This Ain't No Game: Run Your Call Center Like a Sports Team
July 17, 2015
If you think about it, it’s not much of a stretch to compare major league sports to a high-volume contact center. Both need to be constantly thinking, “quick on their feet,” adaptable to change, and always looking for the best people for the job.
It’s a comparison that Jennifer Waite—Product Marketing Manager at inContact, a leading cloud-based call center provider—examined closely in a recent blog post. Her thoughts on the matter are worth sharing.
“Every football team has its own playbook, filled with options depending on the situation on the field, [and] different contact centers have different operating procedures depending on specific outbound campaigns,” she wrote. “And just as NFL rules of engagement make proper execution a necessity, so do complex FTC and FCC regulations—including TSR (News 
– Alert), the DNC and the TCPA—make proper contact center operations critical.”
Waite goes on to note that different contact center risk tolerance profiles also call for different approaches. For example, “Each company, based on advice from its legal team, will interpret outbound dialing regulations differently,” she says. “The spectrum may range from liberal guidelines to specific and strictly enforced procedures for outbound calls.”
Taking the metaphor a step further, Waite notes that the ability (and willingness) to be ‘flexible’ is crucial, citing her own company’s adaptability.
“inContact’s outbound dialing solution allows for custom time-zone boundaries, so contact centers can optimize performance by calling during narrow time frames that still comply with regulatory guidelines,” Waite notes. “Additionally, list filtering ‘filters out’ certain states that, for example, have been hit by a storm and need to keep lines open for emergency purposes. Additionally, states that require licensed agents for a particular campaign can be automatically filtered out if necessary. Specific compliance guidelines can also be applied to campaigns with different regulatory requirements, such as collections and proactive outreach,” she summarized.
Compliance management can be a complex challenge for any contact center, but just like the rules in major league sports, compliance is essential. By staying informed and taking a proactive approach, contact centers can not only remain ‘clean,’ but also stay ahead of the curve.