Cookie Preference Centre

Your Privacy
Strictly Necessary Cookies
Performance Cookies
Functional Cookies
Targeting Cookies

Your Privacy

When you visit any web site, it may store or retrieve information on your browser, mostly in the form of cookies. This information might be about you, your preferences, your device or used to make the site work as you expect it to. The information does not usually identify you directly, but it can give you a more personalized web experience. You can choose not to allow some types of cookies. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings. However, you should know that blocking some types of cookies may impact your experience on the site and the services we are able to offer.

Strictly Necessary Cookies

These cookies are necessary for the website to function and cannot be switched off in our systems. They are usually only set in response to actions made by you which amount to a request for services, such as setting your privacy preferences, logging in or filling in forms. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site may not work then.

Cookies used

ContactCenterWorld.com

Performance Cookies

These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources, so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies, we will not know when you have visited our site.

Cookies used

Google Analytics

Functional Cookies

These cookies allow the provision of enhance functionality and personalization, such as videos and live chats. They may be set by us or by third party providers whose services we have added to our pages. If you do not allow these cookies, then some or all of these functionalities may not function properly.

Cookies used

Twitter

Facebook

LinkedIn

Targeting Cookies

These cookies are set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant ads on other sites. They work by uniquely identifying your browser and device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will not experience our targeted advertising across different websites.

Cookies used

LinkedIn

This site uses cookies and other tracking technologies to assist with navigation and your ability to provide feedback, analyse your use of our products and services, assist with our promotional and marketing efforts, and provide content from third parties

OK
[HIDE]

Here are some suggested Connections for you! - Log in to start networking.

EXECUTIVE MEMBER
Ikhwal Sidiq
Assistant Manager Trade and Remittance Services
408
MEMBER
Richard Roberts
Adviser and Consultant
18
EXECUTIVE MEMBER
Selin İcer
Quality - Training & Academy Director
29
MEMBER
Thamer Noori
Director of Industrial Security and Safety Dept.
13

Guest Blog: One of the biggest contact centre challenges and how to fix it - Calabrio - ContactCenterWorld.com Blog

Guest Blog: One of the biggest contact centre challenges and how to fix it

Disclaimer - the solution is not an easy fix and might even go against your instincts!

We see it time and time again, Contact Centre Managers are constantly fighting the battle between meeting their service level agreements by having the right number of staff at the right time with the right skills, whilst also striving to retain their staff.

Employee retention has been one of the biggest Contact Centre challenges for a long time, and yet, Contact Centre annual attrition rates rarely fall below 50%.

We know what you are thinking - 50% seems high!

What we’re referring to here is your ‘gross’ attrition at ‘skill’ level. Very often certain types of attrition are excluded for reporting purposes and some are in fact encouraged, but in resource planning, you need to include everyone who leaves an advisor position.

For example; An advisor leaves Banking to move to Loans? That’s a ‘leaver’ as you’ll need to replace a Banking advisor, even though at a department level that shows as 0% attrition.
Had to fire a Sales advisor? That’s also a ‘leaver’ as you’ll need to replace them too. An advisor gets promoted to team leader? Yep – they need to be backfilled – they’re a ‘leaver’ too.

The best way to calculate this is to add up the number of people at each skill level you had to replace last year and divide it by the total number of people with the skill. For example; I hired 30 new service and 20 new sales advisors last year (50). I have 50 service advisors and 40 sales advisors (90) = 50 / 90 = 56%. That’s your long-term resource planning figure.

However, for the purpose of this article it’s the ‘involuntary’ attrition rates and the voluntary out of department attrition we would ideally like to minimise.

A high attrition rate isn’t just bad for the employee, it’s also a huge problem for the business:

  1. It’s expensive. You have to hire people and train them all the while absorbing those costs
  2. It leaves you understaffed and often unable to meet your customer’s demands
  3. It reduces the overall experience level of your staff leading to reduced quality
  4. Hiring a lot of people effectively reduces the quality and quantity of talent available to you (you’ve probably already hired, trained and maybe lost all the good local employees!)

There are normally a number of factors closely related that can cause a Contact Centre to hemorrhage staff - corporate culture, often sitting at the centre of it all.

So, what can Contact Centres do in order to improve employee retention?
Pay your staff a decent wage:

This might seem like an obvious one and yet no one wants to hear it as it increases your costs. However, in the long term it may save money if you offset it with the cost of hiring new staff; the cost of training them and the cost of having to employ a larger offline training team; the lost staff hours required for ‘buddying’, the cost of customers having to call back and the cost of ‘brand damage’ etc.

And for your employees it’s not just about the money, a decent salary will make employees feel valued.

Make your employees feel valued:

Making sure employees feel valued can be tough. Start by regularly communicating and investing in your people. Do it well, genuinely and honestly. It is here that good contact centre managers shine over bad ones – good managers can communicate their message sincerely and are heard and believed.

Employee loyalty is often commensurate with how valued they feel. Ask yourself - How are you investing in your people? New technology? Office environment? Training? Rewards?

Using tools like Gamification can help promote cohesion and a fun work environment that stimulates and motivates employees. Gamification plays into our innate desire for reward, feedback, status, competition, altruism, and achievement. Gartner recently called it “a powerful tool to engage employees, customers, and the public to change behaviours, develop skills, and drive innovation”.

You can find more information on how to implement Gamification in the contact centre here.

Meet your service levels:

Nothing makes a Contact Centre tougher to work in than consistently failing your service levels and picking up call after call of angry customers. It’s normal for agents to burn out under these conditions.

Workforce management (WFM) solutions can help you schedule and forecast the right number of staff, with the right skill sets to meet your service level agreements and create a more pleasant and positive work environment for your employees. Most contact centres today will already have a workforce management solution implemented. It’s a case of better understanding your solutions and learning how to optimise it in order to achieve the results you are aiming for.

WFM consultants can not only help you implement better planning and scheduling, they can also support you by coming up with a clear strategy and learn new ways workforce management technology can be utilised in your contact centre.

Some of the above will cost money. Some of it requires skill. None of it is easy. But, if successful, it builds a wholesome centre that delivers quality – which ultimately is more enjoyable and better for the customer as well as your agents!

Source: https://blog.teleopti.com/2018/12/07/guest-blog-one-of-the-biggest-contact-centre-challenges-and-how-to-fix-it/

Publish Date: December 7, 2018


2024 Buyers Guide Automation

 
1.) 
Call Adapt

Soundboard Software
Call Adapt is a cloud-based digital soundboard application designed for contact centers. It works with any type of call and integrates with your existing dialer system. Powered by smart audio technology, Call Adapt gives your agents the ability to converse with customers in real time using programmed keyboard shortcuts. The result is perfect pitch delivery and less time spent on repetitive tasks.

2.) 
eGain Corporation

eGain Solve
Proven, Easy, and Guided Journey to Automate Customer Engagement in a Digital+AI World

3.) 
Pointel

Genesys Identity and Access Manager
Automated Provisioning Solution for Multi-Vendor Communication Platforms

Managing agent profile data across multiple systems is a big challenge for contact centers. The manual tasks of agent provisioning, decommissioning, daily change exercises, skill level synchronization, license recovery and detailed reports on usage are tedious, time-consuming, and often expensive for businesses.

Managing ID and access within a contact center is further complicated by profile information and requirements that vary from application to application. Automating the processes of onboarding and off-boarding in contact centers helps overcome these challenges and enhances agents’ productivity.

Pointel I...
(read more)
 



View more from Calabrio

Recent Blog Posts:
Data is everything in the new era of customer serviceMay 20, 2019
Real-Time Adherence – the art of smarter schedulingMay 8, 2019
Evolving employee engagement with Workforce Management (WFM)April 30, 2019
Guest Blog: There’s a brighter future for contact centre agentsApril 12, 2019
Centralized or de-centralized WFM: 5 ways to strike the perfect balanceApril 8, 2019
How patient are your customers? Erlang A may have the answerMarch 25, 2019
Evaluating if the integration between your WFM & CX platform will be a big “Yes”February 25, 2019
The whole organization is a customer service center – not everyone knows it yet!February 4, 2019
Resistance to change – the arch nemesis of customer experienceJanuary 22, 2019
5 steps to supercharge your customer service with contextual intelligenceJanuary 7, 2019

About us - in 60 seconds!

Join Our Team

Industry Champion Award Leaderboard

Most active award (top 10) entrants in the past 48 hours! - Vote for Others / About Program
Submit Event

Upcoming Events

The 19th AMERICAS Annual Best Practices Conferences are here! Meeting Point for the World's Best Contact Center & CX Companies Read More...
 31813 
Showing 1 - 1 of 3 items

Newsletter Registration

Please check to agree to be placed on the eNewsletter mailing list.
both ids empty
session userid =
session UserTempID =
session adminlevel =
session blnTempHelpChatShow =
CMS =
session cookie set = True
session page-view-total = 1
session page-view-total = 1
applicaiton blnAwardsClosed =
session blnCompletedAwardInterestPopup =
session blnCheckNewsletterInterestPopup =
session blnCompletedNewsletterInterestPopup =