A View From the Other Side
I’ve always liked learning something new.
Last week was no different, when I got the chance to spend some time with my new buddy, Ruth Birrell, from Personal Insurance at Aviva in Perth. She was helping me understand what it’s really like to be a call handler dealing with travel insurance calls for Nationwide and Barclays.
I realised pretty quickly that, while I’ve spent years being the person calling into a contact centre, I’d never actually seen what it looks like on the other side.
It turned out to be a really eye-opening experience.
I listened in on a number of customer calls and saw first-hand how Ruth supports each person. In my 90 minutes of observation, I learned a lot!
She talked me through how calls are handled, the kinds of questions people ask, and how she makes sure each customers get the right cover and the support they need.
What really stood out was the level of care, patience and, most importantly, listening that goes into every single call. No two conversations were the same, and I began to recognise it takes real skill to properly understand what someone needs and then to explain things clearly.
There were a few moments where I realised I’d completely missed key details… and yet Ruth hadn’t missed a thing! She made it look easy (I’m fairly sure it isn’t).
And the multitasking…? Well, that was simply the next level. Her nimble fingers danced over her keyboard at lightning speed! ⚡
Spending time with Ruth definitely gave me a new appreciation for her role and I began to understand the impact the whole team can have on the customer experience.
Swap!
After that, it felt only fair to return the favour. I invited Ruth down to the Learning Centre to sit in on a Lead the Way session for an hour.
On Friday morning she joined us and, just like me before, she really enjoyed the experience. It was great to have her there and share a bit of what we do. The session she joined was all about role modelling leadership in our personal behaviours.
She even left determined to complete a learning exercise herself, which felt like a fun thing to do.
Overall, it turned into a really nice exchange. I got a better understanding of life on the phones, and Ruth got to see how we support colleagues through the Lead the Way programme.
It’s a good reminder of how much we can learn just by stepping into someone else’s world for a short time.
A simple swap, but a useful one and I think there were some real benefits for both of us.
When was the last time you swapped roles with someone for an hour to see things from their perspective?
