When the Covid-19 pandemic hit Ireland in March of 2020, contacts to some of our client’s phone-lines soared and queries became more complex. Calls to the existing Staff Safety & Wellbeing contact line were also growing and deflecting key teams from managing what was an evolving crisis.

The client made the decision to deploy internal resources to staff a specific a worker Helpline. The team being deployed had no experience of running a Contact Centre or handling calls of this nature.

The client was aware of 3SIXTY’s extensive experience of Contact Centre/Service Centre environments so asked us to get involved.

Within 48 hours of being asked to do so, we had embedded a senior member of our team, with huge experience of similar operations, into one of the client’s service delivery centres.

We were tasked with setting up, staffing and managing a key emergency helpline for front-line workers.

Established a baseline assessment of the team being deployed to staff this helpline.

Co-ordinated with the various stakeholders to structure training and scripts which would form the basis of the guidelines for handling contacts.

Secured tools and access to information to allow the agents service the calls (headsets, desks, appropriate internet access and so forth).

Established Workforce Management processes and rotas to cover the now 7-day/week service.

Put in place daily, weekly and monthly reporting to assess SLAs and performance.

Structured daily feedback to all stakeholders to allow them see trends and issues. Provided ongoing coaching and development for the team as their roles evolved and became more complex (and stressful).

Skilled the Operations Manager and supervisors to understand and manage appropriate Contact Centre tools.

Assessed readiness to move the team to work remotely and provided a road-map for this transition to cloud-based phone systems.