While site managers have to monitor a huge range of different statistics, there is no doubt that call center retention is among the most important metrics. Employee turnover is a major problem across a variety of industries and that list includes call centers. Therefore, operations managers and facility owners have to identify the main reasons why agents leave in order to implement changes that lower the number of employees leaving voluntarily.
At Autopilot Reviews, we specialize in helping call centers collect feedback from customers and send these reviews to agents right away. Our team is familiar with the different elements that influence agents’ decisions to resign and understands how high turnover rates impact the performance of a site as a whole.
In this article, we will discuss the definition of call center retention and why it’s important. We’ll also discuss the main reasons for high turnover rates and what you can do to improve agent retention in your call center.
What Is Call Center Retention?
Before going any further, let’s take a moment to define retention in the call center context. Call center retention refers to the percentage of employees that remain with the company. By focusing on call center retention, site managers can make sure that they always have enough agents on deck to handle incoming and outgoing interactions.
With the above in mind, having good employee retention rates is a huge challenge in call centers. Statistics suggest that turnover rates in the call center industry range between 35% and 40%. So, even call centers that are on the lower spectrum tend to lose more than a third of their workforce in any given year.
For this reason, improving retention rates and lowering agent turnover is often listed as a goal in every call center.
The Importance of Monitoring Your Call Center Retention
Maintaining chemistry in the workplace is crucial for any company. But, the truth is that a high call center turnover results in issues that are far greater than continuity and camaraderie.
In the vast majority of cases, the agreements that call centers have with clients revolve around the idea that each site will handle a specific number of calls. If this quota is not met, it usually represents losses for the clients in the form of either disgruntled customers or a lower number of sales.
If call centers don’t have enough agents to handle the incoming or outgoing calls, these sites can also be penalized and fined depending on how the contract works.
Moreover, some of the disadvantages that low retention rates can produce include, but are not limited to:
Higher Costs
In addition to incurring fines from clients, low retention rates can produce significant losses in other areas, which result in higher costs.
Most sites get paid for the number of interactions they handle as part of the agreements with clients. Having a lower number of agents means that your call center will handle a smaller number of calls, which means that you won’t make as much money.
Additionally, the cost of hiring and training a new class of agents is somewhere in the tens of thousands of dollars. So, having to constantly recruit and train agents can quickly skyrocket a call center’s expenses.
More Instances of Agent Burnout
Agent burnout is a common occurrence in contact centers that have an adequate number of agents. However, instances of agent burnout dramatically increase in sites that are constantly understaffed due to low retention rates.
When clients and call centers reach an agreement of how many calls will be handled daily, they decide how long agents will have on average between calls. While it may seem like a small lapse of time, these are valuable seconds that allow agents to gather their thoughts and prepare for the next interaction.
If there are always fewer agents than projected, the gap between calls can be literally inexistent. This, in turn, significantly boosts the pressure that agents experience and it can easily result in a higher number of burnout cases.
Frustrated Customers
Many call center managers only see the problems with low retention from a performance and financial perspective. But, the truth is that a high agent turnover can also have an impact on the quality of the service that a site provides.
On the customer’s end, calling a site that has low retention rates means spending more time on hold because these call centers tend to be understaffed. Not only this, but new agents are more likely to make mistakes and cause issues for customers. This results in frustrated customers that leave bad reviews that can end up giving your site a bad overall reputation.
Limited Growth Opportunities
Anyone who has ever worked in a successful call center knows that the better the service, the more likely clients are to open new departments there.
However, the contrary is also true.
Call centers that can’t keep agents from leaving usually have bad performance metrics in every sense. Clients are not interested in investing more money into sites that are underperforming, which reduces the growth opportunities that agents in these call centers have.
The problem is that this creates a cycle where a call center can’t attract quality talent due to its reputation, and thus can’t boost its metrics to get the resources needed to improve.
Low Salaries
Similar to growth opportunities, employee salaries are also related directly to site performance. Call centers with a high turnover don’t receive as much help from clients in terms of resources to motivate employees. So, these contact centers can’t offer bonuses or even as high a salary as other sites within the same area.
Higher Prices for Clients
All of the other disadvantages above contribute to a higher cost for the companies who hire call centers, which has become a major problem in itself. Rising costs have forced companies to switch providers and settle for lower-quality sites, all of which come as a partial result of high turnover rates across the industry.
Depending on the agreement, some clients cover training expenses, but the assumption is that the new agents will work in the site long enough to make up the value of that investment in the form of quality services. If this is not the case, the initial training investment can and should be seen as a loss for both the client and the call center.
The Biggest Reasons Why Call Center Employees Leave
While there are many effective call center retention strategies designed to help reduce agent turnover, remember that all sites are unique. Besides the accounts being handled, call centers can vary in location, size, agent skill level, and types of calls being handled.
This means that you need to evaluate your specific call center’s unique circumstances in order to figure out what elements are pushing your agents to leave voluntarily.
Below, we’ll go over some of the most common reasons why call center employees leave.
Repetitive or Difficult Work
Although it may sound superficial to some managers, one of the main reasons why call center agents leave is the fact that the work they do is repetitive or unbearably difficult.
This can be difficult to address because call center work is repetitive by nature. But, it’s also common for a site to handle more than one type of call, which means that managers can make sure that agents receive different interactions even if they are all over the phone.
Most agents would agree that the hardest thing they do is attempt to de-escalate angry customers, but this often requires a set of functional tools and extensive training. When agents at a site are finding the job more difficult than they should, it’s a sign that the call center’s training program and tools need to be overhauled.
Lack of Recognition (Especially for Agents that Go the Extra Mile)
About 30% of the agents that leave voluntarily are top performers whereas only 15% of them are considered as low-performing employees, and this is not a coincidence.
Employees that go the extra mile tend to work harder than agents who are just going through the motions. But, this also means that top-performing specialists expect more. And, if they are not rewarded fairly, they tend to lose faith in the management team, which is another big cause of low call center retention rates.
A Poor Team and Call Center Culture
Like other modern companies, part of the success of a call center relies on its culture and how much agents buy into it. Unfortunately, call centers that don’t have a strong culture are more likely to have high turnover rates because their employees don’t feel committed nor see value in remaining with the team.
Building a strong call center culture takes time, but it’s a necessary component if you want to recruit top agents and convince them to stay and grow with your site.
Low Employee Satisfaction Rates Decrease Call Center Retention
Customer satisfaction has always been an important metric for call centers, but managers now have to monitor and evaluate employee satisfaction just as much.
Low employee satisfaction rates mean that agents are not performing up to their potential because they are unhappy with one or more elements within the site. Salaries, recognition, and work difficulty all influence employee satisfaction, but there are dozens of other variables that can result in unhappy agents. These include poor facilities, lack of additional incentives, and poor manager-agent relationships, among others.
A Lack of Growth Opportunities and Low Salaries
The growth of the call center industry is undeniable at this point and top agents are aware of this. Instead of settling for low salaries, agents are not starting to evaluate all the alternatives they have available and making choices based on which call center provides the best remuneration package.
If your call center doesn’t offer growth opportunities or competitive salaries, it will have a difficult time attracting experienced agents, let alone keeping the ones that are currently employed.
How to Prioritize Your Call Center Retention
As we mentioned before, there are numerous call center retention strategies that you can implement to improve retention rates and reduce employee turnover.
The first thing that call center managers need to do is accept that retention rates across the industry are high, so there will always be some turnover in their sites. Additionally, high-ranking administrators also need to see low retention rates as a multi-faceted problem that requires the implementation of different techniques.
Let’s take a look at some of the steps you can take to reduce employee turnover in your call center.
1. Understand and Calculate Your Call Center Retention Rate
You need to understand your retention rate before you improve it and the best way to learn how to do this is by calculating it from scratch. There are some variations, but the simplest way to find your average turnover rate is to divide the average number of agents you lose per year by the total number of agents you started the year with and multiply the answer by one hundred.
You can adjust the formula above to calculate turnover rates per quarter or even monthly, which can give you a better historical understanding of how the seasons impact your turnover.
2. Set Clear Retention Objectives Early On
Yes, the main objective of improving retention rates is keeping as many agents and employees as possible. However, you should think beyond this objective and come up with a set of goals that can help you achieve better retention metrics.
For example, you can start off by choosing to revamp your recruiting and training program in order to bring in more qualified agents. At the same time, you should also aim to achieve superb performance metrics in order to boost your income and grow your agent retention budget.
3. Ask the Right Questions During the Recruiting Process
Despite the fact that it’s not a major focus point in some industries, call center recruiters need to ask questions to ensure that the agents they are hiring don’t plan to leave the company within the first year.
Depending on the training program, it can take up to 6 months or more for an agent to make up his or her value in training. By asking the right direct and indirect questions, recruiters and hiring managers can reduce the number of agents that are likely to leave shortly after joining the team.
In addition to the classics like “where do you see yourself in five years?” you should also ask questions about professional growth and education as these heavily influence agents’ decisions to leave.
4. Instill a Strong Call Center Culture During Training
It’s difficult for a poor-performing call center to build a strong culture, but it’s not impossible.
As with any other type of company, a good culture in a call center comes from the top and trickles down to the management and frontline employees. If you conduct yourself in a professional way, set up transparent workflows, and help agents succeed, you’ll positively influence your team’s behavior.
5. Offer a Competitive Salary and Benefits
All savvy call center managers know that a good salary is the best call center incentive for agents to stay.
A lot of call centers (especially smaller ones) rely on thin profit margins and increasing salaries across the board is not so simple for these sites.
With that said, changing the structure of your teams and cutting expenses in other areas may be enough to boost employee salaries a bit and give your team the initial motivation it needs to exceed expectations.
6. Furnish Your Team with the Right Tools
Call center work is regarded as tedious at best, so you need to provide agents with ergonomic seating, specialized headsets, and other tools that increase comfort on the job.
This has a great effect on employee morale because having the right tools can help reduce back pain, boost productivity, and result in a more comfortable work environment. What’s more, agents tend to notice these little perks and show appreciation by being energetic during their shifts.
7. Train Management to Notice Signs of Disengagement
Disengagement is the first and most obvious red flag for call centers that want to improve their retention rates. Agents that are disengaged will not bring this to your attention proactively, so you need to train your management team to identify early signs of disconformity and address them appropriately.
For example, if an agent has received several negative real-time ratings in a row and doesn’t seem interested in making any adjustments, managers should be instructed to gently step in and have a conversion with the employee to find out what’s happening.
8. Invest Resources Into Agent Well-Being to Improve Call Center Retention
While the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the issue, mental health struggles are common among call center employees. There are several reasons for this, but the truth is that each site needs to evaluate its own circumstances and figure out what percentage of its employees are unhappy.
Once your call center understands the problem, you should create a separate budget for agent well-being and find ways to help your employees maintain good mental health.
9. Motivate and Show Gratitude to Agents
Competitive salaries, recognition for the top agents, and a strong company culture are already great ways to motivate your team. But, you should also design separate programs to promote healthy competition and get the most from your agents.
You should consider holding friendly competitions and giving the top performers attractive prizes. Not only this, but show gratitude to agents in general by doing small things like celebrating local festivities or creating local education programs that employees can benefit from.
10. Provide Effective Agent Performance Feedback
As long as they are receiving a fair wage and feel appreciated, agents will be receptive to feedback. So, you need to make sure that the comments you provide are constructive and functional to help agents flourish as professionals.
Autopilot Reviews enhances the way managers provide feedback because it collects reviews from customers right after they interact with call center agents. Then, this feedback is sent to each agent right away, so every specialist can understand his or her customer’s experience.
11. Give Agents a Chance to Grow
Even if your call center is not in a position to open new departments, you should still create a program to help your agents grow and apply for higher positions whenever these come up.
In many call centers, top performers are selected as mentors, which are in charge of helping with new class training. Once they achieve mentor status, agents are allowed to apply to become team leaders, trainers, or join management in another position.
12. Hold an Exit Interview with Every Agent
Lastly, the best way to understand why employees are leaving is to ask them directly. And, the most effective way to do this is to hold an exit interview with agents on the last day they are part of the team.
Some call centers conduct the interview in survey format, while others prefer to have members of the HR team speak directly with each agent to collect as much information as possible.
Want to Collect More Effective Feedback? Autopilot Reviews Is Here to Help
Setting up your agents for success and providing all the information they need to grow professionally are among the best ways to reduce turnover. That said, you need to leverage innovative tools that allow you to make the most of the information you collect right away, rather than waiting to set appointments or for feedback cycles.
At Autopilot Reviews, we give customers a granular view of every interaction and collect information directly from customers as soon as they hang up. Then, we send this data to the agent that handled the call to make sure that this specialist gets feedback at the most impactful moments.
To learn more about our solution, get in touch with our team and we’ll be glad to help.
