Call Center Management Featured Article
Morale Boosting in the Contact Center
Call center work isn’t easy even under the best of circumstances. After all, at the core of the job is solving other people’s problems. It can be exhausting and even dispiriting. But no one wants dispirited employees servicing their customers, so it becomes the job of managers and supervisors to boost morale to keep employees engaged with their jobs.
Employee Engagement is Critical
For companies hoping to keep standards of excellence high, the importance of employee engagement cannot be overstated. It is, however, a Herculean task. According to Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace report, 85 percent of employees are not engaged or are actively disengaged at work. Gallup estimates that this costs the global economy $7 trillion. Imagine what it’s doing to your organization.
Done correctly, employee engagement strategies have been proven to reduce staff turnover, boost productivity and efficiency, retain customers at a higher rate, and make an organization more profitable. Most importantly, engaged employees are more content in their jobs and their private lives.
Setting the Call Center “Mood”
One way to keep employee engagement high is to ensure that the contact center is a positive, warm and family-like place to work. This means eliminating the problems that can lead to a toxic work environment. Some suggestions include:
Listening to employees. One way or another, call center managers should be encouraging agents to share suggestions and feedback for job improvement. You may wish to implement a suggestion box, or a community web site. Consider holding regular feedback sessions for improving work processes. Managers should regularly speak directly to agents to learn about what motivates them. Be sure there is a recognition and reward process in place.
Have clearly defined goals. Employees won’t be able to help you attain your vision for the business if they don’t understand what the goals are. Ensure that goals are clearly defined, employees understand how to achieve them, and that they have a visual way to track their progress toward these goals. This can be easily managed through your contact center’s performance management platform.
Measure the right metrics. While call centers have traditionally used quantity metrics like calls per hour, it’s important to understand that this doesn’t necessarily translate to customer excellence. (In fact, it can be quite the reverse!) To achieve a high level of customer support and keep agents motivated, focus on resolving issues and retaining customers rather than quantity of calls or contacts. Employees will become motivated and stay motivated when they have the time and resources to genuinely help their customers and resolve their issues to a high rate of satisfaction for the customer.
Change up the job. No one likes to do the same tasks all day long, day in and day out. Vary agents’ schedules so they’re taking calls sometimes and answering chats or emails at other times. Monotony is a productivity-killer. This way, agents can learn new skills to broaden their personal work portfolios, and feel like they’re growing in their positions.
Edited by Maurice Nagle