Call Centre Team Work - The Importance of Communication
Many of the most extraordinary human achievements have been a result of outstanding team work. From the Wright Brothers building the first airplane to a massive NASA team sending the first human beings to the moon, very often teams are greater that the sum of their parts. Teams bring together individuals with different strengths. When all these strengths are allowed to flourish, the team is able to achieve more than any of its individual members could on their own. Teams also inject diversity into a project or an environment that allows the team to adapt quickly to changing circumstances. And teams provide a support network for their members, which allow individuals within the team to flourish.
Building Great Teams
Dr. Alex Pentland is the Director of MIT’s Human Dynamics Laboratory where he and his colleagues explore the science of building great teams. The researchers have workplace teams wear electronic sensors that record how the individuals within the group communicate with one another. Their findings have been both fascinating and surprising. The researchers found that what people say is far less important than how they say it. In fact, the how of communication turned out to be as important as what was said, intelligence, personality, and skill combined.
In summary, the researchers found that the best teams:
1. Communicate often. The optimum amount of communication equates to about 12 exchanges in every working hour. More or less than this can mean that team performance starts to decrease.
2. Balance how much they talk and listen, and balance communication between team members. The best teams tend not to have people who dominate or cliques within the team, and tend to talk and listen in equal measure. Talking without listening tends to decrease performance. Listening without talking tends to do the same.
3. Have lots of informal communication. Top performing teams tend to spend half their time communicating outside of formal structures such as meetings. It is therefore important to provide opportunities for team members to chat informally in the workplace.
4. Connect with people outside the team to explore new ideas and gather information. The best teams go out and look for perspectives outside of the team environment and bring those ideas back to the team to increase performance.
The results of Dr. Pentland’s studies emphasise the importance of effective communication processes within teams. Moreover, Dr. Pentland’s team found that successful patterns of communication could be developed.
So whilst some may think that call centre agents chatting together between calls is inefficient, as they could be handling more calls, such communication is beneficial for team work. Clearly in a call centre environment the amount of time for such informal communication needs to be balanced with the call waiting time and abandonment rate. Call centre agents should be trained so that they have a knowledge of these metrics, monitor them and know when to prioritise customer calls.
You might wish to consider how your call centre team could improve its communication processes by focusing on the four key principles outlined. The great team model emphasises the importance of positive interactions between team members and effective communication processes. The benefits of building great teams extends beyond performance and innovation. Research suggests that these teams are likely to deliver for their organisations and customers. Beyond these performance factors great teams promote individual development, engagement and wellbeing.