NovelVox –  Want to Make Your Contact Center Wallboard a Productivity-boosting Powerhouse? Try these 9 Design Ideas!

In modern times, if there’s one industry that perfectly justifies the phrase “of the people, for the people and by the people” – it has to be the contact center. Today’s omnichannel contact centers run on technology, but they’re powered by people. That’s why it’s important to continuously measure, capture, and display some vital metrics to assess and improve their performance. And one of the best ways to do this is via wallboard.

A contact center wallboard like the iVision Plus from NovelVox provides a quick, bird’s-eye view of activities and performance at any point in time. With this powerful visual communication tool, agents and supervisors can quickly view up-to-date performance data and motivational information to understand how they’re doing, and what they need to do to improve. This helps create a “culture of collaboration and shared goals”, where the entire team works together to achieve the contact center’s KPIs. Plus, the sharing of targets and progress reports can improve agent engagement and boost productivity in what can otherwise be a very stressful environment. It also empowers managers with the right information to (take the necessary action to) enhance customer satisfaction and drive contact center success.

However, these benefits are highly-dependent on displaying the right kind of information in the right way, and at the right time. In a way, this is a design conundrum that unfortunately, many contact centers get wrong. In fact, when it comes to wallboard display/design and deciding what information to display on it, most contact centers simply take a shot in the dark. The result is that instead of motivating and inspiring agents, the wallboard actually ends up distracting or disrupting them. No contact center can afford such eventualities, so they must find a way to perfect their wallboard design.

In this article, we provide 10 such ways that can help boost the productivity and efficiency of your agents.

Ready to master your contact center wallboard?

1: Convey a Simple and Clear Message

Contact center agents are human beings which means that they cannot focus on too many pieces of information at the same time. Moreover, every time an agent looks up from their desk to read the information on the wallboard, they lose valuable time that they’re better off using to serve customers. This is why it’s important to have a simple display that shows as few text messages as possible. Also, each of these messages should be easy to grasp. Long text messages are a strict no-no, and so are messages that require the agent to calculate anything, or do further analyses.

Try to display only the most important figures and short encouraging text messages that keep them informed and motivated. This can help maintain agents’ concentration and even increase their productivity.

Remember – highly targeted and easily interpreted, not long-winded or perplexing!

2: Make it Visible

It’s one thing for the wallboard itself to be visible to every agent. But is the information on the wallboard visible to every agent?

All agents must be able to see the information displayed, no matter where they’re sitting. If your contact center is small, and you cannot invest in multiple wallboards, you must make optimal use of the wallboard screen’s limited “real estate”. This means adjusting the sizes of both text and visual elements so every agent can see relevant information at a glance. And since increasing size means that you won’t be able to fit in a lot of information at the same time, make sure you pick only the most relevant statistics or messages to display.

3: Use Colors to Display Thresholds

Human brains are wired to respond to colors. So no matter which metrics you choose to display on your wallboard – number of calls in the queue, number of calls abandoned, number of sales closures, etc. – you should create thresholds that change colors instantly in response to the performance. Create both upper and lower thresholds so you know when to reward goal-reaching actions, and when to take action to encourage poor performers to do better. In either case, colors can provide a fast way to judge performance, and take the right action that motivates agents and keeps their performance at peak levels.

4: Limit the Display to 6 metrics

Contact centers typically track and collect a lot of metrics at any given time. But this does not mean that all these metrics should be displayed at the same time. Avoid showing more than six metrics on the wallboard simultaneously. The purpose of the wallboard is to provide useful information that encourages some positive action. But too much information does exactly the opposite.

Moreover, when information is not flashed but scrolled, agents lose valuable time waiting for the relevant inputs to show up on the screen. Also, continuously staring at the screen can be tiring on the eyes, which can affect agents’ on-the-job performance and productivity.

 5: Update Individual Desktops with Customized Information

Often, showing generic information to the entire agent population does not have the desired effect in terms of increased motivation, productivity, or efficiency. To help individual agents understand where they stand in comparison to their peers, and if they’re missing the bus with respect to their targets, it’s important that individual performance measuring metrics are also shown. On the centralized wallboard, display general metrics that are relevant to a broader (or entire) section of the agent population, but on individual desktops, show only the information that’s relevant to that agent.

6: Choose the Right Fonts, Colors, Styles and Visual Elements

Wallboard can be truly useful only if it displays the right information in the right way. Here’s where choosing the right colors, color contrasts/combinations, fonts/font sizes, and other design-related elements is critical. It’s okay to experiment, but not to perplex. For example, don’t use red to denote success and green to flag an issue. As humans, we tend to see red as a warning color, so if you use it for something else, you will only confuse your agents. And again, confusion means lost time and lower productivity, not to mention poor customer experience outcomes.

Use bold icons to help agents understand the key outputs and data at a glance. Don’t show text or images that are difficult to read or understand. Use a grid-based layout with enough spacing between elements to enable quick readouts. Wherever possible, display information in charts or other visual formats. Don’t be afraid of using white space – it can increase comprehension!

7: Include “Gamification”

In a stressful contact center environment, gamified wallboards can be a fun way to reduce strain, while increasing motivation and boosting performance. The iVision Gamification Wallboards from NovelVox offer real-time contact center data in a gamified manner so agents can see how they’re performing in an engaging (which means “non-boring”!) manner. The wallboard helps create a virtuous cycle of motivation and positive behaviors that lead to better customer service quality and satisfaction.

Agents can self-track their progress, quickly measure metrics like AHT and FCR, and even compare their performance with their peers to drive on-the-job learning and continuous performance improvement that they take accountability for.

8: Group Data Logically and Show it at the Right Time

Find a way to show different pieces of data in logical groups that enable a quick information download for agents, with a single glance. This way, the agent doesn’t have to spend (i.e. waste) time scanning the wallboard to find what they need at a particular moment. Make sure the most important metrics are displayed in bold and ‘pop’ from the screen. Again, color and font choices can make a big difference here.

Also, if key targets change throughout the day, this should reflect in the wallboard design. If different teams need different information, try to have bespoke outputs for them to show only this information, and nothing else. You can also ask agents what they need, and which indicators they want to see on the wallboard. Two-way communication between management and agents is never a bad thing, especially when it comes to a universally-useful asset like the wallboard!

9: Don’t make it only About the Data

Most times, agents appreciate having a quick source of information that tells them where they are, where they need to be, and what they need to do to get there. Such public displays can also motivate them, and encourage them to challenge each other to improve. But when things are not going particularly well, especially at a group, department, or even organizational level, the very same data can end up increasing stress levels. Therefore, it’s important to mix agent performance figures (“data”) with more human-sounding messages. Try to encourage agents with positive messages such as “Great job!” or “Keep up the good work”, even during not-so-good times.

Display the “agent of the week” or “superstar of the month” on your wallboard. It will help engage your agents, motivate them to reach their targets, and keep them happy and productive.

You can also take this motivation a step further by acknowledging them outside the wallboard, and rewarding them for their hard work. People don’t like to feel as if they’re nothing more than a cog in a large corporate wheel. However, they do respond well to positive reinforcements from organizations (and supervisors) who make an effort to engage with them and publicly appreciate their contributions to the contact center.

10: Add Personal Touches

Call center wallboards are commonly used to display real-time statistics and KPIs. But there’s no rule that says it cannot be personalized or used to show information that has nothing to do with statistics. Display birthdays, internal communications messages, or details of social events (e.g. the next team picnic or company-wide annual party) on your wallboard. This is a great way to improve morale, boost team spirit, and nurture a company culture that makes it very clear to agents that, “You are much more than a resource. You matter!”

A Final Word

Your contact center wallboard is an indispensable tool to keep agents productive and motivated. But to ensure that it meets these objectives, it’s important to pay attention to its design. Implement the 10 design ideas we have suggested here to optimize the effectiveness of your wallboard. For more such ideas, explore the NovelVox blog. You are also welcome to book a demo for one of our cutting-edge contact center solutions. Simply fill out the form here and one of our representatives will be in touch!