Guidelines for gaining corporate buy-in and making ideas stick
I’ve presented a lot of data. Data that made perfect sense to me and data that told a story. I’ve created beautiful charts that reflected massive return on investments (ROI’s). I’ve received looks of astonishment and head nods that tell me the data doesn’t lie. I’ve seen eyes light up and brains start churning when I present it. Leaders and colleagues nod their heads and pat me on the shoulder and say, “This is really good insight.” “Great analysis!” “Let’s talk about next steps soon.” But more often than not, the message doesn’t seem to stick, and the next steps never happen. Did the data not inspire them? Did they not trust the numbers? What was it?
Chip and Dan Heath wrote a fascinating book called Made to Stick that was a New York Times bestseller. And their insight backed up what I’ve seen.
Data doesn’t tell a story to most people. Data isn’t our native language. The analysis, charts, and ROI’s are just numbers. Regardless if the numbers are overwhelming or completely clear, data itself often doesn’t inspire people to take action. But good stories, backed with good data, can do the trick.
Stories Are Powerful
Good stories resonate with people. I learned from my own experience that even the most compelling data alone will not overcome an engrained, powerful story.
Contact centers have the option to set up an auto-answer feature (a caller is passed directly to an agent) or allow the phone to ring until the agent presses the answer button. Allowing ring time impacts the customer experience as they are waiting even longer for someone to speak with. It also can lead to hours of inefficiency and lost time a month. It negatively impacts your speed to answer and service level goals. My company at the time allowed the phones to ring before the caller was passed to an agent. I decided to present the data on this process.
The ring time numbers were large! The data told a story (or so I thought). The numbers didn’t lie. We would save hundreds of hours of ring time a month by eliminating it. There would be a nice ROI. One manager in attendance shook his head. “Never will we ever allow that.” He was adamant. He shared his story.
Apparently several years ago the company was using a third party vendor to answer calls after hours. The vendor had an auto-answer setup where calls would go directly to the agent with no ring time. A call was passed directly to the agent…the sleeping agent. The caller repeatedly said hello. The caller yelled at the agent to wake up! The agent snored. Loudly. The snoring continued. The call was recorded. Everyone in the meeting now heard a very relatable, engaging story. They could visualize the sleeping agent with his mouth hanging open. They could hear the customer yelling at the agent. The snoring was loud! They could feel the vibration. Amazing data alone was not going to overcome that story.
The Universal Metrics
People like the Service Level metric. To many it’s the end all, be all in the contact center. We know what percentage of calls are answered within 30 or 60 or 90 seconds. We staff to it and make a lot of assumptions about what that data shows. It’s reliable, and we worry about that number. Were our customers satisfied? Unsure. But the Service Level ended the day at 80%! I wanted to challenge some of those beliefs. I wanted to show that Service Level was a tool, but it is only one indicator in a larger CSAT story.
So I put together a presentation and compared Service Level to a measurement that we are all too familiar with. Body Mass Index. BMI. People frowned and shook their heads at the mention of BMI. BMI has been proven to be imperfect. It can be misleading. It can vary by age, race, and ethnicity. Yet those concrete number expectations have stuck for decades. And then I shared a story about my wife.
First, my wife loves to exercise. She is one of those who lives to work out instead of works out to live. So it was pretty upsetting when her new doctor told her that 1) Her BMI was too high and 2) She needed to exercise more. One of the managers in the room shook her head in disgust. She was a certified yoga instructor and had been told the same. It touched a nerve. She intimately knew that BMI number and that it didn’t tell the whole story. Hearing a doctor focus on one imperfect number upset her. And now she could relate that concrete number and the vivid feeling that came with it to another imperfect, concrete number. Maybe Service Level wasn’t that great after all…
You may have the most beautiful data in the world. But ask yourself–is it going to motivate anyone to change? Did they relate to the story? Did you draw them in and did they feel it? Did you sprinkle the story with concrete images (a BMI chart or a snoring agent for example) and vivid details like holding back tears after a smug doctor told you to exercise more? This is the stuff that turns data into something that inspires action.
So instead of relying on data to tell the story, step back and ask: What story can I tell with the data?
Bryce Ackerman is a Workforce Management Leader at Roche. He’s spent the last 20+ years getting promoted, getting laid off, working for uninspiring leaders, working for amazing leaders, failing to gain the trust of Operations, completely gaining the trust of Operations, but always learning from and loving the challenges and fun that is Workforce Management.
