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Ways to improve staff retention in a customer call center?
Our call center has been seeing a high rate of turnover, but because we invest so much in training our employees, we're getting a serious ding when we lose people. What are some ways to improve staff retention in a service-oriented call center? Incentives? Benefits?
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7 Answers
While most everyone can use a telephone - not everyone is cut out to work in a Call Center. Someone may have “The Right Stuff” to be a great Customer Service & Support CSR – it doesn’t necessarily follow that the same individual is also a good fit for the more demanding & sales-oriented requirements of Up-Sell/Cross-Sell/Customer Win-Back – let alone Inside Sales or OutBound TeleSales.
Top Performing Contact Centers drive their Revenue & Performance through Superior Hiring Tactics. Hiring the wrong Agent to begin with is the Root Cause of most Staff Retention & Performance Issues. It’s also a significant drain on the Budget & Bottom Line, on First Call Resolution (FCR) & Customer Satisfaction Ratings. Every failed hire represents wasted dollars down the drain. Not to mention the Lowered Productivity, Poor Morale & Higher Absences associated with a Poor Job Fit.
Typically there are 3 grades of Agents found in a Call Center: (Above Average), (Average), and (Below Average).
(Above Average) Agents seem to have “The Right Stuff” that pushes them to succeed & a natural compatibility with the duties of the position. They work hard - exceed expectations - do more than asked - achieve high-quality consistent results - can always be counted upon - need little direction & work extremely well with everyone.
(Average) Agents perform their duties adequately enough “to get by” - but no better. They are the partially competent. Generally they’re strong from a Skills standpoint but missing a key ingredient or two from a Job Fit standpoint.
(Below Average) Agents are the people who just don’t fit somehow. Sometimes they’re good people in the wrong jobs. They need extra coaching & supervision just to achieve average results. Often they cause unnecessary conflict. (Below Average) Agents have the Highest Levels of Absenteeism, Lowest Levels of Productivity & Sales, Poorest Performance & Customer Satisfaction Ratings, and generally have a Negative Impact on Team Morale. They represent the real problems in a Call Center workforce. While (Average) & (Below Average) Agents may seem fully qualified at the Interview Stage – they’re a Poor Job Fit – the cost of hiring them is enormous – with little value add to an organization.
SPAS Call Center Agent Pre-Employment Screening Software is easy-to-deploy, very cost-effective and highly-predictive of an individual's suitability for a particular Call Center job.
SPAS Call Center Pre-Employment Screening Software is a Proven Technology that meets and exceeds all Government Employment Standards Requirements as a Hiring Tool in the USA/Canada/UK/Australia/New Zealand/South Africa and everywhere else in the world where the ‘Language of Work’ is English.
SPAS screens out the Job Candidates who will burn out fast because they aren't suited for the work - and identifies the people with the Personality/Job-Fit, Soft Skills, Motivation, and Work Ethic to be Top Call Center Agents. With SPAS as part of your Hiring Process you will be able to select new Call Center Agents who will fit your specific employment needs better - and stay on the job longer - leading to a Call Center Agent Workgroup that has more experience and is more productive.
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Many will give you technology answers but my experience is hands on people answers ...Empower them to make decisions and create solutions for their callers. More pats on the back than criticism. Ask what motivates them and what they need to feel good about the job they are doing. Do they see a future with your organization? Do they respect their superiors?
It is about them and your customers. Not you. I hope that helps.
I'd like to expand on Michael's comment - do you know WHY your staff is leaving? Are you conducting exit interviews? While some level of attrition occurs due to impacts in that employee's personal life that you cannot change, the exit interview process may highlight opportunities for process improvement, workload drivers, and career pathways.
For example, are your agents leaving because a new company came into town that is paying more? Do you have WFM practices that are well planned and reduce friction in workload driving to the agent? Do you have a well defined career pathway that allows for growth of the employee? Also, are you providing incentives and recognition to outstanding employees?
It may also be beneficial to trend your employees and determine if you have a trend towards attrition in groups led by the same supervisor or manager? This may also provide you with hard data that you can use to coach your supervisor or manager on how to manage. I know of several examples of staff that have left due to a poor managers who were not coached but the agents were held accountable.
Technology tools can also be a valuable aid in retaining good call center employees, especially in the part time arena.
Being able to offer an option to work at home for instance. Teleworking is a proven tool that can aid not only in retaining but recruitment as well. Let's face it, if someone has the option of putting say 4 hours a day in without the hassle and expense of a commute that can be a powerful thing.
Modern IP based call centers often can be upgraded at very minimal cost to allow this. Time and attendance functions, call recording, and call accounting applications now allow for the monitoring of remote workers, too. All of this can be done with either a "hard" IP phone or even a "soft" phone on a desktop or laptop.
If your call center isn't offering this option you really should look into it.
I have worked in call centers for many years and in order to retain good employees, you have to be willing to pay them. By paying your employees well, (and I don't mean bankrupting the company with overblown salaries) this will lead to less attrition. For example, I worked in a facility in the southwest where call center representatives were paid 9.00 an hour. Meanwhile at another company (literally right down the street), the starting wage for a phone agent was 16.00 an hour. In the end, your business gets what it pays for.
If your company can't afford to pay a high hourly wage, then I suggest offering compatible bonuses to make up for that. The bonuses should focus on behaviors that you want to instill in your employees, such as consistent attendance, contact ratio, promise to pay rates (if in a collection center), customer satisfaction, etc. I would also suggest having decent benefits.
In this world where working hard sometimes means missing out on life experiences (such as a child's birthday party or sporting event), offer a flexible schedule that gives the employee alternatives if they should have to miss work.
Jeff,
Monthly rewards it what cut the staff turn over in my call call centre.
David
Ask the ones who stay why they stay -- Then expand on that.
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