4 Tips for Building and Sustaining Team Momentum in your Contact Centre
Don’t you hate feeling stressed and frustrated when your team is struggling to reach its targets, simply because it didn’t get off to a flying start and build momentum?
And, with many teams working remotely, it can be particularly challenging building and sustaining momentum!
Over the 34 years I’ve been running call centres around the world and consulting with businesses coaching and mentoring their Call Centre Managers and Team Leaders, one of the biggest challenges I’ve come across is teams regularly missing their targets and KPIs.
It can be really stressful and frustrating when you watch the clock slowly wind down and you know you aren’t going to hit your weekly or monthly target, especially if your team is working remotely!
Below I’ve outlined a simple process amazing Team Leaders use to build and sustain momentum with their team to regularly reach, or even exceed, their goals regardless of the team working remotely or with each other in your call centre.
4 Simple Steps for Building and Sustaining Team Momentum
Step 1: Set Clear Targets
To get your team off to a flying start and continue to build momentum to reach team goals, the first step is to set clear targets.
You need to make sure everyone on your team understand what the team’s target is and what the team needs to do to reach it.
You also have to speak with each member and let each of them know what they are specifically accountable to achieve themselves.
You want everyone to be crystal clear about what the team needs to do, and particularly what each team member needs to do on a daily and weekly basis to hit the target.
So, kick off the week or month with a quick team meeting to inform them of the team’s target and specifically mention each team member’s individual target that they are accountable for reaching.
And, be sure to listen to any genuine concerns about individual targets and look at these concerns as opportunities to provide the coaching and training needed to help them achieve their target.
Step 2: Keep Everyone Accountable
You want to keep everyone accountable for reaching their target, so be sure to give everyone a daily update during the pre-shift huddle telling them whether the team is on target or not, and where each team member sits with their individual target.
You also need to regularly update the team and team member’s progress throughout the day, so everyone can see how the team is doing collectively and how all team members are performing individually.
Having a whiteboard prominently displayed is an easy way to do that if your team are working altogether in one place, however, if they are working remotely you can still do this easily simply by sending an update by email.
If specific team members are falling behind after a couple of days, you need to chat with them privately about their performance and discuss ways you can help them catch up with some training or coaching.
It may even involve something as simple as moving them away from team members who could be distracting them if the team are working together, or if they’re working remotely, discuss their work habits or anything that may be distracting them in their working environment.
Holding team members accountable this way helps them understand that you are focused on them and the team achieving their targets, which creates urgency and builds momentum.
Step 3: Get Off To a Good Start
Other ways to build and sustain momentum is to concentrate on reaching your team’s target for the first hour of every shift, the first day of every week and the first week of every month.
Many team members like to slowly get started and ease themselves into the day.
Problem with that is all too often they blow the first hour of the day or the first day of the week screwing around and quickly find themselves behind the eight ball, and then frantically trying to catch up.
Just imagine if everyone were to hit, or even exceeded, their target for their shift every day, or were ahead of target for the first week of the month. How stress-free would everyone be?
And, if they weren’t feeling a little stressed about hitting their targets how much confidence would they have about reaching them and putting in extra effort if needed?
So, be sure to have your energy levels up for the first hour of every shift and the first day of every week so your team can feed off you and really concentrate on getting off to a good start.
Even if your team is working remotely you can keep their energy levels up by reaching out to them with a quick chat and encouragement.
You also need to regularly sincerely recognize and praise your team members each time they get a win, especially when they reach their daily and weekly targets.
You can do this every shift during the team huddle and throughout the day, particularly if you have a whiteboard up that shows how people are doing achieving their targets, or simply email a goal update.
It can be as easy as praising them when they update the board with another achievement.
Or, in the goal update emails you send out throughout the day to your team when working remotely.
Step 4: Celebrate Wins
Finally, you need to celebrate when your team hits their target and recognize everyone’s effort.
And, you don’t have to go over the top.
If you’re all working together in the same location, you can do simple things they enjoy like having a pizza night or having everyone bake something for the team to enjoy through the next shift, or even have a fancy dress day or add a casual dress day.
If you’re working remotely, be imaginative by setting up an online ‘Toast Party’, having everyone log onto a site so they can see each other and interact.
Raise your glass and toast each other for your efforts and make a special mention for those whose achievements are worth recognising.
Just do something your team will enjoy that recognises and shows appreciation for all the hard work they put in to achieve their target!
Recommended further learning:
- Read: 15 Essential Habits of Amazing Contact Centre Team Leaders
- Watch a video: How Contact Centre Managers and Team Leaders can improve feedback processes
- Learn more about our training courses exclusively for Team Leaders and Contact Centre Managers
