Humans are typically resistant to change, so a critical element of migrating a contact centre to the cloud is to ensure agents are ready for the changes and feel part of the transformation. Contact centres are critical parts of most businesses and performance is measured across a series of metrics designed to ensure peak performance. These include measures such as connection rates, waiting time, first time resolution and satisfaction – but when the system moves to the cloud justifiable concerns are multiplied.
The new platform will have an impact because the transition is a large-scale change and concerns that traditional metrics will show poorer results affect both supervisors and agents. It’s therefore important that the cloud transformation project team is able to communicate its expectations. Typically, project teams have complete confidence that the long-term results of moving to the cloud will far outweigh short-term disruption but agents and operations teams focus on the short-term and how bad things will be on the first day.
This might sound pessimistic but it’s actually a sign that this team wants to do well at its job and is worried that new technology will hamper it. Further concerns exist around data security, privacy, reliability, downtime, change management and training. Given these concerns, a smooth transition should encompass not only robust and carefully selected and deployed technology but also work to ensure agents are trained, have confidence in the new systems and have the knowledge to maximise its capabilities.
By putting in place training in advance of the change, organisations can position themselves in a strong position for a successful cloud transition. However, this training time cannot cause issues in the existing call centre. It’s therefore important to communicate about the change early and schedule training and sessions so they do not take large swathes of workers out of the call centre without planning to cover their absence.
Resonate, a Microsoft Partner with an Advanced Specialisation in Change and Adoption Management, draws on its experience to optimise the transition to a Teams-based system. In a typical project, Resonate would introduce the Contact Center solutions via a large-scale call a month ahead of launch to explain why the change is being made and what the expected benefits are. This call could set out the stages of the transition. Then, moving through the plan, Resonate would demonstrate the solutions and, if practical, enable agents and supervisors to practice in a test environment the week before launch. This would be backed by support on the launch day.
Resonate has in-depth experience of helping organisations through the transition and also in assisting them to operate in hybrid environments. Having trained users remotely, even before the pandemic, the Resonate Training Academy has skilled trainers that can demonstrate cloud contact centre solutions, such as Luware Nimbus, online. Andy Bates, Change Lead at Resonate, explains, “As we specialise in delivering change to enterprises with a global footprint, we designed all our programmes to delivered online, which massively improves the affordability and scalability of change.”
By empowering agents to ask questions to allay their concerns and then practice using the system before go-live, confidence can be strengthened and resistance to change minimised. Transition to cloud is a complex and significant change but it should not be scary for agents or pressurising for supervisors. To learn more about how Resonate can help support Microsoft Teams Change and Adoption, visit: Microsoft Teams Change and Adoption | Resonate (resonate-ucc.com).
