?
Or are they a pointless distraction?
Unnecessary stress?
Many agents find wallboards a stressful presence in the contact centre.
The large, shifting numbers often display call queues or waiting times, adding to the sense of urgency and increasing stress. Agents feel pressured to tackle the queue of calls, but as individuals their impact on the overall queue is always going to be limited.
While some agents may be motivated by a long call queue, many more will be stressed by a sense that they are falling behind. And does any business really want agents to be motivated to work faster, knowing that this is likely to reduce the quality of contacts?
Good news stories
Some contact centres have recognised the stress that wallboards can induce, so they are instead used to display positive statistics, rather than reminding people of their shortcomings.
For example, wallboards can be used to show levels of first-contact resolutions, or positive outcomes and feedback received.
By praising agents, you can encourage them to work calmly and patiently. This can also support your agent retention and engagement goals.
Distractions
Do you want your agents to be focused on a wallboard – or on the queue of incoming calls and messages? In some contact centres, supervisors have observed agents pausing before going ready when they see that only one call is in the queue. So instead of motivating agents, this information is actively obstructing progress and leading agents to delay answering.
Knowledge sharing
Another useful way to implement wallboards is to use them to update agents on important news, such as product updates, service outages, delivery dates or other information that can help agents resolve more queries on first contact.
Stats are for supervisors
Call queue and wait time statistics should be for supervisors, as it is their job to use this information to learn about the effectiveness of their forecasting, planning and management. Instead of stressing agents with these statistics, make them visible only to supervisors.
Focus on calls, not statistics
If you want agents to deliver excellent customer service on every contact, then allow them to focus on customers, free from distractions and unnecessary stress.
Are your wallboards helping your agents be productive and effective? Or are they a stress-inducing distraction?
Stephen is IPI’s CX (Customer Experience) Solutions Director, with responsibility across product, commercial and development functions. A CX expert and technologist with over 20 years’ experience, Stephen has worked both partner and vendor side at some of Europe’s biggest contact centre integrators and at the world’s largest workforce optimisation and analytics vendor. His focus has been on pioneering the development of AI, self-service and compliance technologies for the contact centre space and he was recently awarded a patent for the co-invention of a revolutionary fraud prevention tool for contact centres. Passionate about helping organisations realise the promise that technology makes, he is a regular contributor and speaker at CX and contact centre events around the world.
