How to Motivate Your Call Center Reps

Working in a call center can be challenging at times. It’s no secret that call centers have a high turnover of reps. While the working conditions may be good, many times call center reps are underappreciated and underpaid. One of the best ways to keep your reps and lower the turnover rate is to keep your employees happy.

Your call center employees are an important link in the customer/company interaction chain. You are trusting them with your customers—your most valuable asset. Failing to have faith in your reps will result in many of them leaving.

Here are some ways to motivate your call center reps and create better working relationships:

Raise their pay. Call center representatives are professionals, and should be paid as such. Let’s face it: No company wants to pay more. But unless you want to continuously hire new workers and deal with a high turnover rate, you need to offer a competitive rate.

Provide refresher training. Employees that have been employed with the company for a while will greatly benefit from refresher training.

Allow shift trading. When call center employees are able to swap shifts to meet their needs, everyone is happy. It’s a small change that creates a nice balance.

Create an off-site program. Reps who wish to work from home can do so through remote communication. Employees who excel can have this perk, and this will motivate others to excel as well.

Give benefits to part-timers. Part-time employees are just as important as full-time ones, so treat them as if they are as valuable by offering the same benefits.

Create an advancement system. Let your call center representatives know that they can be rewarded with better pay and more responsibility if they succeed and add value to the company.

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Tips for Agents to Communicate Better

In a call center, communication is king. It’s a fact that effective communication will lead to a more productive and satisfied staff of agents. It sounds easy enough, but there are actually quite a few mishaps that can occur in an attempt to communicate to clients and customers. If your agents know how to better handle these situations, they can serve callers faster and with more confidence.

Here are some tips to help your agents communicate to customers more effectively:

Listen to the caller. Many agents may be so eager to serve the caller that they begin to answer before the caller has even finished talking. It’s best to wait until the caller has finished stating their question or concern before jumping in to remedy the problem. It’s easy for agents to get sidetracked with their own concerns about the call while they should be listening to the caller instead. Be present so that you can let the customer communicate their concerns. Failure to do so can result in callers feeling unimportant.

Speak slowly. Remember that callers are hearing the agent for the first time, and they may not always be clear on what you are saying. They should slow down and speak slowly. It is natural to tend to speed up after repetitive calls, but advise your agents to mindfully slow down and treat every call as if it’s the first one of the day.

Breathe. An agent’s breathing can affect a call. For instance, if they are sighing, they can come off as annoyed. If they hold their breath, it can mean they are tense. And we all know what yawning means! Teach your agents to be aware of their breathing during a call, and to take deep breathes in between calls.

Stay present. Make sure your agents know that when they stay on the phone, they should be present in that moment. While it’s easy to space out at their desks, agents should take breaks when they are feeling sluggish. Teaching them to stay in the moment will help their focus, even on trying days.

What about agents who work from home? As a call center manager, you can use video and chat in order to monitor their communication abilities in real-time. In order to do this effectively, you must communicate to your agents the importance of staying engaged and focused during customer calls.

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