What makes a contact center effective? Its effectiveness depends primarily on its agents’ productivity. But productivity is relative. If the staff members are satisfied with their job and they feel motivated and fulfilled, they can deliver excellent service to customers. But when they are dissatisfied with their job and often feel overworked and tired, you can expect to see it reflected in their job performance.
Highly demanding and competitive
Many people aspire to work in call centers, and you cannot blame them because the compensation is quite lucrative. However, contact centers are often tagged as cost centers within their niche. This is because they are usually judged on the numbers output, such as the cost per contact, which is the primary reason for the business tag.
Undeniably, contact centers are one of the most demanding and competitive industries to work in because it needs to ensure the productivity and happiness of their employees. They operate 24/7; thus, it could be a nightmare for managers to keep agents happy and satisfied to prevent employee attrition.
Increasing agent productivity and engagement
The global contact center industry is a vast industry and the growth potential is remarkable. Thus, if you want to remain in the business, you should learn to make adjustments to run your company, increase agent engagement, and motivate them. Here are some ideas.
- Provide agents with autonomy
With the tools and the scripts, call center work can be monotonous most of the time. Agents often follow canned questions, responses, and processes. Thus, they feel that their job is repetitive and tedious. Deploying an autodialer software from Convoso is a considerable help to agents. They will however be more motivated if the company can give them a degree of autonomy in approaching customer service and making decisions for themselves within specified parameters.
- Allow agents to have short breaks several times a day
Call center workers usually suffer from stress and tension for various internal and external reasons. These reasons can pile up day by day, which can affect job satisfaction and productivity. These reasons can also lower agents’ motivation. One solution is to give the agents frequent breaks throughout their workday. It is an excellent way to relieve stress. In addition, giving them time for themselves can provide agents a chance to reset and meet the next call with confidence.
- Recognize exemplary performance
It is vital to employees if the management recognizes excellent performance. The managers and employees must review their performance together and discuss ways to improve where they are lacking. Likewise, recognizing their contribution to the company’s growth and giving them positive feedback and incentives are great motivators for the employees to do better.
Knowing and understanding your agents is key to motivating them to be more productive. In addition, appreciation for their contributions and giving them leeway to approach their customer engagements with a more personal touch can boost their productivity.
