If you’re new to contact center management or even a seasoned leader, developing and implementing a contact center plan can feel overwhelming, especially for new managers.
Managing hundreds of agents across multiple channels in a contact center requires juggling tasks. The constant high call volume, fluctuating CSAT scores, outdated forecasts, and agent attrition leave you grappling with challenges.
This article explores key aspects of contact center management, focusing on strategies to optimize your workflows, boost customer satisfaction, and enhance agent performance.
We’ll discuss core responsibilities, successful management strategies, and emerging trends shaping contact centers’ future to help you easily manage and optimize your contact center operations without headaches.
What Is Contact Center Management?
Contact center management is the strategic oversight and continuous optimization of people, processes, and technologies within a customer contact center environment. It balances delivering excellent customer service across various communication channels with agent satisfaction and cost-efficiency.
To achieve this balance, managers actively manage the workforce, work methods, and different customer service tools. Their goal is to keep both customers and call center agents happy, which translates to business success.
Successful contact center managers deeply understand customer behavior, industry trends, and operational best practices. This enables them to proactively adapt strategies to meet evolving customer demands and business goals.
Contact center management is a critical function impacting a company’s reputation, customer retention, and success in a customer-centric space. Effective call center management shapes the customer experience and drives long-term business growth.
Running a successful contact center is a balancing act. You need to effectively manage three main pillars: people, processes, and technology.
1. People management
Managing people is central to effective contact center management.
You need to make sure you have the right number of agents on deck during busy times (workforce management), equip them with the skills to conquer any customer challenge (training and development), and give them ongoing feedback to help them excel (performance monitoring and coaching).
When your agents feel valued and supported (think great work environment, growth opportunities), they’re more likely to stick around and deliver exceptional customer service.
Happy agents, happy customers — remember, it’s a two-way street.
2. Process management
You need a roadmap for smooth customer journeys.
This involves designing experiences prioritizing customer satisfaction (think clear and easy solutions), integrating the right technology (so you can see everything happening), and using data to make smart decisions.
Continuous improvement is necessary and your processes need to adapt and grow over time.
Consolidate customer insights effortlessly with Nextiva.
3. Technology management
Call center technology is your toolbox for a seamless operation. It offers customers omnichannel support and the flexibility to connect on their preferred channel, be it via phone, email, SMS, or social media.
Self-service options like knowledge bases or chatbots empower customers to find answers independently, freeing up your agents for more complex issues. With the help of reporting and analytics, you can see exactly how your contact center is performing and identify areas for improvement.
What Makes a Good Contact Center Manager?
Great contact centers are powered by fantastic managers. They’re the ones who lead the team, keep things running smoothly, and adapt to whatever curveballs customers or the business throws their way.
Here’s what makes a contact center manager excel in this role:
Composed and level-headed under pressure
Composure under pressure directly reduces stress levels for the team.
When faced with angry customers, tight deadlines, or technical glitches, a calm manager can assess the situation rationally, make sound decisions, and de-escalate tense situations.
Tips: Practice active listening with upset customers. Acknowledge their emotions and calmly explain solutions. During stressful periods, delegate tasks effectively and provide clear instructions to reduce team anxiety.
Strategic vision
Great managers aren’t just focused on resolving today’s issues. They see the bigger picture, anticipate future challenges, and proactively develop solutions. They understand industry trends and customer behavior to identify opportunities for improvement in the contact center’s processes and technology.
This strategic vision is cultivated by staying informed about industry trends, analyzing customer feedback and key performance indicators (KPIs), setting clear long-term goals aligned with the company’s strategy, and being open to exploring innovative solutions with the team.
Leadership skills
Effective leadership motivates and inspires the team. A good contact center manager clearly communicates expectations, empowers agents to make decisions, and celebrates achievements. They foster a collaborative work environment where agents feel valued and supported.
Tips: Clearly define roles and responsibilities for each team member. Encourage open communication and actively listen to agent concerns. Provide ongoing coaching and feedback to help call center agents develop their skills. Recognize and reward agent accomplishments to boost morale and motivation.
Customer service is a dynamic space. New technologies emerge, customer expectations change, and business needs shift.
A great manager can adapt their approach based on these changes. They’re flexible and open to new ideas, readily embracing opportunities to improve the contact center’s operations.
Tips: Be open to feedback from agents, customers, and other departments. Experiment with new technologies and processes to find what works best for your specific contact center. Develop contingency plans to address unexpected situations.
Customer and employee feedback helps gauge satisfaction and address pain points
Accountability
Mistakes are inevitable, but a strong manager takes ownership of issues and works toward solutions. They learn from setbacks and implement changes to prevent similar problems in the future. This helps them create a culture of accountability where agents feel supported to report errors and learn from them.
Tips: When mistakes happen, analyze the root cause and develop a plan to prevent recurrence. Openly discuss challenges with the team and encourage them to share solutions. Celebrate successes and acknowledge the team’s efforts in overcoming challenges.
Communication expertise
Clear communication is paramount for a successful contact center manager. They effectively convey expectations and goals to their team, providing constructive feedback that helps agents improve their performance. They actively listen to concerns and foster open communication within the team.
Tips: Schedule regular team meetings to discuss performance, goals, and challenges. During these meetings, provide clear and specific feedback to agents. Practice active listening skills when communicating with agents and customers.
How To Successfully Manage Your Contact Center
At the start of their new role, contact center managers should focus on these milestones to avoid putting out fires and position themselves to create and execute a long-term call center management strategy.
1. Analyze your current call center operations
Spend the first few months actively understanding your contact center’s strengths and weaknesses.
Spend time shadowing your agents on calls, listening to call recordings, and analyzing data from reports, surveys, and customer satisfaction scores.
Gather feedback from agents, call center supervisors, and customers to understand their experiences. Why?
Because a comprehensive understanding of your current state — from call volume patterns to agent skillsets — is the foundation for a successful future.
2. Craft your contact center roadmap
With your intel gathered, it’s time to become a strategic leader.
Based on your findings, craft a data-driven roadmap for your contact center. This plan should be your guiding light, outlining a clear vision for improvement and prioritizing specific areas based on the data you collected.
Ensure your plan aligns with your company’s goals. It should be a seamless extension of the bigger picture. For example, if the company is launching a new product line, your roadmap might prioritize agent training on that product.
Also, create an organizational structure to outline clear reporting lines and responsibilities for different roles in your contact center to streamline workflows and avoid miscommunication.
3. Invest in the right contact center software
Technology is no longer an afterthought in the contact center; it’s the engine that drives efficiency and innovation to begin with. You need the rightcall center softwareand tools to start communicating with your customers. What should you look for?
Cloud contact center software: Invest in a cloud-based contact center software that can tackle both inbound calls and outbound calls and offer advanced features like call recording, quality assurance, real-time coaching for agents, and robust analytics dashboards for actionable customer insights.
CRM integration: Choose contact center software that integrates with your CRM system to streamline workflows and provide agents with a complete view of each customer’s history and preferences.
Artificial intelligence (AI): Many contact center software now come equipped with AI. Chatbots can handle simple inquiries, freeing up agents for more complex interactions. Sentiment analysis tools help you understand customer emotions during calls and identify areas where agents can improve their communication style.
Omnichannel support: Customers expect seamless support across multiple channels not just phone calls. Your omnichannel contact center software should offer channels like email, chat, messaging, and social media to provide a unified customer experience.
4. Make data-driven decisions
Use your contact center software to generate reports on key contact center metricsto track your call center performance.
Here are some key agent performance metrics to monitor:
Number of calls received: Tracks overall call volume, helping with staffing and resource allocation.
Average handle time (AHT): Measures the average time spent resolving a caller’s inquiry. Lower AHT indicates efficient call handling.
Call abandonment rate: Tracks the percentage of calls where customers hang up before reaching an agent. A high abandonment rate indicates frustration and potential for improvement.
Agent productivity: Tracks the number of calls handled and issues resolved by agents per unit time.
Include analyzing customer data from digital channels like SMS, email, and chat for a complete view of customer interactions.
Use these insights to identify trends, optimize staffing levels to meet call volume, and understand customer sentiment — are they frustrated with long wait times or confused by a specific product feature?
5. Prioritize customer experience
In this phase, you put the customer at the forefront. Focus on metrics that directly impact customer experience and your business goals. This might include customer satisfaction metrics like:
First call resolution (FCR): Measures the percentage of calls resolved during the first contact. A high FCR signifies efficient problem-solving.
Net Promoter Score (NPS): A measure of customer loyalty that impacts your bottom line.
Customer Satisfaction (CSAT): Gauges customer sentiment toward the contact center experience. Surveys and feedback forms can be used to measure CSAT.
Transparency is important. Share these metrics with your team and encourage them to experiment with new strategies to improve the customer journey.
For example, you could pilot a new script for handling common customer complaints or introduce a post-call survey to gather specific feedback on agent interactions.
6. Optimize your current processes
Your contact center needs ongoing refinement. Regularly assess agent performance alongside operational metrics to identify areas for improvement. This includesquality assurance (QA) and call monitoring.
Quality assurance evaluates agent interactions against defined criteria to ensure they meet customer service goals, follow company procedures, and adhere to industry regulations.
Call center supervisors monitor these calls and contact center managers can use this analysis to inform decisions around staffing levels — are they adequately staffed during peak call times? Can they adjust schedules to better match call volume?
You can also review role assignments — do agents have the right skillsets for the types of calls they’re handling? Can you optimize agent matching to route calls to specialists for faster resolution?
This also lets you explore automation opportunities like chatbots or Interactive Voice Response systems (IVR) to handle simple inquiries.
7. Focus on employee engagement & growth
Your agents are the lifeblood of your call center. Create an empowering and supportive culture with clear expectations and ongoing feedback and invest in your team’s growth through quality training, incentives, and team-building activities.
Empowered agents are highly motivated and provide better customer service.
Start by offering training programs to help agents develop their skills and stay up-to-date on new products or company policies. You can also implement incentive programs to recognize and reward top performers where possible.
Organizing team-building activities will further help you boost agent morale and create a positive work environment. Celebrate your team’s success. Recognize individual and team achievements to keep morale high and show your agents that their hard work is appreciated.
8. Continuously improve
A thriving contact center is never truly “finished.”
Gather feedback from customers and agents through surveys and open discussions. Monitor your analytics dashboards to identify any performance dips. For example, a sudden increase in call abandonment rates — and course-correct as needed.
Work with other departments like marketing or sales to ensure your efforts align with the company’s overall goals. Also, experiment with new ideas like implementing new technology, offering additional support channels like social media support, or testing new call routing strategies.
Call center leaders should also take the time to attend relevant conferences or workshops to learn from others and discover new strategies to optimize their operations. Encourage your agents to participate in industry certifications or training programs to further develop their skill sets.
Amber Dixon, the CEO of Elderly Guides, who operates a large contact center, says it’s hard to balance continuous improvement and day-to-day management:
At four months in, implementing continuous improvement while juggling daily tasks can be challenging. But it’s essential for maintaining high service levels and customer satisfaction. Here are a few strategies I’ve found effective.
Amber Dixon
ELDERLY GUIDES
Best Practices for Effective Contact Center Management
✅ Set clear goals
Guiding a call center team to success requires setting clear goals and tracking progress.
Use the SMART method to set clear, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound goals for your team.
Break down company-wide goals into individual agent targets that align with their roles and skills. Hold team meetings to discuss these targets and ensure everyone understands how their contribution impacts the overall objectives.
📊 Monitor your performance
Use your call center software to track real-time metrics such as call volume, agent call time, and customer satisfaction scores. Analyze this data to pinpoint areas for improvement, whether it’s individual agents or specific timeframes.
Develop targeted plans to address these weaknesses. Contact center analytics lets you identify trends and make data-driven decisions that optimize performance and enhance the customer experience.
☎️ Effectively communicate
Effective communication fosters a positive and productive work environment.
Organize meetings for different purposes and daily operations: daily team huddles for quick updates and motivational talks, weekly one-on-ones for individualized coaching and feedback discussions, and quarterly performance reviews for comprehensive evaluation, career development planning, and recognition.
Encourage open communication during meetings by actively listening and providing constructive feedback. A collaborative environment gives your team better control and a sense of ownership over their work.
💰Plan your budget
Plan your resources effectively. Use pre-built templates to create customized call center operational budgets around staffing, technology, training, and other expenses. Knowing where your money goes helps identify areas for optimization.
Explore cost-saving strategies in areas like technology. Consider cost-effective alternatives for certain software or negotiate better rates with vendors.
Regularly review and update your budget to reflect changing customer needs and ensure your spending aligns with your strategic goals.
By managing your budget effectively, you can invest in the resources and training your team needs.
Recruiting and nurturing top talent is crucial for a successful call center. Develop a structured interview process with specific questions designed to assess call center skills like communication, problem-solving, and customer service focus.
Examples include describing a challenging customer interaction and how it was resolved, or how they would handle an upset customer.
Once you’ve found the perfect candidates, design an onboarding program. Introduce new hires to company culture, call center procedures, and software.
Don’t stop there — develop ongoing training programs to refine skills and address emerging trends. Continuous learning keeps your team sharp and adaptable in every situation.
Implement employee recognition programs that acknowledge and reward high performers. This could include bonuses, commissions, or public recognition for exceeding targets.
Keep your team competitive but also make sure your agents support each other. Implement healthy competition through team challenges or leaderboards to boost motivation.
A positive work environment with opportunities for growth and recognition keeps your team engaged and delivering exceptional service.
🎛 Ensure smooth operation
Customer calls should reach the right agents with everyone having the information they need. What do you need for that?
Design efficient call routingstrategies to route calls to the most qualified agents based on their skills and expertise.
Develop call scripts that provide a framework for handling common inquiries while allowing for personalized interaction. You’ll keep conversations smooth, efficient, and tailored to each customer’s needs.
Another good practice is to create a comprehensive knowledge base for your team. Equip them with easy-to-access information on products, services, and troubleshooting steps.
Have some contingency plans for handling call volume fluctuations and peak periods. This might involve scheduling additional agents, implementing temporary call routing adjustments, or using self-service options to handle customer queries during high-demand times.
Bonus Tips for Effective Contact Center Management
Building on the strong foundation, here are some additional tips for effective contact center management:
Give your agents autonomy: Trust your team to make decisions and resolve issues independently. This boosts morale and ownership.
Work-life balance matters: Promote healthy habits with flexible scheduling and breaks. Reduce burnout for a happier, more productive team.
Knowledge is power: Equip agents with a comprehensive and easily accessible knowledge base for quick problem-solving.
Map the customer journey: Identify pain points and improvement opportunities by analyzing all touchpoints. Streamline processes for better customer support.
Embrace automation wisely: Use AI-powered chatbots or self-service options to handle routine inquiries, freeing agents for complex issues.
Look beyond average metrics: Consider metrics like standard deviation to identify outliers. This helps you target specific agents or processes needing extra support.
Be proactive: Don’t wait for customer contact. Proactive outreach through email campaigns or personalized notifications can address potential issues and enhance the customer experience.
Embrace innovation: Stay ahead of the curve by exploring new technologies like intelligent virtual agents, conversational AI, and robust data security protocols.
Your Contact Center Made Smarter
Your contact center is at the frontline for building positive customer relationships. But managing it isn’t as straightforward. You need the right tools to support your agents, streamline operations, and most importantly, make your customers walk away with a smile.
That’s where Nextiva’s smart contact center solution comes in. You get omnichannel support, built-in workforce optimization tools, plus built-in reporting and AI-powered features to gain valuable insights into your contact center.
Nextiva helps you create happy customers and ditch the headaches, focusing on long-term growth.
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Dominic Kent is a content marketer specializing in unified communications and contact centers. After 10 years of managing installations, he founded UC Marketing to bridge the gap between service providers and customers. He spends half of his time building content marketing programs and the rest writing on the beach with his dogs.
