How to Reduce Call Center Attrition

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How to Reduce Call Center Attrition
Call centers are well known for having a higher-than-average turnover rate. Since the beginning of time, which would be in the 1960’s when call centers started to become mainstream in the United States, employers have had to battle this issue. Turnover rates for call centers are 35-45% and the average length of employment for a 20–34-year-old is only 11 months.  It would be wonderful to say that the reason is that agents are accepting other positions within the call center, but the reality is that most of the turnover is for external reasons.

Why Do Employees Leave?
Call center turnover is higher than that in other industries for many different reasons. New hires might not totally grasp what is in store for them in a call center. A lot of call center positions are entry level or slightly above positions, which are not high paying. The lower pay will ensure employees will always keep their options open to higher paying positions.  Call center employees will often deal with stressful calls over the course of the day, which in turn can lead to employees re-thinking their job and causing quick burnout.

Good Hiring Practices Reduce Turnover
Hiring a good call center employee isn’t an exact science. By asking the pertinent questions and through testing, you should find more qualified candidates.

The overwhelming reason call center employees quit is that they feel the job isn’t a good fit for them. By making the right hiring decisions, you can help slow turnover rates. Here are some ideas that may aide in your recruitment process:  

• Have the candidate take a pre-hire assessment test  
• Listen carefully to the candidate’s tone of voice
• Have them explain something to you and see if you understand
• Check their resume for “job hopping” and ask them to explain
• Ask them if they are willing to do a “Trial Day,” where they work for part of a day to see if they like and can truly do the job

You should include questions that will show you how the candidate handles difficult callers and see if they are able to demonstrate empathy. Present the candidate with a difficult scenario they will encounter and assess their response.

Because of high turnover, you may find yourself conducting interviews based on quantity over quality. You desperately need those seats on the call center floor filled and those calls answered. Changing your focus to quality candidates may slow you down a little bit in the present, but will most likely, will lead to less turnover in the future which is the goal.

Change Your Training
Now that you have made some adjustments to your hiring practices, it's time to focus on the employees you have in place. Making sure they are well trained and confident before hitting the call center floor will go a long way in avoiding agents wearing down and walking away.

There are three main things your customers expect from an agent when they take time out of their day to call your business:

• Skilled and friendly employees
• One-call problem solving
• Speed in which call is answered

When you take the time to hire the right employees, they should be able to demonstrate the first two suggestions to your customers immediately.

Knowing and understanding the company’s products and procedures is your main goal in helping your employees become successful. Customers don’t want to wait on hold while an employee looks something up online or is asking for assistance. Knowledge is king.

Training Employees
Preparing new hires for their role in a call center environment can be difficult. You need to be certain that your employees know what the position involves and will feel comfortable doing it, while also making sure not to burden them with too much information during their first couple of days.

Team Introductions
It’s always a good idea to introduce new hires to their coworkers and explain the company’s way of doing things before getting too job specific. For your employees to fulfill their job responsibilities, you will want them to feel relaxed with the team they will be working with as well as with their direct supervisors.

Reintroducing the Company
Now that you have some new employees starting without (hopefully) any pre-conceived opinions about your company, you will want to formally introduce your company again to them while outlining more than just the basics they were told during their interview.

This is your opportunity to introduce the company’s Mission Statement, as well as its values and long and short-term goals.

Explain “Why” When Discussing Policies
Most training sessions for new hires begin with reviewing the company employee manual, which will outline the basic rules that all employees must adhere to.

Explaining to your new hires why something, like attendance, is so important. This is key to getting them to “buy into” your company. Once they grasp the “why,” they will understand the importance in showing up to work every day, which will contribute to the success of the company.

New employees aren’t always aware of how their absence from work or schedule adherence on their part can affect a call center. If you give them clear cut examples they can relate to, it will help them to understand the importance of following company guidelines.

Enlist Your Top Performers
You want your new hires to perform to the best of their abilities every single day. A good way to give the new hires a real feel for what they will be experiencing daily is to have some of your top performers give them a walk-through of their job.

By allowing a new hire to witness what high performing employees do and how they handle different situations, it will give them the confidence that they need do their new job. Confidence will aide in their overall job happiness and performance. By asking questions to a successful employee, it gives them the opportunity to dive a little deeper about what their job entails and get answers from those who are on the front lines.

By having those who work in the same position that your new hires will be starting, this should assist with getting them acclimated to their new work environment. It can really help them to understand what the typical day will entail and how to handle customer interactions. They can answer questions in a more basic, down to earth way than management would.  Giving a new hire a “work buddy” who they can go to directly with simple questions is a great way to take some of the burden from the trainer, and it also assists with team building.

No Two New Hires Are the Same
You undoubtably will be hiring people from all different walks of life, each possessing different degrees of work and life experience. For these reasons, you should have a basic overall training that covers company-specific information, and another training prepared specifically with information that the new hire will need to begin their job as a call center agent with your company.

Closing Suggestions
Hiring agents for a call center isn’t easy and may seem like a process that is never-ending. By concentrating on hiring the right applicant and ensuring that they receive the proper training from the beginning are two major factors in improving attrition.

Confirm that new hires understand the company’s products and polices. Make sure they know how to access answers to “FAQs” - that they will inevitably be asked will also be very helpful when they are just starting out.

Make them feel welcome to their new team and new management. Being the “new guy” is always kind of scary and awkward at first, so do your best to ease their way onto the team and with the company.

Two things that call centers with lower-than-average attrition have are: An excellent companywide culture and above average training techniques.

When you are asking the right questions during the interview process, ensuring that the training is all encompassing, and making employees feel wanted, you should see your attrition rates greatly improve.

Are you ready to drastically improve communication with your customers and employees?

Allow us to introduce FoxieEngage.

Foxie has developed FoxieEngage, which is a single platform that gives you the ability to chat, respond to social media questions, text, talk, and communicate with your staff, customers, and vendors…all on their terms and in the way they choose to communicate with you.

FoxieEngage is what your business needs and what your customers and employees have been yearning for.

Be more engaged with your customers and employees...call us at 866-BE-ENGAGED (866-233-6424), text START to FOXIE (36943) or if you prefer, just shoot me an email at mpurkiss@foxie.com.

We are looking forward to speaking with you soon!