Agent turnover rates in contact centers are 25%-35% which makes maintaining quality customer service a challenge. The success of your organization depends on your people, and if you experienced high turnover rates last year, you need to ask yourself why and how you can reduce turnover in 2023.
Main problems of high agent turnover
Let’s start by recognizing that high agent turnover in the contact center is a drain on your pocketbook. Between hiring, training, benefits, and salaries, it is estimated that as much as a quarter of annual personnel costs can go down the drain.
Increased costs are not the only side effect of high agent turnover in the contact center. Your customers feel the difference, too. It’s hard to maintain top-notch service if your staff doesn’t have time to develop and hone their skills.
That said, one of the main goals for your contact center in 2023 should be to minimize turnover rates and focus on employee retention. Here are some strategies to share with you:
Identify if contact center churn is too out of the ordinary
It is no secret that Contact Centers tend to have high agent turnover rates. This can be due to many factors ranging from social factors due to the changing mentality of young people, who tend to be the majority in this type of job; to operational factors due to internal issues in the work environment. This time we will not go into those details.
Whatever the reason, what you should do to identify if you are having a high turnover in the Contact Center is the following formula:
Turnover rate = Employees who left the company in the year / Average number of employees in the year x 100.
For example, let’s say you started the year with 300 employees but ended it with 250 agents. This means that 50 people left during the year.
- Agents who left in 2021: 50
- Number of employees in the year: 300
- Turnover rate = 100 (50/300)
- Turnover rate = 100 (0.167)
- Turnover rate = 16.7%
So, is 16.7% considered a high dropout rate? The truth is that not so much, but it is not high if we compare it with the average for the sector. However, the idea is to be below or at most in the average number, so the numbers should be taken care of.
How to avoid high agent turnover in the Contact Center in 2023
1. Continuous training
When an employee is not given the opportunity to improve, it is easy for them to become demotivated and leave.
While many contact center managers agree that training is essential, it must be regular and timely. It should also cover a wide range of topics, such as company offerings, customer demographics, professional customer engagement, and even personal development.
Using gamification tools to enable knowledge and learning spaces in a fun and rewarding way will help.
2. Offer good working conditions
There are several things to touch on here. The first is that right now people prefer to work remotely, especially if they are young. So this year you should think about implementing a hybrid work plan, where a certain amount of agents are in the office and others from home. I know it may seem a bit like losing control, but don’t worry, with a good Cloud Contact Center platform you will have nothing to worry about. Your agents will be able to serve customers from anywhere, at any time, and through any channel.
Secondly, you must provide spaces for communication and teamwork. Make them feel that they are working together, that they are not alone. Agents can often feel that their work is overwhelming. It will help to have a unified communications tool where agents can work collaboratively. This will also help you to improve the service offered to your customers.
3. Gives agents autonomy over customer interactions.
The use of standard scripts and protocols is necessary. But repeating the same words to customers day after day can be exhausting and ultimately reduce employee engagement.
To avoid employee burnout and increase employee engagement, allow them to take charge of customer interactions to some extent. Create a set of guidelines that outline what needs to happen, but let your agents use their judgment and creativity to help customers find solutions.
Your agents will be more focused on helping customers find solutions, which will increase engagement rates and interest in the work. Plus, customer and employee satisfaction levels will increase in the process.
4. Create a customer-centric environment
Performance metrics are essential. However, most contact centers place more importance on quantitative metrics than on customer service quality.
When more importance is placed on numbers alone, it is natural for customer service levels to drop.
Instead of focusing solely on quantitative performance metrics, build a customer-centric service environment and use quality control methods to improve it over time.
This helps agents deliver the best value to callers by establishing a personalized connection with them. Your customers will be more satisfied, and your agents will also experience high levels of job satisfaction.
If you would like to receive free, personalized advice on high agent turnover in the contact center, you can schedule an appointment with us here.
