Contact centers are known for having high turnover and low morale, but it doesn’t have to be that way. If you manage your contact center efficiently and intelligently, you can keep your turnover low and your employees happy. Part of having a team of agents that works well and stays on the job is making sure you keep productivity high. Agents that have long periods of time between calls, or don’t work to resolve calls in a timely fashion, hurt the culture in your contact center. So take a look at some of the ways you can keep your employees productive and happy.

Competition
First, make sure this is a positive reinforcement—the agents who show the best practices and have the highest customer satisfaction get a bonus or extra time off. If you’re holding a contest, the prize has to be worth it. A gift card to a mediocre chain restaurant simply isn’t going to inspire any employee to improve their work.

Also, give your agents the means to see how they’re doing in comparison with other agents. Provide them with real-time metrics that show them the status of other agents, how many callers are in the queue, and the average waiting time. Agents that can see how they stack up to other employees will take action on their own to boost their performance.

Frequent Breaks
Agents are almost always battling stress working at a contact center. No matter how much technology and training you give them, they’re still constantly under pressure from the customer on the line. Allowing agents to take frequent, short breaks to relieve stress actually increases productivity in the long run. Knowing that they’re stuck in their chair for a set amount of time only encourages them to waste and draw out time until they can go on break. So give them more autonomy over when they use their breaks.

Information About The Caller
How do you cut down on the amount of time your agents are on the phone for each call? Give them all the information they need, instead of having them look it up for each individual caller. There’s plenty of call center software out there that can help integrate business tools and provide comprehensive information about each caller. The less time your agents have to spend gathering information, the better.

Schedule Smarter
You can’t always predict when you’re going to be getting the highest volume of calls, but there are ways to schedule your agents better. Use analytics to determine larger patterns that you may miss, and then go over this information with your agents and schedule accordingly. You’ll be surprised at what trends you discover when you gather all your data together and mine through it.

If your contact center could use some help with productivity, scheduling, or any other software needs, then contact KOVA today and find out how we can keep your contact center running smoothly.