In today’s competitive job market it is easy to jump to pay, stress, and irate callers as the top reasons why call center agents leave their jobs. But if your organization is paying competitively and looking for options, it's time to look at training, performance indicators, and agent enablement. Engaging employees, in the call center and work-at-home agents, is the key to the success of the business. In this blog post I’d like to attempt to answer the question “Why are my call center agents leaving?” and give you 3 ways to understand and retain good people.
Lack of Training
First, look at the training program for agents. A great tool that can assist in furthering the development of your agent is E-Learning. Right on the agent’s desktop, these assignments are computer-based training (CBT) that can be created by your training department and deployed to the needed staff. Sharpening sales skills, practicing empathy, and mastering lengthy processes are perfect ways to use CBT courses and are easy to develop. E-Learning systems also offer granular reporting that can be shared and celebrated with all levels of your organization. Don't forget that online training should continue well after the initial training period. Schedule short training exercises through an agent's tenure and keep the learning going!
Lack of Acting on Call Center Performance
Now, let's understand performance. Verint Performance Management (PM) is an empowering application that can engage both manager and agent. PM enables score cards and trending information amongst peers, will inspire agents to meet their goals, and makes agents feel less pressured to adhere to performance metrics they cannot readily see. Did you catch that? Yes, often agents leave because they don’t even have visibility into the performance you truly want from them.
Once PM has indicated the opportunities for improvement, don’t just let that sit. Schedule additional coaching time with your agent to confront these pressures and develop a plan for success! Coaching sessions can be easily scheduled in the Verint Workforce Management (WFM).
“It is like when a player has a slump, we do not trade them, we coach them. It is the same with our employees. The best leaders come to the aid of their people, whose performance is down...not come down harder on them.” Simon Sinek
For a more real-time approach to performance, consider tools such as Verint Real Time Agent Assist. On-screen guidance for the agents during an interaction provides help when they need it, can quickly identify and address negative sentiment, reduce costs, and help boost upsell and cross-sell performance.
Lack of Agent Enablement
Finally, enable and empower your agents to have flexibility with their shifts. Manually processing agent time off requests can take a lot of time for your resource management groups. Request management options inside of Verint Workforce Management are customizable can will allow you to design and automate your time off process. For example, you should enable your staff to submit requests and receive instant decisions for vacation requests.
Need a good example? In this video I share how Group Elite lowered absenteeism and agent churn with a few scheduling changes.
BONUS: use the Verint WFM Mobile App to make it super easy and seamless agents - on their own devices.
There will always be agents that leave for $0.50 more an hour, but these 3 tactics can lower agent stress, help promote advancement, and keep your strong agents. Focus on their skills, their performance, and enable them to do their work.
Sound too simple?
Contact us with your greatest Agent Churn challenge and let's collaborate on some ways to reduce agent churn in your environment.
