Protect Your Contact Center Team from a Space Shuttle Columbia Like Disaster

Protect Your Contact Center Team

In 2003, the space shuttle, Columbia, disintegrated over East Texas and Louisiana, when it attempted to reenter the Earth’s atmosphere. Sadly, all seven astronauts aboard died. The control room crew in Cape Canaveral was responsible to guide the shuttle safely home. Instead, they like us watched the streaking remains on a cable news broadcast.

NASA is a paragon of science and engineering. Safety is a priority, and this sort of thing isn’t supposed to happen. Worse, this disaster was preventable. Following this disaster, it was discovered that managers systemically ignored warnings from engineers and pushed forward with the mission, resulting in an unthinkable tragedy that will not soon be forgotten.

The situation in your call center isn’t quite that dramatic, but similarities can be drawn. Most conflicts are subtly destructive and happen in almost every organization. Personal desires compete against company interests which left unchecked can breed complacency, impatience, and frustration.

By taking time to learn from and apply some of the hard lessons of the Columbia disaster to your management team, you can prevent such conflict from negatively impacting your team and business.

Lessons in Burnout

Early in the shuttle program’s history, engineers warned a design flaw might lead to damage of the heat shielding. The foam insulating the rocket might break in flight and strike the shuttle, but managers ignored this concern. After years of successful flights, it became normal to keep overlooking this potential risk.

Your call center staff may also face a real problem with burnout, and it’s easy for managers to get sucked into this trap as well. Some common contributors to burnout include:

  • High Volume : Employees become stressed when overworked.
  • Lack of Support : Employees cannot always handle customer concerns efficiently.
  • Unachievable Goals : Benchmarks set too high discourage performance.

When the job becomes a grind, many employees are tempted to simply cut a corner. Unfortunately, the consequences eventually catch up.

Combat complacency and burnout by rotating staff, retraining, and updating processes to better support your team. Consider any feedback your staff provides and empower them to bring concerns directly to you and ultimately solutions as well. Those closest to the opportunity are best equipped to identify what is needed.

Lessons in Rushing

The Flight Manager responsible for the Columbia mission was reported to have been in a hurry to complete the landing and move on to the next launch. The International Space Station was behind schedule, and another delay was unacceptable. Managers discounted precautions.

Your call center is also under pressure to perform quickly and efficiently.

  • Fast Calls : Your customers want to get through their calls rapidly, after all time is money.
  • Poor Listening : The first convenient answer to a concern is not always the right answer.
  • Cutting Corners : Agents might ignore essential details in your procedures to speed the process.

Your staff needs to avoid the temptation to overlook procedures. Help them remain focused on each call and update processes to eliminate redundancy and waste without sacrificing quality.

Lessons in Frustration

Although the damage done to the heat shielding was thorough, the investigating committee found that a rescue mission, should it have been done in time, was possible. The flight managers did not act in time favoring a wait-and-see approach. The crew on board was not even aware of the potential risk before attempting reentry. The management destroyed all credibility and trust along with the shuttle and crew.

Managers need staff to trust their judgment. Frustrating the efforts of your agents damages the future of your department.

Avoid this conflict by:

  • Empowering : Give your staff the tools, processes, and authority to respond to customers.
  • Validating : Reward performance but also reward consistency.
  • Responding : Listen to feedback from your team and balance input against other objectives.

This is a valuable lesson from history that is relevant within many businesses today, especially within the contact center. By protecting your team from burnout, preventing shortcuts, and minimizing frustration you and your team will be better equipped to handle today’s busy contact center transactions successfully.

This blog was first published on LinkedIn

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