Proven Strategies for Call Center Mergers & Acquisitions

STEP 1: DISCOVERY In many cases, due diligence leans top-heavy on financials. Much of this work may be done in a vacuum by remote CPAs. While important, accounting figures don’t come close to telling the whole story. What’s needed to gain a full understanding is the addition of expert operational analysis via a boots-on-the-ground approach – professionals with call center backgrounds directly engaging with the target company’s staff, preferably onsite. Formal interviews are conducted. Roundtables are held. Surveys are sent out. It really boils down to talking to people and listening to people. It’s more than being close to the action. It’s about being in the action, side-by-side with those who are doing the work. Knowing their jobs and roles. Asking them questions. Observing their behaviors. Learning exactly how they complete their tasks. Reading between the lines. A qualified detective needs to be very experienced in contact centers and very skilled as an interviewer to do these things effectively. Time spent this way in each department and team sheds revealing light on operational realities. How employees are supposed to do their jobs versus how they actually do their jobs. How leadership rates. Choke points, relationships, technology/platforms. Figuring out the secrets of top performers. Understanding the gaps of bottom performers. Getting a real sense of their internal culture. Is it tight? Is it loose? Many subtle yet crucial details emerge when qualified contact center detectives spend time at street level. For instance, on paper it may appear that a particular workload has been spread out over several people. But what if the reality is that these tasks are being funneled through just one person, and that one person has their own way of doing things that’s opaque to the rest of the organization? Then they quit after the merger?

Many times, leadership at the top thinks everything is fine on the frontlines. But if you spend time with the people answering the phones, they will sometimes tell you a much different story.