Call centers are among the fastest-growing businesses in the world, but managers need to build a strong call center culture in order to achieve sustained growth.
Research suggests that the call center industry will be worth more than 495 billion US dollars by the end of 2027. But, it’s no secret that these call centers face a variety of challenges that range from agent motivation to constant turnover. By implementing a strong culture in your call center, you can mitigate a large portion of these issues and help ensure superb performance across the board.
At Autopilot Reviews, our goal is to help call centers understand their agents’ needs by collecting and relaying feedback in real-time, with the ultimate goal of building a stronger culture. In this article, we will go over the definition of culture in the call center context and discuss the benefits of having clearly defined company values. Additionally, we’ll provide steps that call center managers can follow to build a strong culture in their facilities.
What is “Call Center Culture” and Why Does It Matter?
Before delving any deeper, let’s take a moment to define culture within call centers.
As all savvy managers know, call center agents are more productive when they are happy and feel appreciated. However, growing and managing a site is tough, so it’s easy to take agents for granted, which can make them feel detached from the company.
A strong call center culture can help your agents feel engaged, appreciated, and ready to help your contact center achieve its goals. In the call center context, culture refers to the mentality and energy levels that your employees have when they are working on your phones. It’s an intangible element, albeit an incredibly important one for managers that want to have a productive call center.
Let’s take a look at some of the benefits of establishing a clear culture in your call center.
Happier, More Productive Agents Lead to a Better Call Center Culture
The general atmosphere within a call center directly affects the productivity of its agents. As a matter of fact, research suggests that employees that are happy with the culture within their companies can be up to 21% more efficient.
A strong culture allows you to maintain a positive environment where agents feel energized and ready to contribute.
This is in part because call centers that have a strong culture are usually extremely organized. Agents know what to expect of them in these situations and are given the necessary tools to achieve their goals. This results in more confident employees.
Increased Customer Satisfaction Metrics
Having high employee satisfaction is crucial, but managers and team leaders also have to monitor customer satisfaction metrics as these directly reflect how well agents are performing.
Fortunately, agents that operate in a positive and fun environment are more likely to deliver great customer service. This, in turn, can exponentially improve customer satisfaction metrics and help the entire site reach its goals.
Keep in mind that culture has a deeper impact than simply changing your agents’ attitudes. If your call center has a strong culture, you will have a tightly-knit team of agents that know how to collaborate to solve customer issues as fast as possible.
Higher Revenues
Customer satisfaction is not the only element that is directly related to culture within a call center. Companies that have a strong culture have more productive workers, which boosts their revenues across the board. Call centers that are more productive are often given the opportunity to handle more accounts and grow their sites, which can have an even bigger impact on revenue.
While your revenue can grow exponentially after your initial efforts, remember to reinvest some of the profits into maintaining a strong culture. Agents need constant motivation to be engaged during every interaction, so you should grow the programs you already have and add more activities to ensure that employees are happy.
Sustained Growth
As long as you invest time and resources into maintaining a strong culture in your call center, you’ll keep getting great results and achieve sustained growth.
Like we mentioned before, companies that work with call centers are always happy to invest in growing a site, providing additional training, and hiring more agents. This, in turn, helps call centers acquire better equipment, expand their physical capacities, and handle more complex services, like technical support and retentions.
Keep in mind that you’ll need to expand your culture-building activities based on the number of employees you have. That said, you may need to make some adjustments based on the new services and requirements that your clients may have.
A Boost in Team Morale and Motivation Levels
Just because your agents are satisfied doesn’t mean that they are energized or motivated. The good news is that call centers that have a full, well-defined culture usually have a much easier time inspiring agents.
Sites that have a strong identity like celebrating their agents’ big milestones like birthdays and local holidays, which usually creates a feeling of camaraderie among team members. Not only this, but team leaders are often encouraged to approach agents in a more personable way, while still being professional of course.
Not only do agents love the environment created by a strong culture in a call center, but these employees also appreciate the effort management makes to improve their work experience.
Improved Decision-Making Processes
While a large part of a call center’s culture revolves around agents and how they behave, it’s important to understand that it spans across all levels of an organization. Asides from the structure of the call center’s hierarchy, a strong culture should also result in clearly defined decision-making processes for common as well as rare circumstances.
In other words, a call center with a strong culture will have predetermined procedures that agents, team leaders, and managers can follow whenever they have a request or report to make. Therefore, when a manager is faced with a question or inquiry, this person will know exactly what to do based on the company’s internal policies.
Ability to Attract Better Talent leads to a Better Call Center Culture
Having knowledgeable, skilled, and experienced agents can be the difference between a call center with a great reputation and an underachieving site. But, talented call center agents know they are a hot commodity, which means that these professionals always look for the best conditions.
Yes, the first and most important thing you should do to attract better talent is offer a competitive salary and benefits package. However, having a strong culture and a great work atmosphere will help you recruit top prospects, especially if you involve your current agents and involve them in your pitch.
Lower Employee Turnaround
Did you know that replacing an employee of any level within an organization can cost anywhere between half and two times that individual’s yearly salary? This is the reason why some companies would rather invest millions into training and upskilling rather than hiring external talent.
As you can imagine, call centers that have a negative reputation for a weak company culture and dismissive environment tend to have a harder time retaining the talent they attract. Rather than having a revolving door of agents, a solid culture will help create an environment that employees want to be a part of.
Variables that Can Lead to a Weak Call Center Culture
Building a strong culture within your call center can bring a huge number of benefits. That said, managers and team leaders have to position agents for success for this to be true.
There are many circumstances that can put unnecessary pressure on your agents and these can contribute to a seemingly negative culture. Therefore, you should make sure that your agents have everything they need to succeed both physically as well as mentally.
Let’s take a look at some of the variables that can lead to a weak culture and what call center managers can do about them.
Lack of Growth Opportunities
One of the most common factors that lead to a negative culture is the perceived lack of growth opportunities. In the majority of cases, this is a result of an unclear position ascension structure within a company. Simply put, this means that your call center doesn’t have a clearly outlined process for appointing new team leaders and management employees.
To avoid this, you should make sure that your call center has a clearly outlined ranking process. For example, only employees that have been around for a certain amount of time should be able to apply to new positions. Moreover, you should also make it a habit to hire all management members from within your call center, which will make employees feel that the best way up is to remain with your organization.
Low Salaries Weaken Your Call Center Culture
The biggest reason why agents feel like their call center has a weak culture is a lack of competitive salaries. Most agents are aware that the call center industry is growing and that the technology that powers these organizations is becoming more and more accessible. When they work at contact centers that don’t offer competitive salaries, these employees feel like they are being taken advantage of, which reduces the efficacy of other morale-building exercises.
In order to prevent this from becoming an issue, call center managers need to ensure that their agents are getting a fair salary, regardless of the industry standard in a particular area. Keep in mind that increasing salaries through bonuses doesn’t have the same effect as these are not accessible to all employees, which can become another source of disconformity.
Repetitive Tasks
By definition, call centers handle repetitive tasks day in and day out. But, in most cases, there are different types of services that are offered in a call center, many of which are sent to the same agents. These services are often divided into queues, but whenever an agent spends too much time on one queue, this individual can experience burnout and hold it against the company.
Rotating agents and letting them try out different queues is the best way to avoid fatigue due to repetitive tasks. This can be challenging in call centers that require additional training for specialized queues. That said, it’s always possible to change from basic to specialized queues in order to give these agents a bit of variety.
Poor Quality Tools and Resources
Call center agents use a wide range of tools in their day-to-day activities, but some managers fail to consider elements beyond software. The actual computers, phones, headsets, chairs, desks, and other resources that your agents employ also influence the way they behave and perform. Even the office itself, restrooms, recreational spaces, and other areas need to be properly equipped. If not, your agents may feel like the biggest and only priority is the company and its performance.
Upgrading equipment periodically can help boost employee morale and create a culture based on quality as well as performance. Furthermore, you should also ensure that your facilities are clean and that they contain all of the amenities that your employees would actually like to have.
Employee Mismanagement
Employee mismanagement can take a lot of shapes, but it always results in a weak company culture. From neglecting agent requirements to failing to give exemptions when necessary, there are many situations that can lead to a disgruntled team.
Rather than avoiding difficult conversations or continuing the trend, call centers that have mismanaged employees in the past should make adjustments and address their internal obstacles in the most professional way possible. This will instill trust in agents and make them feel like the call center is there to help rather than punish them.
How to Build a Strong Call Center Culture
Now that we’ve covered the effects of having a strong culture in your call center and the elements you need to avoid, let’s go over the steps to build a positive environment in your facility.
Whether they have experience or not, remember that agents usually experience a predictable trajectory in terms of work energy. The first months are energy-filled and a steady decline in motivation starts occurring once this feeling dissipates. So, it’s up to call center managers to build a culture of hard work and accountability while still rewarding their agents.
With that in mind, here are some strategies you can implement to build a strong culture in your call center.
Create a Comprehensive Training and Development Program
It’s much easier to build a positive culture in your call center early on, so you should start off by creating a comprehensive training and development program. Your training program should not be rushed. So, the more complex the task that your agents have to complete, the more training time you need to provide.
Besides initial training, remember to upskill agents and provide people-centric coaching when necessary, like sensitivity training.
Build a Good Call Center Culture from the Top Down
We mentioned the fact that the culture in your call center needs to be respected at all levels, but it should definitely trickle from the top of your management team to your frontline agents.
Site managers, team leaders, and employees in your administrative departments need to set the standard, stay professional, and respect company culture at all times.
Empower Agents Through All Possible Means
Agent empowerment has a lot of facets and you should cover all of these as best you can. For example, many call centers empower agents through high salaries, additional time off, and similar perks. If this is not a possibility, you can always implement agent-centric features, like schedule tracking, meal delivery options, and additional bathroom breaks.
Moreover, one of the best ways to empower agents is to give them not only the tools, but the authorization they need to make decisions to help customers on the spot.
Promote Healthy Competition Through Incentives
Performance bonuses are a good start, but you can also take some of your resources and create a little tournament, so to speak, to promote healthy competition amongst agents.
For instance, you can divide the budget you have allocated for this activity into three parts and create prizes for the top three performers in specific categories.
Provide Tools that Encourage Collaboration
While getting rewarded and being in a fun environment are both essential for agents to feel comfortable, communication among peers is also key. For many call center agents, work is one of the biggest ways to meet people and build their social groups. So, you should leverage this and promote collaboration among peers through specialized tools that you can monitor and moderate.
Decorate the Floor with Seasonal Themes to Improve Your Call Center Culture
Seasonal themes vary depending on the call center’s location, but taking the time to decorate and celebrate local festivities is a great way to boost morale and build a strong culture. The best part is that you don’t have to interrupt operations. All you need to do is organize events that teams can attend during their breaks or while they are off their shifts.
Look Beyond Conventional Metrics
We live in a world ruled by numbers and analytics, so it’s easy to get bogged down on conventional metrics. Instead, you should look beyond conventional numbers and analyze metrics that reveal how your agents truly feel about your business.
A great way to do this is to collect assessments from customers as soon as they finish interacting with your agents and funnel this feedback to your employees in real-time. This will give you valuable insights as to how agents are performing at the granular level while also giving your team members additional resources to improve.
Create a Fun Environment in Recreational Areas
Recreational areas are the places where agents spend their breaks, so don’t be afraid to spruce them up with gaming consoles, board games, coffee machines, and similar amenities.
Recruit Employees Based on Attitude, Not Only Experience
Call center recruitment teams do a great job on the whole, but many talent scouts still fall into the trap of grading candidates solely on experience. Attitude, aptitude, and motivation should be the main reasons why you hire employees since a solid training program can make up for a lack of previous experience.
Give Agents the Ability to Pursue Their Interests
Large call centers have learned that building a strong culture doesn’t stop once agents leave the facility. These organizations often build a strong culture by allowing agents to pursue their interests; paying employee certifications, language lessons, and other types of courses as part of their benefits.
Put Together a Referral Program to Spread the Word
Once you establish a great culture in your call center, you shouldn’t wait for word to spread organically. Instead, you should put together a referral program where agents get a commission for every new team member that they refer.
These programs usually have terms and milestones that new employees need to adhere to before the commissions are paid out. Nonetheless, they are a great way to build awareness around your newfound culture of success.
Ready to Build a Better Call Center Culture? Autopilot Reviews Is Here to Help
Establishing a strong call center culture doesn’t occur overnight, so you need to implement changes, monitor your organization’s gradual transformation, and invest resources into maintaining your new reality. With that said, putting in the effort to build a culture of hard work and dedication in your call center can have superb results on your bottom line.
If you want to find ways to collect feedback from your customers and deliver these assessments with your agents in real-time, Autopilot Reviews is here to help. To learn more about our platform, get in touch today and our team will be glad to help.
