Latest Contact Center Best Practices

Costing roughly $5,800 annually, employee acquisition and development is one of the more expensive and time-consuming line items on any company balance sheet. As it relates specifically to the call center space, an industry that has long been associated with extremely high employee turnover rates and low employee engagement, many managers have increasingly sought to mitigate the impact of low employee retention by enhancing the quality of their training programs. And with just a moderate 2% increase in employee productivity generally covering the entire cost of any training initiative, it’s hard to argue against the investment.

Topics: contact center software, call center software, best business practices, virtual assist, agent productivity, agent retention, agent training, agent turnover, business intelligence, gamification, employee turnover, employee engagement, agent attrition, agent coaching

Agent retention has long been a challenge for contact centers.  With annual turnover rates averaging 35% across all call centers, 50% in larger call centers, and 60% in those performing outbound dialing campaigns, the issue is hard to ignore.  Factor in additional agent turnover costs, ranging anywhere between 60-200% of an employee’s salary, and the issue becomes downright painful.   

Not convinced?  Consider a 1,000-seat contact center with a 60% employee turnover rate spends approximately $2.4MM in turnover costs.  Factor in the additional affect on employee morale, the ongoing loss in intellectual property, and the long-term affect on customer service and the cost significantly grows beyond the immediate operational expenses. Regardless of if you are just getting started or represent a large enterprise, agent retention is nothing to ignore. 

Topics: customer service, call center, contact center, employee retention, first call resolution, virtual assist, employee recognition, call routing, kpis, workforce flexibility, agent retention, agent training, database management integrations, agent turnover, scripting solutions, at-home agents

According to Oracle, businesses following a multichannel customer care strategy achieve more than double (9.7 vs. 3.9%) year-over-year improvements in customer satisfaction, as opposed to those using only a single channel. While voice has always been the dominant mode of communication, with 98% utilization amongst businesses and the channel with the highest client satisfaction ratings across all generations, alternative means of communication are playing an increasingly important role within the customer service space.

Topics: customer service, call center, crm integration, multichannel contact center, multichannel call center, email, contact center, social media, voice, chat, text, virtual assist