Workforce Management Featured Article
The New Year Will Be a New Opportunity to Change Company Attitudes toward Contact Center Agents
Traditionally, contact center agents are the “Rodney Dangerfields” of any organization…they don’t get no respect. There are many reasons for this. The contact center has some of the highest turnover in the company, but organizations are as much to blame for this than the workers. Schedules are inflexible, hours are long, pay is low, the work can be grueling – speaking to angry people all day long can take its psychological toll – and it’s tempting to try for greener fields at another call center for an extra dollar an hour. Often, contact centers attract young workers with no or minimal degrees, and this demographic isn’t traditionally the most reliable. Punishing the contact center with poor work conditions, however, isn’t the way to fix the problem.
Highly successful customer support operations – think L.L. Bean or Zappos – have one thing in common: they go out of their way to support their customer-facing agents. A positive attitude toward agents on the part of the company can go a long way toward fostering a positive attitude in agents, according to a recent blog post by Monet Software CEO Chuck Ciarlo.
“When employees are viewed as an asset instead of a cost center, it impacts how they are recruited, hired, trained and maintained,” wrote Ciarlo. “This takes into account management and contact center procedures as well, but workforce management can contribute to agent satisfaction by making flexible scheduling possible, and making it easier for agents to work the hours and shifts they prefer.”
While paying agents well is one of the pillars of employee engagement, it’s about more than that. It’s about managers treating employees like professionals and communicating their expectations in a fair and respectful way. It’s about giving workers a chance to go “off script” on occasion and truly help customers. By using workforce management to provide agents with some flexibility to maintain better work-life balance, spend a little extra time with customers who need a more in-depth approach, and request time off when they need it, companies can provide agents a feeling that they’re in better control of their careers. Most employees will respond by working harder for their employees and going the extra mile for customers.
Modern workforce management can also be immense help to the newest generation of contact center agents, who are members of the so-called “millennial generation.” These are not workers who are going to mix very well with old-fashioned scheduling methods such as spreadsheets, according to Ciarlo.
“This is a natural generational occurrence happening at all types of businesses, including contact centers,” he wrote. “Millennials have grown up with technology and will know the difference on day one between WFM that makes them more efficient, and systems that fall short.”
Workforce management, like call center agents, shouldn’t be considered “cost centers.” These are the people who represent your company to your customers, and the software that enables them to be available when customers need it. Investing time, effort and money into your contact center workforce – and your workforce management solution – is the first step toward rebuilding a contact center on a strong foundation.
Edited by Stefania Viscusi
