Implementing a good call center incentive is a major key in building a successful, tight-knit team. The taxing nature of customer service work often leads to high turnover rates and workers’ dissatisfaction. Exhausted, underappreciated agents are much less productive and enthusiastic at the office, which is detrimental to overall workplace morale.
This type of sustained stress will cause employees to run for the door. The call center industry has one of the highest turnover rates in the country, with employees not expected to last more than 3 years in a role. This puts tremendous economic strain on companies, as they have to deal with the cost of constantly having to recruit and train new agents – which in the US costs an average of $8,780 per hire. Further, having unmotivated or dissatisfied agents can have a negative impact on the company’s public image, as agents are often the only contact point between the business and its clients. Frustrated agents are more prone to deal with a problem in an ineffective way or even to lash out, which can create a reputational crisis for the company.
Delivering successful customer service is not just a matter of answering phones or handling specific requests, but effectively coming up with solutions through empathy and patience, while keeping brand image management at the forefront of every decision. When agents are unmotivated or experiencing burnout, it is bound to show in the quality of their work, which can lead to increased customer dissatisfaction, making the agents’ day-to-day even more difficult. The good news is that this situation can be prevented and even reversed. Read on to learn more about how companies can build happy and successful teams by using some of the call center incentive programs in this article.
Benefits Of Implementing a Call Center Incentive Program
Despite ongoing debate within companies about the effectiveness of incentive programs. Evidence shows implementing actions geared towards creating work stimulus can truly make a difference in call centers. Research demonstrates working on employees’ satisfaction through incentive programs and other initiatives has a positive impact on performance, but only when such actions truly address the wide range of issues that impact performance and motivation.
A study conducted by the International Society of Performance Improvement, showed most companies don’t have the will nor the capacity to design truly effective call center incentive programs. The companies instead choose to spend thousands of dollars on cash reward initiatives without assessing their effectiveness. Despite this reluctance or inadequacy, the study showed that well-designed incentives can yield tremendously positive results. While the study deals with different types of workplaces, the high turnaround and burnout levels of call center agents make a strong case in favor of starting an effective call center incentive program.
Key Findings
A study showed that, when designed, put in practice, monitored, and assessed correctly, incentive programs can:
- Increase individual performance by an average of 22%, while team incentives can increase performance in the workplace by up to 44%. Better performance means increased productivity, which in turn has a positive impact on the company’s profits.
- Attract high-quality and talented candidates, improving the overall pool of employees and leading to a better and more motivating work environment. What’s more, companies offering effective incentive programs are not only able to attract more qualified and skilled candidates but manage to retain talent even in a highly challenging and demanding workplace.
- Work best when they are long-term rather than short-term. Research shows that incentive programs that run for a year or longer yield much better results. While long-term programs increase performance by an average of 44%, programs running only for up to six months only improved productivity by 30%. Productivity increase is much lower when programs only last a week.
- Choose quota-based incentives over tournament-style models. This means that programs that reward a previously determined number of winners (for example, the top two performers within a team or office) don’t work as well as those that reward all workers that meet or exceed goals or that do more of something.
Why Are Call Center Incentive Programs Needed?
While implementing an incentive program has proven to be beneficial in any type of workplace, there are good reasons to believe call centers agents are particularly vulnerable to experiencing the type of burnout and frustration that make these programs particularly helpful.
It’s not difficult to understand why. Call center agents constantly have to deal with frustrated customers and are often limited in what they can do to help them. They have to be the public face of a company in which they often have no actual say and have to deal with any fallout between client and business, often managing limited information or with almost nonexistent decision-making capacity. This situation can lead to feelings of exhaustion, mental and emotional distance from the job, and reduced productivity and inventiveness.
There is also reason to believe the past couple of years have been particularly challenging for call center agents, as the Covid-19 pandemic has added a new layer of urgency and complexity to the type of crisis management work call centers deal with. From dealing with scared patients requesting assistance from their insurance provider to having to help new remote workers who are upset with their internet provider, call center agents have undoubtedly been some of the brunts of the past two years.
What’s more, feelings of frustration, burnout, and lack of motivation eventually affect everyone up the chain of command, not just agents. Dealing with unsatisfied workers negatively affects managers, who feel that their work is failing to elicit motivation and productivity. This creates a vicious circle, as embittered and disillusioned employers are less willing and able to implement the types of changes that could turn around this situation.
Thankfully, generating incentives can help motivate your call center agents and help them overcome feelings of frustration over not being acknowledged or recognized for their work enough. These incentives can be thought of as rewards, but also be engraved in the culture of the call center. Read on for some of the best call center incentive ideas for building a successful team.
Create Call Center Incentive Rewards That Agents Actually Want
While this should be obvious, companies often fail to consider the actual needs, desires, and lifestyles of their workers when designing incentive programs. Personalized rewards, which allow agents to choose amongst different options or to tailor the rewards to their particular interests, are even better.
Rather than implementing a call center incentive program based on what managers believe workers want, taking some time to ask them can pay off tremendously. There are several ways to do this: online forms, surveys, and focus groups can create opportunities for agents to share how they feel their work should be rewarded.
While it might just seem like an additional step, there are plenty of benefits to doing research and creating communication channels in the planning stage. First of all, the initial effort will prevent spending energy, time, and resources in implementing inefficient rewards that don’t yield the expected results. Incentive programs that fail to fully address agents’ interests might still have a positive effect, but it will not be as impactful as a well thought off initiative. Finally, involving workers in the process of designing the incentive program can boost their morale and help them feel listened to and appreciated, and research shows that employees that feel recognized are bound to be more productive and committed to their work.
Encourage Team-Building
The pandemic has had devastating effects on the opportunities for team-building in call centers, as many agents are now working from home. However, research shows that feeling part of a team and at ease with your coworkers increases workplace satisfaction and boosts morale. Encouraging team-building activities foster a workplace culture where agents feel they can rely on and trust other agents, allowing them to work together to fix problems or to reach common goals. The following are fun team-building suggestions that can be implemented both in the office and remotely:
- Role-playing games: Create role-playing situations where agents can act as customers and provide feedback on how other agents deal with conflict.
- Pictionary: A game that’s a classic for good reason! Agents take turns to draw a word or phrase while their fellow team players try to guess what it is.
- Trivia: Trivia-type games can help agents get to know a more personal side of their coworkers.
Ask agents to suggest team-building activities. There is a chance they have games they particularly enjoy and that they’d love to share with their coworkers.
Reinforce A Positive Work Environment
Most employees require a positive work environment to thrive. Anyone who’s ever been exhausted by their job knows it is extremely difficult to avoid burnout when the dynamics within the office feel unhealthy or unproductive. Managers who expect unrealistic levels of productivity or who pit agents against each other may foster a type of competitiveness that can be harmful and increase feelings of inadequacy amongst the staff. Because of the stressful, result-driven nature of the work done in call centers, this type of work environment is particularly susceptible to falling prey to this. There are, however, several ways managers and human resources departments can help contribute to a healthier workplace.
The first step has to do with the actual physical space where the call center operates. No matter how much attention managers put into developing positive workplace culture if the call center is cramped or depressing, this is bound to affect how the workers feel about being there every day. Generally speaking, a clean office with a clear area for working and an area where workers can relax during their breaks or lunch hours will be much more enjoyable and lead to increased productivity.
Even if investing in office renovations is not realistic at the moment, management can still do a lot to improve the physical space of the call center. Adding some artwork or decoration to the walls, refilling the break room, or keeping clean bathrooms reflects an interest in the wellness of the workers. Investing in adequate office furniture, computers and phones can also make a big difference. Today, many call centers are currently operating remotely and some of them started doing so rather suddenly. In these cases, checking in with agents to help them set up a decent workspace in their homes is key in helping them feel appreciated and supported.
While the physical space is crucial, paying attention to office relations and the emotional and mental conditions amongst the agents is equally as important. A toxic workplace can lead to serious disruptions in the daily life of the workers and will often manifest in agents taking more sick days than usual. If an atmosphere of bullying and gossiping arise, there will be a lack of communication and collaboration among agents and a high turnover rate. Fixing an already toxic work environment can be difficult, but if left unattended or ignored it will destroy your business from the inside out.
Create Growth Opportunities
Any call center incentive program should address the fact that all workers need to feel like they are not wasting their lives in a dead-end job. While many agents in your team will not be looking to build a future career in the company, they still need to feel they have opportunities to grow should they stay in the job. By scheduling regular training sessions, agents learn new skills that they can use to move up in the company or in future jobs. Managers can also help agents by laying out a well-defined path they can follow should they choose to grow within the company. Can they gain more responsibility? Is there a higher-paying job they can aspire to? Having a clear grasp of these goals will help keep agents motivated.
Set SMART goals for your Call Center Incentive
Unrealistic or confusing expectations can be detrimental to a workplace environment. One of the best call center incentive ideas you can implement is setting up what is known as SMART goals. The SMART strategy helps businesses come up with well-defined goals that can be easily communicated to workers.
This is what smart goals are:
- Specific: The goal should be as clear as possible and workers should have a detailed description of what is expected of them. There are several key questions management can seek to answer to make goals more specific: What should be achieved? Why is it important? Who is involved? Which resources are needed?
- Measurable: Having measurable goals allows management and workers to track their progress. Rather than demanding productivity in abstract terms all the time, setting goals that can be achieved, with clear deadlines and milestones is crucial in maintaining motivation. Agents should be able to know how much of something they should be aiming for and how to assess whether the goal has been achieved.
- Achievable: Keeping the goal within a realistic frame is key. While shooting for the stars sounds great in principle, unrealistic expectations are a known productivity killer. Finding a balance between creating a challenging environment and not overworking agents can be hard, but it’s essential to help workers feel they are not dealing with unreasonable management.
- Relevant: Setting relevant goals refers to ensuring that they matter to the workers and align with their other goals and tasks. When facing goals that feel irrelevant to their daily job, workers tend to lose motivation, as they drain their energy trying to fulfill tasks that might be perceived as arbitrary. Management should work closely with agents to evaluate whether certain goals are worthwhile and being pursued at the right time and whether they are applicable in the current climate.
- Time-bound: Goals should always have a deadline or target date. When every day feels the same, work can easily become menial, repetitive, and mundane. Having a clear end date helps agents set a deadline to strive towards. It also allows them to prioritize, reclaiming a sense of control over what can be a very fast-paced, stressful day-to-day workflow. Management should strive to come up with different goals so several deadlines can be set throughout the year.
Examples of SMART goals that can be set in call centers are responding to all customer feedback, acquiring a new skill by a certain date, or attending a certain number of training courses before the end of the year.
Encourage Feedback In Both Directions
Agents are used to receiving feedback from their managers. Call centers are result-driven environments, so workers are often evaluated on their performance and how many requests they resolve. Poorly delivered feedback, however, can be extremely detrimental to workers’ morale. Human resources and management should pay special attention to how they deliver criticism and comments on performance.
A good way to approach the issue is developing a habit to commend agents when they meet or exceed their goals, or any time they go above and beyond what was requested or expected of them. When workers feel recognized by their employees, it is easier for them to receive criticism and focus on what they can and should improve.
When feedback is issued to address a negative performance, agents can feel overwhelmed and misunderstood. Moreover, managers should make sure to provide any negative criticism face to face and in a one-on-one setting. Normalizing feedback is also key, as the more call center agents listen to their superiors’ assessment of their work, the less anxiety-inducing the experience can be.
Hearing about areas of improvement only once or twice per year can make agents feel uncertain about their actions, as they struggle to figure out if what they’re doing will be criticized down the line or not. On the contrary, receiving both praise and constructive criticism regularly helps them feel more confident in their work.
Feedback should also go both ways. Employees should be allowed to assess their work situation, comment on management decisions, and ask questions about unclear expectations or tasks. Opening up channels of communication for agents’ feedback can also help managers notice blind spots in their own work and create opportunities to clarify misunderstandings or miscommunications.
Mobilize Agents Around A Bigger Goal
Let’s be real: call center jobs can easily feel repetitive and mundane. Dealing with dozens of new customers every single day can make it difficult for workers to develop meaningful relationships with them, which in turn can prevent them from feeling their work is rewarding and relevant. A great way to prevent this is to make charities part of the call center incentive program put forward by the company, fostering a culture of volunteerism and collaboration.
How? Agents could be given the chance to join a day where they will work to help a nonprofit reach its goal. The most productive agents could also be given the chance to choose which charitable nonprofit they’d like to help. By helping agents feel part of a community and realize their abilities can help others, companies can help build a better workplace office.
Hold Regular Goal-Setting Meetings
We’ve already talked about the importance of setting SMART goals, but there is another practice well worth implementing: goal-setting meetings. By allowing agents to have a periodic space where they can discuss the goals they are striving towards, you can help keep them motivated and identify talent interested in moving up in the company or that you’d like to retain.
Some agents might be interested in setting goals related to their work in the call center, such as acquiring a new skill or improving their target. Others might have their eyes and expectations set somewhere outside the call center. Help them realize how their current job can be a stepping stone towards reaching their goals and encourage them to pursue other interests. If the agents are unsure about their future goals, goal-setting meetings can be a productive space to discuss where they envision themselves in the future.
A call center incentive program that includes workshops that help agents figure out their long-term plans and ambitions, and that encourages them by bringing in mentors or scheduling training sessions, is bound to increase satisfaction in the workplace. Managers should not see agents with ambitions beyond the call center as a risk or potential problem, but take steps to help them realize them. This is much better for workplace satisfaction and productivity than when workers feel stuck and uninspired.
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