What does a green Jaguar have to do with Contact Centre KPIs? More than you might think. This story from early in my career taught me one of the most important lessons about measuring operational performance.
This article is part of our Contact Center Management Series — a collection of articles that bring together practical guidance and insights to help Contact Centers run better and deliver stronger results.
The Background
Back in the early 1990s, I landed my first VP Operations role, running Contact Centre and Distribution operations for a music and entertainment company.
Until then, I had been serving as the VP of Finance.
When the existing VP of Operations resigned, I was offered the role and suddenly found myself moving from financial analysis and business planning into the day-to-day management of customers, operations, warehouses, and hundreds of Team Members.
Like many organizations at the time, we had very little access to formal Contact Centre education — especially in the operations domain.
Our Executive VP, the rest of the management team, and I were learning through experience rather than structured training.
Fortunately, my background in finance proved incredibly useful.
It had taught me how the business worked, which business levers mattered most, and how to use data to understand performance.
That foundation certainly helped, but managing an inbound Contact Centre is unlike most other business environments.
Good operational decisions require more than intuition — they require an understanding of operational mathematics, forecasting, customer behaviour, and the relationships between key performance indicators.
Even though I was VP Operations, I knew I had a great deal to learn. And my Boss, the Executive Vice President, knew even less about Contact Centre operations than I did.
That’s not unusual.
Many senior executives inherit responsibility for Contact Centres without ever really understanding how they work.
What happened next taught me one of the most important lessons of my career about KPIs — and why measuring the wrong things can lead good leaders to make poor decisions.
We Built Our Los Angeles-Based Contact Centre from the Ground Up
One of the highlights of my career was helping to build a brand-new Contact Centre from the ground up.
Engineers designed the facility, construction crews brought the building to life, our technology teams installed the systems, and our HR and L&D teams began recruiting and training our people.
It was an exciting time for all of us.
Our Contact Centre was located in the beach town of El Segundo, California, about 20 miles south of the company’s headquarters in Santa Monica.
That distance turned out to be an advantage.
It gave our team a strong sense of independence while providing me personally with just enough separation from the day-to-day politics of head office.
My Boss – The Executive VP
My direct Boss was a lifelong record company executive and a highly respected figure in the music industry.
She stood about 6’1″ (186 cm) tall, wore bold statement jewellery, and could perform complex currency calculations in her head with remarkable speed.
I liked her enormously — but I also feared her just enough. Many people feared her even more.
Each year she received a new company car. The year our Contact Centre opened, her new company car was a green Jaguar sedan.
I have to admit—I absolutely loved that car.
Our new Contact Centre was a single-storey building with glass windows running almost all the way around it, giving us a clear view of every car arriving and leaving.
As you’ll soon discover, those windows played an important role in this story.
When the Centre Opened
Our formal launch day was finally set.
About three days beforehand, my Boss called and asked if she could visit the Contact Centre on opening day to see the operation in action.
She wanted to see what she and the Board had invested so much money to build — and watch the Centre come to life as Advisors served Customers.
Of course, I said yes.
This Is When Things Got Messy
One of the lessons I now share in my Contact Centre Management courses is this:
Never let your Boss walk unescorted through your Contact Centre.
It’s remarkably easy for someone unfamiliar with Contact Centre operations to reach the wrong conclusions because much of what matters is invisible to the casual observer.
Unfortunately, I made exactly that mistake.
Armed with a small notebook, she walked slowly around the Centre, observing each of the 80 or so Advisors we had on schedule that day.
Whenever an Advisor was talking to a Customer or typing on their keyboard, she nodded approvingly and moved on.
Whenever someone happened to be waiting for the next call, she wrote down their name.
Twenty minutes later, her 6-foot-1 frame appeared in my doorway.
She wasn’t smiling.
“Daaaan,” she said in her Southern drawl, “you’ve got a big problem.”
“You’ve got a lot of lazy people out there not doing anything. Your interviewing skills can’t be all that good. I’d also say you’re overstaffed. How can people be sitting there with nothing to do?”
“If you don’t fix this, we’re going to have a serious problem with your performance.”
With that, she turned, climbed into her green Jaguar, and drove back to Santa Monica.
The Following Week She Made a Surprise Visit
About a week later, at around 10:00 a.m., our receptionist burst into my office.
“She’s here! She’s here!”
She had spotted the green Jaguar pulling into the car park through our glass windows.
So I did what any fast-thinking VP of Operations would do.
I rushed onto the Contact Centre floor, grabbed the first three Advisors I could find, and whispered,
“You, you, and you. Sign off and hide in the pantry. Now!”
As those three bewildered Advisors disappeared around the corner, my Boss walked through the front door.
She glanced at me for a moment, then strode confidently onto the Contact Centre floor.
Now, before I tell you what happened next, stop for a moment and ask yourself:
What did she see?
To Explain What She Saw, I Created “The Chicken Dance”
Remember, I’m now three Advisors short because they’re hiding in the pantry.
As my Boss looked across the Contact Centre floor, everyone appeared busy. Every Advisor was either talking to a Customer, typing on their keyboard, or both.
From her perspective, the operation looked much busier than it had the week before.
But here’s what she couldn’t see.
Removing three Advisors from the phones didn’t improve the Contact Centre’s performance. It simply changed what was visible.
Behind the scenes, a chain reaction had begun.
Over the years, I developed a simple way to explain this cause-and-effect relationship in my training.
I call it The “Chicken Dance”.
Here’s how it works.
Raise your arms in the air and follow along. (It’s much more fun in person!) 
- When I removed three Advisors from the phones, Service Level went down (arms down).
- As Service Level fell, Occupancy went up (arms up).
- Advisors had less time between contacts, so Available Time went down (arms down).
- Customer Wait Time went up (arms up).
- Customers waited longer, so Customer Satisfaction with Wait Time went down (arms down).
- As queues became longer, Abandonment Rate increased (arms up).
- Under greater workload, Quality can begin to fall (arms down).
- Finally, Calls Handled per Advisor went up (arms up) — not because anyone suddenly became more productive, but because we had fewer Advisors answering the same volume of calls.
This simple exercise demonstrates one of the fundamental principles of Contact Centre Management.
Individual Contact Centre KPIs rarely move in isolation.
If we focus on only one KPI without understanding how it affects the others, we can easily reach the wrong conclusions.
Why I Dedicate the Chicken Dance to My Former Boss
I first introduced the Chicken Dance in my Contact Centre Operations classes back in 2003.
Since then, thousands of people have watched me perform it in training rooms, conference centres, and hotel meeting rooms around the world.
It’s a fun way to demonstrate one of the fundamental principles of Contact Centre Management:
Individual Contact Centre KPIs rarely move in isolation.
Almost every operational decision creates a chain reaction. Improve one operational measure and several others are likely to move with it — for better or for worse.
That’s why Operations training doesn’t have to be dry or mathematical.
When people understand the relationships between Service Level, Occupancy, Quality, Customer Experience, Employee Experience, and the other key measures, they’re far better equipped to make sound operational decisions.
More than thirty years later, I still think of that green Jaguar every time I teach the Chicken Dance.
Continue Your Contact Centre Operations Development
If you’d like to continue developing your Contact Centre Operations knowledge, you might enjoy these articles:
15 Quiz Questions on Contact Center Operations Management (Part 1)
15 Quiz Questions on Contact Center Operations Management (Part 2)
Implementing Appropriate Contact Centre Wait Time Metrics
True Calls Per Hour: Balancing Quality and Productivity
The Pooling Principle in Contact Centers: What Every Manager Should Know
What To Know About Contact Centre Agent Performance
Help Your Contact Centre Team Leaders Do Better — Part 1
Why Are You Still Talking About Average Handling Time?
Thank You for Reading
I regularly share stories, strategies, and insights from our work across Contact Centers, Customer Service, and Customer Experience. If this article resonated with you, I’d be pleased to stay connected.
Feel free to get in touch anytime, or explore more of our work below.
Daniel Ord
[email protected]
www.omnitouchinternational.com
