From small bug fixes to sweeping software updates, technology can stay ahead of potential security threats and create more efficient workflows. While some people embrace change, others prefer to maintain the status quo. The same is true in your contact center.

A variety of factors, such as age, experience, culture or upbringing, can affect a person’s feelings on change. For those who view change as a challenge, moving from an on-premises system to a cloud-based contact center solution can be especially stressful. Large-scale changes like this often require agents to learn a new technology, adopt new processes, take on new roles and even adapt to shifts in culture.

All of this change can negatively affect the employee experience. A proper change management strategy enables companies to ease whatever tensions and push back that might accompany a major process or platform transition. As defined by global change management researchers, Prosci, change management is “the process, tools and techniques used to manage the people side of change to achieve a required business outcome.” These changes can range from new technologies, roles, culture changes, processes and more.

Change management can be especially useful when transitioning your contact center. Here are three ways that an effective change management strategy can improve your technology implementation.

  1. Faster implementation rates
    Transitioning from one technology to another takes an enormous amount of time and effort. A contact center migration project, in particular, can involve nearly every area of your business. If your team doesn’t fully understand the benefit of said technology, it’s only natural they might be hesitant to use it.Your change management strategy should include clear communication regarding what advantages and benefits the end user will experience with the new technology. This could include real-time customer insights, faster call resolution times or even streamlined processes. By ensuring team members understand the value of the technology on an individual and company-wide scale, your implementation will run smoother and faster.
  2. Higher adoption rates
    A new platform or software is only successful if it’s actually used. A strong change management strategy creates a network of internal advocates that understand the technology’s purpose — and who believe in its ability to improve their employee experience. Once active on the technology, these advocates will see its real-life impact and be able to share their firsthand experiences with their peers. Create programs that encourage advocates to promote new technologies. This could include sharing success stories internally, involving them in new hire training processes and setting up a recognition program to reward their hard work. These interactions can drive adoption rates among more skeptical employees, creating higher overall adoption rates over time.
  3. Quicker results
    No matter how user-friendly a technology is, learning a new system is a difficult task for some. Your change management strategy should give your team the support they need. Develop a complete employee enablement program, including documented training, processes and standards. By providing the right information to your team before the launch, you’ll quickly see the results of your investments and efforts.

Switching from an on-premises contact center solution to a cloud contact center is a major undertaking. And, while this change is challenging for some, change management can smooth the transition. Having the right processes and support in place before changes occur give your teams the support needed — and it’ll safeguard the success of your efforts.

Companies lean into change management every day to implement technology changes across their global, diverse organizations. See how Koch Global Services managed its contact center transition and learn more about change management in the on-demand webinar, “Managing change: From on-premises to cloud.”