From strategy to results: how to implement change in a contact center

The webinar opens with a simple point: most people do not want change, even when it improves their lives. Oksana Arbuzova polls the audience on where their change strategy lives: in the owner's head, in PowerPoint, started but losing pace, or actually working. Most answers landed on "started but losing pace", and the rest of the recording is about how to avoid that.

The speaker suggests treating change as a system rather than inspiration. The system has five elements: vision, skills, resources, incentives and an action plan. Without vision a team ends up in confusion and chaos, and Oksana directly answers those who say planning is impossible in current conditions: if you do not know the point you are heading to, you cannot lead a team there. Missing skills create anxiety and fear, missing incentives create resistance, missing resources create frustration. When everything is in place except an action plan, you get a false start, which in her view is exactly how startups often fail. She adds discipline to the five elements, since it keeps the pace from dropping after a good start.

The core of the recording is a practical case: the "Doctor in the app" service in the VUSO mobile app. Previously, a client with voluntary health insurance had to call the insurer, an operator searched for a clinic and a doctor, then waited for the doctor's callback after the consultation, and arranging the services alone took 30 to 40 minutes. Now the client answers a few questions in the app, AI determines whether an online consultation is possible and with which doctor, and the client immediately sees available doctors. Complex cases that need an in-person visit are routed to an operator. Both the client and the insurer get the doctor's conclusion right away, and the new process, consultation included, takes about 15 minutes. A separate robot orders the prescribed medicines, and the whole journey up to an SMS saying where to pick them up takes 25 to 30 minutes. A key effect for the contact center: it scales through partners adding doctors to the app, not through hiring more people.

Oksana then runs the same case through the five elements. Skills were lacking, so the team was trained, and experts and partners with similar experience were brought in. Results became the incentive: a first-place award in Ukraine in the contact center category and silver at a European contest in the Best Customer Experience Redesign category. Almost a year later the team still brings up these wins, sales staff started telling clients about the app more actively, and the share of regular app users grew. The action plan had four streams: analysis and redesign with interviews of clients, staff and partner doctors, development, testing with internal pilots involving doctors and clients, and scaling with ongoing monitoring.

The speaker also covers what to think through before launch. First, separate the roles of AI and people, because staff did fear that everyone would be let go. Once people were told which tasks move to AI and which stay with them, working with the team became easier. It is also worth addressing ethical and legal questions, especially when diagnoses and personal data are involved, and keeping the interface as simple as possible for the client.

In the Q&A Oksana says a plan almost always changes, and how much depends on the information gathered up front: a vision can be detached from reality, and late testing forces costly steps back. After a failed attempt she advises starting with the leader's own energy and an honest review with the team, without looking for someone to blame. External experts are worth bringing in, but their expertise needs to be verified at the start.