This post is an excerpt from an article that first appeared here and is reproduced with permission from Callinize, Inc. DBA Tenfold
Why do contact center agents quit often?What are the reasons behind the high turnover rate? Like most situations, the answer cannot be reduced to a single factor but is instead a combination of workplace environmental influences.
Wrong Candidate for the Job
Just because someone can use a telephone it doesn’t mean that they’re cut out to work in a Contact Center. Employers need to be able to weed out the job candidates who aren’t suited for the work – and identify the people with the personality/job fit/soft skills motivation & work ethic to be (above average) agents.
Incomplete or minimal training
Everybody knows the story. Due to increasing customer service demands and decreasing numbers of agents, cuts must be made somewhere, and training time is often where the axe falls. While companies who invest less in agent training to not lose as much investment when an agent leaves the company, they suffer indirect losses in other ways. Customer services levels, for instance, are directly affected by the skills of the agent. Those skills must be developed and nurtured to deliver superior customer service. Most of the time, customer service agents are entry-level employees who have little or no experience working in a call center. Without proper training, agents can easily become weighed down by the stress and workload of dealing with unsatisfied customers. To make matters worse, they are also expected to use technology that’s complicated and outdated, not to mention decades apart from the consumer technology these 20-somethings are immersed in on a daily basis.
Narrow Chances of Career Advancement
According to a recent ProSci study, 12% of call centers surveyed had no formal training program in place for new supervisors. A managerial staff that lacks personal management skills or coaching abilities cannot direct the progress of the call center toward superior customer service levels. Poorly prepared management staff communicates an undesirable message of apathy and frustration to the call center staff.
Non-Competitive Compensation
Low pay & lack of medical benefits are also key reasons that CSR Quit Rates are high. Many call centers don’t provide their employees with competitive salary and benefit packages, so agents are forced to seek employment elsewhere.
Overwork and Burnout of More Experienced Agents
In a workforce experiencing high turnover, the burden of maintaining customer service levels fall to the more experienced agents. This
increases the stress level of the seasoned agent and reduces the motivation for an agent to increase his or her customer service skills. Placed in a position of high expectations with little or no relief or reward in sight can depress the morale of the most buoyant agent.
