Ethics is a word that tends to be associated with the finance sector to ensure appropriate business practices around controversial subjects, including corporate governance and insider trading, and less so with the world of Contact Centres. While ethics can be driven by law, it can also be adopted as a guideline that businesses choose to follow that ensures that a basic level of trust exists between consumers and various market participants.

Over the years Contact Centres have shaken off the image of businesses with poor working conditions at minimum wage outsourced to cheaper locations and have emerged as data centric communications hubs that brands rely on to manage their reputation, provide insights to better understanding their customers and to helping shape the ideal customer journey. Having a contact centre that is ethical should be the first requirement of any brand looking to outsource any part of their omnichannel communications to a contact centre.

How to establish an ethical culture in Contact Centres

Ethics in leadership
As clichéd as it seems, the management team sets the tone of how the business is run on a day-to-day basis. Their behaviour and decision-making processes build the foundation of ethical behaviour that creates a long lasting positive effective on the business. Employees will look at the leader’s behaviour to help guide their own behaviour. An ethical organisation often has increased productivity, positive staff morale and is likely to retain customers for longer. At FMI we are acutely aware of the importance of good people in our business. Treating everyone with the same level of respect and prioritising open honest conversations creates an environment of trust and credibility with our staff and client partners.

Employee ethics
Once the tone is set by the management team the employees tend to follow suit. Typically, employees tend to make better decisions and be more loyal to businesses with a strong ethics culture. Dealing with a Contact Centre has become more human and less scripted and a lot more personal. Having your staff operate from an ethical perspective directly translates into how they deal with client’s customers. Operating in an honest, transparent environment immediately makes the engagement more authentic and naturally drives performance. Typically, consumers dealing with ethical Contact Centre agents tend to find them more courteous, flexible, and efficient in dealing with their complaints which results in greater customer satisfaction and increased overall performance.

Establishing an ethical culture is a subtle invisible process that requires consistency over a long period. With consistent ethical behaviour comes an increasingly positive public image and there are few considerations more important to brands looking for a Contact Centre to fully represent them in the competitive marketplace.