With every company’s competing priorities and requirements to do more with less, securing the budget necessary to enhance your inbound contact center operations can be challenging. Decision-makers often prioritize revenue-generating departments like sales and marketing, leaving the call center underfunded. This means you’ll need to pull out all the stops when advocating for additional funding. One of your most effective tools is storytelling, a key component in strategic contact center management.

Storytelling is a powerful communication tool that enables you to present facts, customer data, and ideas in a way that resonates emotionally and intellectually.  Effective storytelling can transform abstract metrics and figures related to contact center performance and customer interactions into compelling narratives that justify the investment in the inbound contact center. These stories show how investments in contact center technology and agent training directly improve service quality, enhance customer satisfaction, and streamline operations to meet evolving customer expectations.

Here’s how to use storytelling to increase your contact center budget. 

Storytelling Isn’t Just for Novels – It Works in Business Too 

In Donald Miller’s seminal book on the business of storytelling, Building a Story Brand, he writes that “…audiences must always know who the hero is, what the hero wants, who the hero has to defeat to get what they want, what tragic thing will happen if the hero doesn’t win, and what wonderful thing will happen if they do. If the audience can’t answer these questions, the movie will lose at the box office.”

The same is true when you’re presenting in a boardroom and advocating for investments in your call center operations. 

When presenting to decision-makers such as contact center managers and key stakeholders, you’ll make your argument much more compelling if you follow this structure: 

• The Hero 
• Has a Problem, and 
• Meets a Guide 
• Who Gives Them a Plan, and 
• Calls Them to Action 
• That Helps Them Avoid Failure and 
• Leads to Success 

Consider the classic Star Wars films as an example of effective storytelling in action. 

• The hero is Luke Skywalker. 
• A combination of internal, external, and philosophical conflicts creates the problem. The Death Star needs to be defeated (external). Luke Skywalker isn’t sure he has the mettle to do it (internal). The battle is good versus evil (philosophical). 
• The guide is Obi-Wan-Kenobi. 
• The plan is to use The Force. 
• The villain is Darth Vader. 
• The call to action is for Skywalker to leave Tatooine, get on the Millennium Falcon and “Use the Force.” 
• Avoiding defeat means avoiding the Stormtroopers and Darth Vader. 
• Success means becoming a Jedi and destroying the Death Star. 

The Star Wars trilogy is successful because it uses all of the storytelling elements. And the audience is satisfied when all three problems are solved simultaneously upon destruction of the Death Star. 

By translating your contact center strategy into this storytelling framework, you ensure your message resonates powerfully, securing the necessary support and resources. But how exactly does this relate to your next presentation to the executive team? Consider this example. 

As the head of contact center operations, imagine that a lack of investment in leadership training, coupled with rapid growth, has led to less experienced people being promoted to middle management positions. This ill-prepared management layer negatively impacts agent performance, as call center agents struggle without adequate guidance, resulting in high attrition. In fact, the lack of effective ongoing training is threatening the fabric of the entire contact center, manifesting in lower morale, fewer employee referrals, and weaker customer relationships.  

Following the framework outlined above, your first task will be to identify the hero (hint: it’s not you).  

The Hero 

In this case, the hero will be the budget decision-maker, such as the CEO. 

Has a Problem

To define the problem, you’ll need to tailor your story to resonate with the decision makers. What are the primary concerns of your audience? If you’re not sure, do some research to find out how senior executives and decision-makers are bonused or incentivized. Incentives will give you a strong indication of what’s most important to them. Is it return on investment (ROI), customer retention, or competitive advantage? If you don’t know specifically what their individual goals are, look at the overall corporate goals for the quarter or for the year. It’s safe to assume your decision-makers will have goals that align to these corporate objectives. 

The more you understand their priorities, the better you can identify areas that align with their interests. Business units and teams are interconnected, and if the issue matters to you, it’s safe to assume that the issue matters upstream as well. You just need to identify the right way to spin your problem to better align with your audience’s concerns. 

This problem identification exercise is also a good test of the storytelling process. If your issue doesn’t align with the priorities of decision-makers, you should reconsider whether or not you want to make this argument at all. In this case, we’ll assume your problem is limited contact center management funds to address employee attrition caused by inexperienced and ineffective middle managers. 

To effectively resonate with decision-makers, frame this as a critical operational issue affecting cost reduction, revenue growth, and overall customer sentiment.

Meets a Guide

You, the experienced contact center manager, are equipped with insights on enhancing contact center center performance management. 

Who Gives Them a Plan

Provide a detailed cost-benefit analysis of investing in a comprehensive leadership training program, clearly outlining improvements in workforce management, better handling of incoming calls, reduced attrition, and better customer feedback.

Calls Them to Action

Request a budget allocation of $200,000 over three years to overhaul the current leadership training program, incorporating effective practices to streamline operations and call center management.

That Helps Them Avoid Failure

Illustrate that without this investment, employee attrition and talent exodus will likely increase, negatively affecting the ability to handle customer inquiries, address customer issues, and manage both inbound and outbound calls.

Leads to Success

Demonstrate that this strategic investment will raise employee satisfaction, significantly reduce attrition, and provide personalized support, thus ensuring sustainable improvements in contact center performance and fulfilling critical business objectives.

In addition to this framework, conflict is the key to engaging an audience in any compelling story. In the context of your call center operations, the conflict arises from the gap between your current center performance and where it needs to be. Use data and anecdotes to illustrate the consequences of underfunding, highlighting challenges like overwhelmed contact center agents, ineffective handling of customer calls, and inadequate support from existing contact center software. 

Then, offer a clear, actionable contact center solution to the conflict. Explain how additional funding, such as investing in advanced leadership training or adopting an integrated omnichannel contact center, will address challenges and improve outcomes. 

Use specific figures to bolster your case: For example, “By investing $200,000 in advanced leadership training and upgraded center software, we can reduce employee attrition by 20%, enhance first call resolution rates by 30%, and elevate customer satisfaction to 95%, resulting in an estimated savings of $400,000.” 

End your presentation with a vision. Paint a picture of the future if your proposed budget is approved. Highlight the long-term benefits, such as increased employee engagement within the call center team, seamless call routing and customer relationship management, and a significantly enhanced customer journey across multiple channels. For example, “Imagine the benefits to the customer experience that can be enjoyed when we become the employer of choice in our market, hiring and retaining only the best center agents, with a management layer ready and able to support our growth.” 

Securing a larger inbound call center budget requires more than just presenting data; it requires making a compelling case that resonates with decision-makers. Storytelling, blending logical analysis with emotional insights into customer behavior, can powerfully convey the value of robust customer needs management in a way that inspires action.

While facts and figures are important, when it comes to convincing others to take action, storytelling can be a powerful part of your toolkit. Remember, your story should align with the business objectives and priorities of your audience, so use both logic and emotion, and provide a clear vision of the benefits your proposed budget will bring. With a well-crafted narrative, you can not only secure the resources your center team needs but also inspire a contact center environment that supports continuous improvement and growth.

For more information about how Advensus can support your contact center operations, contact us.