By nature, I’m a planner.
While some people encourage living in the moment, my mind is usually month, or even years, down the road. What do I need to do now to accomplish a certain goal next year? How much do I need to save each month to take that dream trip to Italy for our 25th wedding anniversary? What’s the game plan if one of our kids gets married and moves to a different state? (For the record, I’m hoping we can skip this last scenario.)
When it comes to contact centers; however, we don’t always have the luxury of thinking that far ahead.
We manage so many things in real-time; service levels, escalations, staffing challenges, system issues, coaching conversations and more. With so much happening, pausing to think about the future can be a challenge. The challenge is that if we spend all our time focused on today’s fires, we may not be preparing our organizations for future opportunities.
As Benjamin Franklin said, “By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.”
That’s why our plan for 2027 actually began in July of this year.
We started by asking our entire contact center team to participate in a SWOT analysis. For those unfamiliar, SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats.
The ask was simple: Help us identify where we should focus our time, energy and resources by taking a critical look at the current state of our department:
We encouraged our employees to think boldly about what we should start, stop or continue doing because the most valuable feedback often comes from those closest to the work.
Once the responses were collected, the management team rolled up our sleeves and dug in.
First, we celebrated the strengths that were noted. Team members highlighted our commitment to training and development, strong leadership support, recognition programs and overall team cohesion. Those strengths didn’t happen by accident. They were the result of intentional investments and planning over previous years. In many ways, the feedback validated that the work we did yesterday is benefiting us today.
One by one, we reviewed the feedback and had honest conversations as a management team about where we need to improve. We talked about how to reduce the “swivel effect” created by information spread across multiple systems and resources. We discussed how to build greater confidence among our staff as they support increasingly complex clients. We challenged ourselves to think beyond quick fixes and focus on practical and sustainable solutions.
For the items within our control, we began building a roadmap for 2027. We identified priorities, assigned owners, and created action plans designed to move each initiative forward. Beginning in January, we’ll meet monthly to review progress, remove obstacles and maintain momentum. Then, next fall, we’ll do it all over again as we begin planning for 2028.
Spend some time working on the business; not just in the business. While today’s performance certainly matters, the strengths we celebrate in our contact centers next year will likely be the result of the investments we’re making today.