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Call Center Responsibilities Allocation Matrix

One of the biggest concerns Team Leaders have (especially new Team Leaders) is not having a clear understanding of their role and all their responsibilities. 

This can cause a lot of unnecessary confusion and anxiety within the team and between Team Leaders and their Call Center Manager.

Having managed call centers and consulted with small to large businesses around the world for 35 years and especially having owned a call center myself I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen all the finger pointing and refereed arguments between Call Center Managers and Team Leaders claiming it was the other person’s responsibility when something got missed and things went pear shaped.

Usually the problem came down to a misunderstanding between the Call Center Manager and Team Leader (usually a new one) because there wasn’t a clear understanding between them of each of their responsibilities.

And, to complicate things further… there are some shared responsibilities that they both need to be clear about so there isn’t any confusion about who is supposed to do what, and when.

To give you an example, last year I was consulting with a small to medium sized financial services company with a large part of their call center dedicated to generating qualified leads from an outbound team to pass onto the sales team.

They had about 30 team members in that group making calls using a dialer, and as you know, when a dialer slows down and team members are waiting too long between calls being presented it really screws up their productivity, and wastes a lot of money with people sitting there just waiting to speak with someone.

Obviously, you need to check the dialer and see what’s going on to make sure it isn’t a software issue, but usually it’s the lists loaded in the dialer that need to be changed because the dialers is running low on data, so you have to upload new lists.

Well, I was brought in to coach their Call Center Manager and Team Leader, and one morning I was working with the Team Leader when all of a sudden one of the partners of the business rushes in and says:  Hey, what’s going on?

It’s taking about a minute or more for a call to be presented, and their just sitting there twiddling their thumbs - who’s supposed to be looking after that?

He calls in the Call Center Manager and I watch the three of them going at, back and forth, about who’s supposed to be responsible for the dialer, and the finger pointing between the Team Leader and Call Center Manager saying: You’re supposed to look after that! No I’m not, you are!

After 10 minutes of this the partner storms off saying: Just get it fixed!

The Call Center Manager scowls at the Team Leader, who’s just about in tears, and stomps off to fix the dialer.

As I watched this scene play out, I thought to myself what a fiasco!

And, it reminded me about an exercise I’d take them all through later, which I learnt years ago when I was the Marketing General Manager at one of the world’s largest hotel groups, which I amended for the call center world, and call the Call Center Responsibilities Allocation Matrix, which I provide in my Creating Amazing Team Leaders live and online self-paced courses.

It’s a great tool that’s easy to use to make sure everyone understands what they are solely responsible for and which areas they have share responsibility that brings clarity between Call Center Managers and Team Leaders regarding their individual and shared responsibilities.

Now the first thing you need to do to get started with this exercise is list all the duties and responsibilities of the Call Center Manager and Team Leader that you want clarity and alignment on those duties and tasks that certain roles are responsible for and where the responsibility is shared.

After you’ve completed your list, simply copy and paste those duties and responsibilities into a form with the headings for each task type – Administration, Human Resources and Supervision/ Development.

When that’s done, meet with your Team Leaders and explain that this exercise is all about bringing clarity and alignment on the tasks each of you do to eliminate any confusion about who is responsible for which task, and what level of shared responsibility there may be.

Then discuss each task and agree with your Team Leaders which area on the matrix it should be put. 

You’ll find during that process that many of your team leaders didn’t realize what some of their tasks were, or that they were supposed to do them and keep you in the loop.

To save time, do this exercise using a laptop that can project on a large screen TV in one of your meeting rooms, otherwise, use a whiteboard or grab some butcher paper and use marker pens to complete your matrix.

And, just be sure when using either a whiteboard or Butcher paper that you record the final outcome… simply, take a picture with your phone and type it out later.

And, once all the tasks have been allocated, understood and agreed to give a copy of the matrix to your boss and HR for their comments and approval, and once they’ve signed off on it, send a copy to all your Team Leaders, and include it your Team Leader training program.

And, then review it ever 6 months or so and update it as you need to.

So that’s the tool! Pretty simple to pull this exercise together isn’t it?

And let me tell you - once you’ve got clarity and alignment on all the tasks, you’re life and your Team Leaders lives will get a whole lot easier!

Now, it doesn’t cure dialers from slowing down, but it will likely get them back up a lot quicker without one of the partners storming in to see what the hell is going on!

Want to learn more?

Want to learn more on how to develop a proven, practical and easy-to-implement training program to create amazing Team Leaders with a clear understanding of their role, and the practical skills needed…

to turn underperformers into high achievers, who regularly reach (or even exceed) their monthly targets and KPIs?

Simply enroll in my free online course - 7 Pillars For Creating Amazing Team Leaders using this link https://7pillarsmembers.marccarriere.net/.

You get instant access to this free course PLUS 15 Bonus Micro Training Videos AND free download of the 7 Pillars For Creating Amazing Team Leaders Guide.

After this Free Training you’ll understand all the vital elements you need to develop your own structured Team Leader training program and deliver it. 

Just imagine how confident you’ll be training your Team Leaders with all the skills they need to turn low performing teams into high achievers that hit (or even exceed) their targets and KPIs every month!