Call Recording Featured Article

It happens in the best of companies: fatigue, burnout, giving up and giving in. But if you’re talking about a contact center, the problem is magnified. Everyone knows being an agent is a stressful job to begin with. So when that “tired feeling” sets in, it might mean your workers have one foot out the door.

And if they leave, that means hiring and training new workers while overloading those people you still have on board. What can you do?

One answer comes courtesy of Rich Marcia, Marketing Director of Coordinated Systems Inc., a company that has consistently evolved its contact center solutions over time by building high-quality, long-term relationships with customers and partners.

In a recent blog post, Marcia listed some ideas on how to help your staffers feel more a part of your ongoing efforts. Among his suggestions:

• Run a weekly contest for the agent who is able to convert the most disgruntled callers back into happy customers.
• Set aside daily coaching time – fifteen minutes every day where there are one-on-one training sessions happening.
• Use webcam recording capabilities to monitor their body language, demeanor and overall behavior they’re exhibiting when on the phone with a customer. Use these results to provide extra help to those who may simply need additional training.
• Allow free access to social networks and encourage agents to participate in company posts and train them in best practices for responding to social customer service. Cross-train them to handle emails, texts, tweets, etc., as everything does point to an omni-channel future.
• Investigate what’s available in gamification options. The incentives/rewards process always seems to yield additional motivations.
• Let your marketing team have some fun with the agents. They can shoot photos and videos for promotional purposes.
• Allow agents to develop mock calls that incorporate webcam usage and appropriate handling of customer situations.  This can inevitably be used to enhance agent performance as well as for training new hires.
• Provide a monthly/quarterly reward to an agent who has handled the highest amount of calls successfully or perhaps reached FCR or another KPI objective.
• Allow a rolling amount of agents to have 5-10 minute breaks each hour.  This can assist the call center in keeping agents alert and enhance their level of productivity.
• Pose some organizational challenges typically reserved for upper management — and share the best responses with the higher ups. Collaboration like this did wonders for Harley Davidson.

Marcia has even more great ideas. Click here to see his complete blog post. Bottom line? It’s important to act NOW before a problem gets out of hand.