Workforce Management Featured Article
The Benefits of Growing a Positive Call Center Culture
Why do some contact centers seem to do so well, and others don’t, even if they’re both following similar best practices? The answer may be in the call center culture. A positive call center culture often carries success on its wings, whereas a negative culture leads to backstabbing, gossip, low morale, and high turnover. It’s up to call center managers to set the tone for the contact center’s culture.
It’s an oft-cited statistic, but it bears repeating: a study done in 2011 found that 70 percent of Americans say they’re willing to spend more with a business they felt provided superior customer service over their competitors. If anything, that number has likely gone up in the last nine years: customers expect more today, and they expect it quickly and efficiently. They have choices and they know how to use them. This means that a positive call center culture is not only a benefit to the health and well-being of employees, it’s good for the bottom line. Experienced, happy and engaged workers simply do better work.
What is a Workplace Culture?
Simply put, a workplace culture is a reflection of your contact center’s character and personality. It’s about your organization’s values, customs, viewpoints, actions and attitudes. Left on its own, a workplace culture will develop organically, but it won’t always develop into a positive atmosphere. If workers are harried, bored, stressed or they feel they’re not getting adequate support, the culture will quickly turn sour, and so too will customer experiences.
How Can I Steer the Call Center Culture to the Positive?
There are a few ways managers can help create a more positive workplace culture. These include:
Recognizing employees. No one wants to do a job day in and day out without recognition. Be sure you’re paying close attention to what employees do right (instead of exclusively what they’re doing wrong). Publicly recognize these feats – even the small ones – to provide employees with regular ego bumps.
Spend a Little on Employees. If you can afford to, put some real value behind the recognition: a gift certificate, a better parking space or first pick of vacation and holidays can help. Your workforce management software solution can help with this if it allows you to set parameters for prioritization of which employees can pick time off first.
Allow employees some autonomy. Are you allowing agents to use some of their own initiative to solve problems, or are they strictly structured in their activities? There is evidence that allowing agents to make some of their own judgement calls when it comes to helping customers, engagement will rise. Also allow workers to feel a little control over their own jobs by implementing an automated schedule swapping solution that will give them a little flexibility.
Give workers room to grow. One of the biggest complaints with call center jobs is that they are dead ends. It will be hard to grow a positive call center culture if workers feel they’ve been sidelined to fail. Ensure that you discuss a path to success – and the steps to achieve it – with all workers on a regular basis.
Edited by Maurice Nagle
