How to Retain Call Center Employees

It’s a fact that one of the main challenges that a business faces is the ability to retain quality call center employees. This is not surprising considering that they have to deal with demanding calls and the monotony of taking calls for hours up on end. Now, many call centers are attempting to stop the high turnover of employees in order to save money and time.

Here are some tips to retain great call center employees for your contact center:

Invest in your employees

In order to be successful, your call center employees should have the proper training they need to excel. While most are probably not going to make a career out of calling customers, employees still need an adequate amount of support for career advancement. Offer training and coaching programs as well as mentoring programs.

Offer praise and incentives

Everyone likes compliments! Your employees deserve to be told that they are doing a great job and that you appreciate their hard work. Offer contests and incentives with cool prizes to keep them motivated to continue their dedicated work in the call center. They have to work long hours with a virtual smile on their face, but it can be easier when there are incentives involved to show that they are appreciated by management.

Consult your team

Communication is key in the employee-manager relationship, so ask everyone their opinion when it comes to improving the contact center workplace. Don’t just ask for the sake of asking; act upon their suggestions. Make them feel valued.

Accommodating schedules

Consider giving your employees the option to telecommute. This will be effective in keeping your costs low and reducing agent turnover. Give them the opportunity to make their own schedules if you can as long as you can still maintain service capabilities.

Staff turnover is inevitable at times, but you can do whatever you can to keep your employees happy and productive. It’s a win-win for everyone!

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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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A Quick Guide to Call Centers

Almost everyone has heard of the term call center; however, very few people understand how a call center works. Here is a quick guide to call centers and how they work:

Business Model

Every call center should have a business model. It helps the call center to identify its goals and missions. Here are the basic components of a business model.

Mission

The mission states how the call center will help the company achieve its goals. It also specifies what the company expects from the call center.

Business goals

They include both short term and midterm goals that the call center wants to achieve. They also define what the organization wants from the call center.

Performance drivers

These are the processes, behaviors and tools which help the call center to meet the expectations of the company. Performance drivers are usually measurable.

Tech Tools

In order to run a call center you need several technical tools. Have you heard the terms IVR, VoIP, CRM and ACD? These are some of the tools and technology that modern call centers use to carry out their operation. There are several others, too. Here is a list of them.

·         Telephone network

·         Automatic call distributor system

·         Data network/Internet

·         Predictive dialer

·         Interactive voice response system

·         Web applications like email and online chat

·         Computer workstations

·         Local area network (LAN)

·         CRM (Customer Relationship Management) systems like scripting, customer analytics and billing tools.

·         Computer-telephony integration software and hardware

·         Knowledge base

·         Workforce management software

·         Agent performance dashboard

·         Data warehouse

·         Call-recording equipment

·         VoIP communications technology

The call center team

The call center may have the most sophisticated tools in the world. It still needs efficient people to bring it to life.

The call center employs many people and they have several different roles to perform. For example, in every call center, there are agents, supervisors, business analysts and managers. Here is a quick overview of their roles.

Roles of call center employees

Senior manager

The senior manager is responsible for establishing the vision and mission of the call center. The annual goals for the call center are set by the senior manager.

Call center manager

The call center manager works with the senior manager and formulates polices which help the call center accomplish its goals.

The call center manager also identifies the performance drivers that have a direct or indirect impact on the business goals of the call center. S/he is also entrusted with the duty of assigning key roles to other employees. Other duties of the call center manager include creating a culture which supports the call center mission.

Resource analyst            

The job of a resource analyst is to predict customer demand and identify the resources necessary to meet it.

Reporting analyst           

The reporting analyst is the person who provides statistical feedback on key performance drivers and business goals. They also have a responsibility to conduct analysis and identify ways to improve the performance and results of the call center.

Network analyst

They recommend the tools required to improve performance. They also have a responsibility to ensure that these tools work properly.

Agent performance team includes the recruiter, team leader, trainer, and quality analyst.

The agents are the people who handle customer contacts. The recruiter recruits agents. The trainer imparts the required training. The team leader shows the agents how they should perform. The quality analyst gives feedback.

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Benefits of Hiring Part Time Employees for Your Contact Center During Peak Season

Many organizations employ people on a temporary basis. If you run an in house contact center, you can utilize your part time employees during peak seasons to handle the extra volume of calls. Call volumes can fluctuate. During peak seasons there will be extra work. In this case, the organization cannot continue working at its full capacity without hiring more part time employees.

Part time employees usually have a flexible work schedule. Many of them may have full time jobs elsewhere. In addition, since these employees have to complete the assignments in less time, they might work at a fast pace. This will benefit the organization.

When you hire part time employees, you need to take into account the specific nature of the jobs. Hiring the right people is crucial. During peak seasons when extra work is readily available, many people express a desire to undertake part time jobs after their regular jobs. Unfortunately, many of them are inexperienced and do not possess the required skills. However, this problem can be solved by hiring employees through a contract staffing company. These staffing companies have trained employees who are ready to work part-time. In addition, they can supply the exact number of people required to handle the extra work.

Since training agencies also screen potential employees, an organization can hire people possessing the right skill set. If these employees deliver satisfactory performance, they can be appointed as full-time staff. As they have already received training, the organization does not have to train them again. However, there is a problem with this arrangement. The staffing agency which trained these employees has greater control over them, so they might leave the job if they find a better job elsewhere.

Why outsourcing is better

A better solution is to outsource your call center activities during peak season. This eliminates the need to hire more employees. Also outsourcing your contact center activities is much more cost effective because it eliminates the need to provide training to part-time employees. It also eliminates the need to invest in expensive infrastructure.

Organizations can hire a call center to handle the overflow of calls during peak seasons. They can handle the rest of the calls themselves if they already have a full-fledged contact center. However, remember that a larger outsourced company has better experience in handling call volume. An in-house contact center may not be able to handle the extra volume of calls that it receives during peak seasons.

The agents in a call center are also better at managing calls than your in-house team, because they have received specific training. They are also well-experienced.  What's more, when you outsource your call center activities, you will get service 24 hours a day 7 hour week. You can rest assured that no matter what time of the day your customers contact your call center, they will be greeted by a real person.

The biggest problem that companies face while hiring temporary staff is that they don't know how many employees are required to handle the extra volume of calls. By outsourcing your call center activities, you can easily overcome this difficulty. Hiring temporary staff is another viable solution.

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