Does No Rules Rules work in the call center?

As someone who operates in the dynamic and demanding call center industry, I am constantly searching for innovative solutions to maximize productivity, maintain customer satisfaction, and enhance the well-being of my team. I recently finished reading "No Rules Rules: Netflix and the Culture of Reinvention" by Reed Hastings and Erin Meyer, and it prompted me to think deeply about how its principles could be adapted to call center operations and whether would it be successful.

Understanding 'No Rules Rules'

At its core, the philosophy described in "No Rules Rules" centers around the trifecta of "Freedom and Responsibility," "Context not Control," and "Highly Aligned, Loosely Coupled." These principles aim to create a corporate culture that is agile, innovative, and able to quickly adapt to changing circumstances. However, it’s essential to note that the call center environment has its own unique constraints and challenges. Implementing a "No Rules Rules" philosophy must be thoughtful, deliberate, and adapted to our specific industry requirements.

Freedom and Responsibility

The "No Rules Rules" philosophy emphasizes the importance of treating employees as mature and responsible individuals. By reducing bureaucratic layers and barriers, Netflix aims to unlock the full creative potential of its workforce. 

Application in a Call Center:

This could mean reducing or eliminating pre-determined scripts and stringent call protocols. Agents would have the freedom to resolve customer issues using their judgment, creativity, and interpersonal skills. However, this freedom would also come with increased responsibility. Agents would be held accountable for customer satisfaction scores and the outcomes of their calls, as opposed to simply following a script.

This sounds scary when you first read this.  How the hell do you train this?  How do you hire?   It’s not as hard as you think.  The critical success factor is ensuring that your team truly understands why customers are contacting and the specific process needed to resolve.  Empowerment comes naturally when the agent knows the benefit of resolving issues.   Of course, you will need guard rails which does contradict the main message of the book but the spirit can thrive in a call center environment.

Context, Not Control

Netflix believes in providing its employees with the context—meaning the overall company goals, key metrics, and the current business landscape—rather than controlling how tasks are performed. 

Application in a Call Center:

As discussed above, if the team has a deep understanding of the organizational goals,market positioning, and customer demographics, they can act with purpose and empowerment.  This ideally means that agents would be better equipped to handle customer queries and concerns without needing micromanagement from supervisors.

Scared of sharing?   Trust your teams (even if they are outsourced).  They are adults and you have hired and/or selected a partner that you trust.  If you are struggling sharing goals, there are bigger problems to solve before this.

Highly Aligned, Loosely Coupled

This principle encourages departments to operate independently but stay aligned with the company’s overarching objectives. 

Application in a Call Center:

This might look like individual teams or agents specializing in specific customer issues but all aligned toward the overarching goal of customer satisfaction and loyalty. Each team would operate autonomously yet cohesively contribute to achieving the larger organizational goals.

My WFM friends are probably cringing as they read this.  Specialization often means inefficient operations.  Understanding how many people are needed to balance level of service and specific issues is complex and often messy.   You naturally start blending specialists to cover volume and/or hours of operations.   This is one principle that I would recommend not jumping into at first.  I am a big fan of universally trained support agents.  You can funnel these requests to specialized teams through your ticket/call routing.  For frontline support, this is something I don’t like to do under most circumstances.

So - We jumping in?

There are some challenges and considerations to address:

1. Training and Onboarding: Training programs would need to be restructured to focus on problem-solving, creativity, and understanding of the broader business context.  This doesn’t mean you need to blow up everything you have now, you just need to enhance and review how this impacts:

• The agent profile.  What does a successful agent look like with the this change of philosophy?

• How long does training/nesting need to be to achieve success?

• How do you retain your team?  Empowerment is a beautiful thing but can play havoc to your frontline retention as you are hiring more ‘driven’ teammates.

  2. Compliance: Call centers often deal with sensitive information, and we must consider how "Freedom and Responsibility" align with compliance and data protection regulations.

3. Employee Assessment: The performance metrics would need to be re-evaluated to align with the new culture, potentially moving from traditional KPIs like Average Handle Time to more holistic measurements such as Customer Satisfaction or First Call Resolution.

4. Company-wide Alignment: For this culture shift to be effective, it needs to be embraced at all levels, not just the front-line agents. Therefore, managers and executives would also need to adapt their leadership styles.  Embracing radical candor and understanding what talent density means to the call center and organization as a whole is critical for this alignment.

And the verdict?

Adapting the "No Rules Rules" philosophy might be a radical yet rewarding endeavor for your call center environment. It could lead to higher employee satisfaction, greater innovation in problem-solving, and improved customer service quality. It can also lead to higher attrition at both your front line and supervisor levels and this can absolutely impact your level of service and overall brand reputation for your product and your ability to hire.  

This shift requires meticulous planning, robust change management, and a willingness to let go of traditional, hierarchical control mechanisms in favor of a more flexible, autonomous work environment. 

You in?

Pick up the book on Amazon here.