CCMA Strategy Sessions: Understanding Emerging and Changing Contact Centre Roles

Throughout the spring months, we hosted a series of online get-togethers for senior strategic leaders amongst CCMA members.

These strategy sessions were an opportunity for attendees to share knowledge and learnings on a set of themes and trends currently impacting their contact centres.

The topics we covered:

• Organisational structures
• Emerging and changing roles
• Technology priorities
• Use of artificial intelligence (AI)
• Emerging regulations
• Revenue opportunities
• Managing costs and budgeting

In our second get-together, hosted by CCMA CEO Leigh Hopwood, we delved into how roles across the contact centre are changing – from the responsibilities required at leadership level through to the new skills needed on the frontline. Here are five key learnings from the session.

Senior roles are expanding

For most attendees, there was an agreement that contact centre leaders are now expected to manage far more than the traditional remit of customer contact. They’re driving digital transformation, managing governance frameworks and steering organisational change.

Senior roles are becoming multifaceted, demanding greater skill in balancing service excellence with cost control and strategic value. There’s more pressure, but also more recognition of the contact centre’s importance.

As one attendee highlighted, the accelerated evolution of contact centres means there may be more attention and responsibility for the function within many organisations, but also more value being placed on it as a result.

Greater focus on governance

The rise of AI, digital tools and heightened regulatory scrutiny has brought governance to the forefront. Attendees discussed the need for new roles focused on oversight, risk and compliance. ‘First Line of Defence’ forums, ‘incident managers’ and ‘local risk leads’ are increasingly part of the organisational landscape, particularly in sectors like healthcare and financial services.

For many contact centre leaders, ensuring good governance and managing risk while also introducing digital transformation and continuing to enhance service quality is a challenging balance to get right.

Tech literacy is key

While automation is streamlining many processes, it’s also introducing complexity in unexpected places, such as with voice channels, where a variety of new technologies are being introduced. Leaders emphasised the importance of reskilling teams, not just in tech operations but in interpreting data and adapting to new tools.

This extends to leadership roles too, and attendees were in agreement that part of the requirements of the contact centre leader is building a technical understanding and staying abreast of the pace of change, while also questioning how new technologies are beneficial and remain user-friendly for customers.

Ensuring that ‘tech literacy’ is baked into learning and development of employees is also vital. How do we provide foundational skills to be able to read and digest strategic and technical documents, for instance? One attendee was quick to point out that being able to understand how technology implementation works while also being able to see tech through the lens of the customer was a string to the bow for any contact centre employee.

Team leader responsibility

The team leader role is under the spotlight at present, due to the gap between the frontline and team leader becoming narrowed. At the same time, team leaders are facing greater responsibility – expected to support increasingly diverse teams while adapting to rapidly changing tools and responsibilities. Providing the right level of team leader support is integral. There’s also a growing need to rethink the team leader role, with clearer development paths and meaningful career progression.

Multiskilling the frontline

Attendees were unanimous in their views that contact centres need to accommodate a more multiskilled frontline, as well as empowered frontline roles and enhanced career paths.

The skills requirement for frontline colleagues is diverse and getting more varied. Roles beyond the traditional customer service advisor were discussed by attendees as being useful as part of frontline support – from generative AI consultants to customer journey interpreters and speech analysts.

Takeaways

The CCMA Strategy Sessions have provided valuable insight into how contact centre roles are evolving across all levels. As responsibilities broaden, tech literacy, governance and frontline empowerment are becoming critical. Leaders are being asked to navigate great complexity while continuing to oversee service quality improvement. These discussions underline the sector’s transformation and the increasing strategic importance of the contact centre within modern organisations.