What are the Best Ways to Use Contact Centre Wallboards?

We asked our panel about the best information to display on your contact centre wallboards.

Use your wallboards tactically

Try using your wallboards tactically in short bursts during extremely busy and extremely quiet periods.

You should also ensure that your messages are concise and can’t be misinterpreted or misunderstood, and review the content of your wallboards at regular points throughout the year, making sure to involve agents, team leaders and managers.

With thanks to Phil Anderson, Professional Planning Forum

A badly planned wallboard can be distracting or boring

A badly planned wallboard can be distracting – or worse, so boring or demotivating that it gets ignored. So start by ensuring:

• You are clear on the behaviour you are aiming to engender in colleagues
• You know what motivates your team
• Messages reflect your KPIs, goals and objectives

The latest software will also allow you to show only the most relevant data.

Less is definitely more

With wallboards less is definitely more. Save details which are relevant only to the individual for desktop software. For example, agents may want to monitor only the queues to which they belong so that they can manage their time.

Also ensure that metrics are simple to understand and avoid long text messages, as wallboard displays must be easy to read.

Wallboard information should be reinforced in face-to-face meetings

Putting up a wallboard isn’t a replacement for effective management.

To keep colleagues motivated, ensure that wallboard information is backed up by regular, positive reinforcement in the form of face-to-face meetings, where performance can be properly discussed and there is an opportunity for interaction.

With thanks to Ken Reid, Rostrvm Solutions

If people can’t read it then there is no point having it there

Consider how your wallboard information actually appears. If people can’t actually read it then there is no point having it there.

Also discover what you have the ability to display from a technical perspective and how it might be displayed on the available physical wallboards throughout the contact centre.

Consider the people using the information

Consider the people using the information, as it might be seen by different groups with different requirements.

Speak to these people and ask them what’s important from their perspective.

Remember what you can display might be limited in terms of space and practicality so you need to use it efficiently.

Wallboard information should pass the ‘impact test’

Wallboard information should pass the ‘impact test’, meaning that data shown on the wallboards should be real-time information that you act upon.

Don’t use wallboards to display information that you are not going to action.

With thanks to Steve Siddall, Contact Centre Specialist, Noble Systems

Wallboard information can improve agent adherence

Psychologically, it is much harder to ignore information, whether it’s news of a star agent award, company news, a breached threshold or a corporate video, when it’s displayed publicly for all peers and managers to see.

Publicly displaying information on wallboards can empower staff to challenge each other (rather than it coming from management) about why they are not ready or why they were late coming back from lunch.

With thanks to Stephen and Jamie

Your wallboard should provide a real-time snapshot of your business

Wallboards are a great way of sharing information across a contact centre, but all too often they just end up getting used as traffic alerts – telling you when there’s congestion and how long the delays are going to be.

However in today’s increasingly complex, omni-channel customer contact environment, it’s no longer good enough just to populate wallboards with traditional call waiting and AHT stats. It doesn’t solve anything and is more likely just to increase overall stress levels!

With thanks to Paul White, CEO at mplsystems

Wallboards should give managers key information as they “walk the floor”

Wallboards can be set to show important information happening right now, such as the queue, but also positives such as KPI-related information that the agents/managers might be targeted on, such as abandoned calls, average time to answer and number of sales made.

This set-up gives managers key information as they “walk the floor” instead of when they are sitting at their desk, so that they can act/react accordingly.

With thanks to Richard

Be creative and capture your agents’ attention

Wallboards are often used as a critical tool in managing the contact centre, so you need to show information on the critical KPIs such as service levels and calls waiting. But the danger here is losing your audience and sight of the bigger picture.

Wallboards are also an excellent way to communicate with your staff. From business information like profit and turnover, to the smaller things like birthdays and celebrations; it can all be displayed on screens.

The challenge is finding the right mix for your business, so that agents have the information they need as well as the things that help boost morale and team spirit.

In contact centres I’ve managed, I’ve displayed calls waiting and service levels, then later in the day changed the focus to internal communications, and then some time in the late afternoon put up traffic updates so staff know what their journey home’s looking like. With so much data now accessible online you can really be creative with what you display.

The wallboard is more than just a tool to get advisors to take more calls, it’s a mechanism to communicate with and motivate your staff. If they aren’t looking at it then you’re not reaching your target audience.

With thanks to Dave Smith, Success Manager, Magnetic North Software

Take time to ask agents what they want to know

More time should be taken to engage with agents and find out what they want to know, as opposed to telling them what we think they’d like to know or trying to make them care about what we’d like them to.

Ask the agents what they want and pilot it. You may get a surprise.

With thanks to Andrew and David

The best wallboards put quality alongside quantity

Putting performance statistics on a call centre wallboard is a good idea, as agents can see if they’re hitting the performance targets they’ve been set, and use that data to stay motivated.

But when things aren’t going well, that same performance data can suck the motivation out of a room in an instant.

A wallboard shouldn’t just be about the number of calls that are made, or the number of sales that are won. The best wallboards put quality right alongside quantity, using metrics like queue length.

With thanks to Chris Key, Hostcomm

How do you use your contact centre wallboard?

If you like our lead image, click here to Download the PowerPoint file and create your own wallboard-style messages.