Finding personnel for customer service is one thing, retaining them is even more difficult

  • By Mohamed Abdallaoui

We say nothing new when we say that the turnover rate at customer contact centers is high. Estimation is a range from 30-50%. There are various reasons for this, such as work pressure and career opportunities. How can you ensure that you retain your staff?

According to research by Jabra in collaboration with consultancy firm Frost & Sullivan, one of the main reasons for the large turnover is that working at a customer contact center is mainly seen as a starting position. The lack of career opportunities is one of the most common reasons why employees leave. Good guidance, training opportunities and career prospects are opportunities to retain employees. More challenging work is also a reason for employees to stay. They want to do "fun" and interesting work.

Another way to ensure that employees don’t leave is by providing good technical support and smart solutions that simplify the work of employees. For example, by using well-integrated systems. What also works is to provide good training for employees, in which it is immediately clear how the organization works. In this way new people know where they stand and they can estimate whether this is a system in which they can excel.

A new preferred channel

You could think about moving your preferred channel from, for example, the telephone to Messaging. One of the benefits for employees is that they can be used much more effectively, because with Messaging employees can have multiple conversations simultaneously and thus achieve a lower AHT. This reduces the pressure on the telephone exchange. But please note; for every change you need enough support. The work of employees will be influenced by the implementation of new technologies. This also means that the training, culture and performance indicators must be ready.

Finding good staff is difficult and keeping them is a challenge. Career perspectives, growth, training opportunities and technical support can help to keep employees committed to you. In addition, it may be possible that the preferred channel may have to change.

We can help you with the transition. Please contact us if you want to know more.