What’s the #1 contact center problem?

You stroll into the call center this morning to find two of your agents called in sick….yet again, another 10% are tardy, and most of the others are either texting a friend, swearing under their breath, or yawning into their keyboard – or all of the above.   You ask yourself, “What am I doing wrong?” If it makes you feel any better…you’re not alone.  Many call centers are plagued with high agent burnout rates, low productivity, and excessive turnover. 

Agent dis-engagement has been the #1 problem in call/contact centers for a long, long time.  Much industry research over the years from organizations such as Gallup and Harvard Business Review have found that engaged employees are more productive, more customer-focused, more profitable, and more likely not to leave. They conclude a direct link between employee engagement, customer satisfaction, and revenue growth.

In spite of these well-known, consistent research results over a long period of time, most organizations are still struggling with this challenge.  75% of contact center managers say they know it’s a problem and they want to do something about it; 24% throw their hands in the air and claim it’s the “nature of the beast” and there is nothing you can do about it, and 1% say “What problem?  We do not have that problem here.”

So the 24% are willing to accept less in the areas of: motivation, innovation, ownership, trust, productivity, sales, competitive advantage, and customer loyalty.  While they accept more:  stress, sickness, tardiness, conflict, accidents, theft, customer complaints, resistance to change, and turnover.  The good news is: it doesn’t have to be this way.

There is no simple, silver-bullet answer to this problem.  It’s too complex for that.  But we need to quit following what the 99% are doing and focus on the 1% with fully-engaged agents.

The key is that we must build s solid foundation for our contact center through hard, diligent, intelligent work over time. And we can’t focus on just chasing the next new, seemingly-good, idea – rather, we focus on “creating impact over time.”  We need to empower our agents with a sense of purpose and a sense of well-being.  How do we do this?

6 Elements for Foundation-Building:

1. Motivation – do I like what I do and want to help others to do better?  Do I feel a strong sense-of-purpose in my work?
2. Ownership – do people “own” their job; do they want to do a better job; do they want to fulfill their purpose?
3. Conflict Management – are we always at odds with one another?  How well do we handle inevitable conflicts in the call center?
4. Feeling Valued – do I feel like I’m important to this organization?  Are your people made aware of the value they bring to the company?
5. Difference Management – does management feel that your people can contribute, are valuable, and can help the organization fulfill its overall sense-of-purpose?  Does management work to enhance the employee’s sense of purpose and well-being?
6. Openness – can I feel open to expressing my opinion, giving my honest feedback and receiving honest feedback in a respectful way?  Does this contribute to my well-being?

These six elements are all interrelated and felt by many to be universal for all people of all ages in all locations.  You as a contact center manager can now analyze most anything you do in the contact center by the presence, or absence, of these 6 elements.

External Quality Monitoring

Rather than the typical laser focus solely on internal quality monitoring we need to advance an external quality monitoring strategy.   The best way to instill sense-of-purpose and well-being is by having the agents become closer to their members – but many call centers don’t really allow for this because they are stuck in old QA processes.  You have to include your members in the process and help them get closer to your agents.  The member should be the one delivering the message as to what you need to be doing differently – via member comments, member evaluations, survey calibration, agent scorecards, performance coaching, etc.  We need member-driven-coaching and member-driven training.  The 1% are helping this connection to take place, telling their agents how they are making a difference in their customer’s lives, and focusing on external quality monitoring.

Employee Engagement Must-Dos

So how do we best foster a sense of purpose and well-being in our agents?  The following four engagement focus areas each relate back to one or more of the six foundation-building elements:

Invest in…. training, career development, and coaching.  By career development we mean creating a more valuable employee…one who is able to take on additional levels of responsibility within your organization.  Examples include general career development like presentation and speaking skills, employee specific career development, and leadership-skills training (e.g., 360 degree feedback skills).  With consistent feedback practice employees not only become comfortable with it, but they will also start to demand it.  Constructive, two-way feedback makes both the individual and the organization stronger.

Inform.  People are much more effective and motivated when they know where they fit in the big picture.  So develop routines for sharing your company’s vision, values, goals, performance, progress, leadership changes, etc.  Make sure they understand their contribution to the company’s success.  Keep them informed of the company’s contributions to the community and give them the opportunity to participate and support the causes they care most about.

Involve.  Give your agents an ownership role in maximizing the effectiveness of your training and coaching programs.  One idea is to create an email box to be used exclusively for suggestions and feedback on training and communication.

Respect.  Set clear performance expectation.  Instead of holding your agents responsible for a rigid, step-by-step, process encourage them to take cues from their members and allow them to take ownership of the member experience using all the skills they possess – then let the members rate the quality of their experience.  Encourage authentic engagement with leaders at all levels.

The 1% focus their efforts heavily on these four engagement areas in order to manifest the 6 foundation-building elements throughout their organizations.

About AnyHour Solutions

AnyHour Solutions is a highly flexible provider of comprehensive, 24/7, contact center outsourcing services for credit unions via our AnyHour MSR and AnyHour Loan-By-Phone services.  Our purpose is to help our credit union partners to enhance service to their members, increase loan volume, and reduce operating expenses.  AnyHour Solutions has been providing contact center services to credit unions for nearly 20 years, longer than any other company.  Highlighted by the industry’s most experienced staff of agents and a turnover rate under 10%, our contact center goal is to provide “Service They Will Remember.”  In addition, AnyHour also provides online loan application functionality as well as a full suite of mortgage processing services for credit unions. 

For additional information, or to receive a copy of our most recent white paper entitled Credit Union Call Center Outsourcing: 8 Reasons to Use a Third Party Outsourcing Provider contact Steven Holmes, VP Strategic Development, at 888.622.8696, sholmes@anyhoursolutions.com.