Reframing Productivity for Entrepreneurs
Leveraging Insights from Contact Centers to Improve Performance
Today’s post will be a bit different than usual. I will share some straightforward, intuitive guidance that utilizes the best practices of how some of the most productive operating machines on the planet work: contact centers.
Yes, you read that right. We are all familiar with contact centers (you may refer to them as call centers), and I'd bet these two words likely evoke frustration and resentment based on your personal experiences with them.
But I’m not talking about when you call your local electricity provider and must jump through hoops to get ahold of the right agent, and somehow, after resolving the issue, three hours have passed, and the day is wasted.
I’m referring to the rare experience you get when you call a toll-free number for some pressing issue, wait only a few minutes, and get routed to the right agent who welcomes you and promptly resolves your concern. I know this sounds rare, but believe it or not, this does happen.
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Assuming that the company is not simply throwing bodies at the problem, positive experiences like this are a result of a high-performance organization and one that prioritizes its customers’ needs. And while it seems so simple, running a high-performing contact center is incredibly difficult to pull off at a large scale. This is especially true if the underlying business it supports has considerable seasonality (i.e., retail, events) or complexity (i.e., multiple geographies, agent types, products, languages, etc.).
A well-functioning contact center balances capacity and utilization- not too much capacity so that agents spend their days twiddling their thumbs (shoutout to Big Head), and not too much utilization so that agents drown in water with an eternal queue. Striking this balance can only be achieved with the right people, technology, and processes in place.
Productivity continues to be one of the trending topics of 2024, even as many forget about the resolutions they set just a little over a month ago. During a recent YouTube rabbit hole, I found that many self-proclaimed productivity experts often overlook the most basic ideas of what it means to get things done efficiently.
To make long-lasting changes in your overall performance, explicitly being more productive in this case, you need to have the right foundational mindset. It requires a framework that many of the latest calendar or “second brain” tricks completely overlook.
In entrepreneurship, the best way to improve your long-run performance is to increase your “focused work time”, not hours worked.
The idea is surprisingly straightforward. It doesn’t require expertise, a Notion second brain, or sophisticated note-taking regimens, just a conscious decision to reframe how and when you get work done. We’re learning to walk before we can run in order to build a strong foundation for future success.
For some background, I used to practice this stuff for a living at Apple, where we directly managed and monitored the performance of tens of thousands of people across both retail and contact center sites. It sounds a bit Big Brother-ish, but I promise you it’s not like that. I’ve also studied extensively on the topic and have been through the wringer as a college basketball player, so time management, performance, and task prioritization have always been top-of-mind since I was a young gun.
While I am no Adam Grant, I can assure you that leveraging these industry-standard frameworks can make driving productivity gains in your own life more approachable.
The Most Powerful Productivity in Contact Centers
Let’s take the example of an agent named Pat, who takes incoming calls at his desk related to billing at a large enterprise software company. He works 40 hours per week, is paid hourly, and his activity is recorded through the contact center’s software. For the sake of this discussion, let’s assume Pat works eight hours, five days a week.
For an eight-hour day, there are lots of things that Pat could be doing. Much of his day will be spent fielding calls, but he may also spend time in meetings, training, at lunch, in the restroom, checking his latest TikTok post, browsing the web, or socializing with other employees. Notice that there are work and non-related activities within his day, though. Not to say that it’s wrong (we are all human), but the main idea here is that although Pat works eight hours a day, he spends a fraction of that time on work-related matters and even less on fielding calls, where he adds the most value. We’re conditioned to view his eight-hour day as “work”, but things are much different when we search or do anything entrepreneurial.
We can break down his day into four components which tell us more about his overall productivity, measured in hours:
Total Clocked Time: How much time did Pat clock in?
Available Time: How available was Pat to take customer calls?
Productive Time: How much time did Pat spend with customers?
Positive Productive Time: How much time did Pat spend delighting customers?
Now, equipped with this information, we can consider three different formulas that each tell us a unique insight:
Customer Facing Efficiency: Productive Time / Available Time
Definition: When Pat is available to field customer calls, what percentage of that time is spent with customers?
Occupancy Utilization: Available Time / Total Clocked Time
Definition: When Pat is clocked in, what percentage of that time is he available to spend with customers?
Productivity: Productive Time / Total Clocked Time
Definition: What percentage of time is Pat spending with customers when he is clocked in?
Productivity: Customer Facing Efficiency x Occupancy Utilization
Positive Productivity: Positive Productive Time / Total Clocked Time
Definition: What percentage of time is Pat delighting customers when he is clocked in?
Let’s take two scenarios to understand how this works, using the example of Pat (who’s a top performer at his contact center) and Dan (who’s a major slacker).
Pat is engaged, active, and a delight to customers. On the other hand, Dan struggles to make it to work on time due to a lousy gaming habit, but then lingers around the office, takes several bathroom breaks, and distracts other agents with complaints and gossip.
Here’s how their average week breaks down:
Despite working the same hours each week, look at how different their performance is. Here are some quick observations:
Pat doesn’t waste time by lingering around the office, so he makes himself available to speak with customers 6 hours more than Dan. This is a good start, but it doesn’t tell the full story.
Dan, however, is clever and manages to game the system, only spending 2 hours less with customers than Pat. He complains to his manager that he’s overworked, spending 96% of his time with customers when he’s available, while others like Pat sit around and do “nothing” all day.
Pat demonstrates leadership qualities regularly by pleasing customers, while Dan scolds half of his for asking “stupid” questions about their next billing cycle. If we look at “Positive Productivity”, which means the hours spent positively contributing to the organization, Pat is much more productive than Dan. He adds 13.5 hours more value than Dan even though he spends only 2 hours more with customers.
Applying the Formula to Personal Productivity
Time is the most precious resource for the entrepreneur, and throwing more hours at the problem doesn't guarantee success. It's about more than how much you work but how effectively you utilize your time. Reflecting on the contact center metrics above, let's translate these insights into actionable steps for your daily work.
Consider your workday through the lens of how Pat’s performance is measured, but with a refined focus:
Total Engaged Time: How much time are you actually engaged in work? I define this as the time you are engaged in tackling both important and administrative tasks of your work, not simply at your desk or in the office.
Available Time: When are you most available for tasks that truly move the needle? This is once you've completed those necessary tasks to 'keep the lights on.'
Focused Work Time: How much time is spent on high-value, impactful tasks?
Now, let's bring back those three metrics personalized for your performance:
Impact Efficiency: Focused Work Time / Available Time
What percentage of your available time is allocated explicitly to impactful tasks?
What it means: A high percentage shows that you’re doing a lot of important work well when you have the time, while a low percentage shows that you do have the time, but for some reason, the impactful tasks are not getting completed.
Utilization Ratio: Available Time / Total Engaged Time
How effectively are you utilizing your total engaged time to focus on high-value, impactful tasks?
What it means: A high percentage shows that you focus on meaningful work and avoid wasting time on things that don't matter. A low percentage suggests you're overwhelmed with work that won't make a difference (meetings, anyone?)
Productivity Index: Focused Work Time / Total Engaged Time
What portion of your total engaged time contributes to meaningful outcomes?
What it means: The higher the percentage, the more you achieve your goals. This is what we want!
Notice that “clocked time” isn’t on the list?
As you attempt to apply these metrics to your daily routine, consider the insights they unveil. Are you maximizing your available time for impactful tasks? Is your engagement translating into meaningful outcomes? Are there ways to increase your engaged time throughout the week? Each one is important in helping you diagnose your deficiencies but cannot be addressed without explicit awareness of each.
In upcoming posts, we'll delve into practical strategies—from task prioritization to environmental engineering—tailored to enhance your Impact Efficiency, Utilization Ratio, and Productivity Index.
Are there productivity hacks you’ve uncovered that have worked wonders? Or are there specific topics you’d like me to cover in upcoming posts? Feel free to share your thoughts below in the comments section.
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