Experts Offer Tips on Call Center Agent Success

People are both the biggest expense and the biggest single success factor in the call center. So, it’s worth a call center’s while to create engaging worker experiences.

“Employees are probably your biggest challenge and your biggest source of value and satisfaction,” notes Benchmark Portal.

So, call centers should take care in hiring the people who have the patience and professionalism to do the job. Patience is key, as this is a tough job involving frustrated callers and high performance metrics. It can also help call centers avoid high agent churn rates, which average 25 percent annually.

Training agents so they know what to expect is also important for best results. Effective training arms agents with the information they need about company culture and goals. It teaches them how to use the tools they’ll need to use to do their jobs. And it informs them as to what key metrics they’ll have to meet.

Benchmark Portal suggests that call centers do a forensic investigation into how they do things. They can do that, it says, by forming a working group to identify processes from beginning to end. Using a whiteboard and stickers first, and then transferring the end results to an electronic format is a good way to go, the company adds.

“An onboarding process flow chart for new agents is a fantastic part of any new employee training,” according to Lessonly. “A well-documented, repeatable onboarding process is critical to ensure an efficient and effective onboarding experience.”

Lessonly goes on to suggest call centers assign new hires peer mentors. These touch points can help guide new agents as they navigate their new environments.

Steve Shellabear, director of dancing lion training and consultancy, agrees. “Mentoring is about developing a relationship that involves giving advice on professional and personal levels,” he says. “The mentor relationship can be goal-focused and strategic, while coaching may be more concerned with immediate performance improvement and reinforcement of skills transfer.”

Edited by Mandi Nowitz