Employee morale is extremely important, especially in a call center environment. Call center agents are under a lot of pressure from the customers and company to deliver service that’s fast and accurate. In order to avoid call center agent turnover and keep providing service that leads to high satisfaction levels, managers need to ensure their agents are as happy to be at work as possible. In his recent article, Robert C. Johnson discusses how showing call center agents praise towards call center agents when they excel at customer interactions can boost morale and provide benefits to the company and customers. Johnson’s article provides the following six tips to giving recognition to call center agents.
1) Instead of putting only one person in charge of running the recognition program and risk praising the wrong people, make a team that monitors agent activity and provides awards according to performance.
2) If an agent is loyal to a company and stays with them for many years, they deserve recognition. However, Johnson points out that a recognition program shouldn’t use tenure as a critical determining factor to recognition. New employees are capable of exceeding goals and expectations and should be show recognition even if they haven’t been around as long as others.
3) If recognition isn’t frequent and only shown once in a blue moon, it’s less likely to be a successful program. Johnson recommends showing praise in smaller amounts more frequently rather than in large amounts and rarely.
4) Recognition and praise don’t need to come in the form of money all the time (though bonuses and gift cards should be in the mix now and then). Johnson says that little things can go a long way, from emails to simple compliments and one on one conversation.
5) Gamification has been very popular in call centers, but Johnson says to avoid it if possible because it can be manipulated and skewed by favoritism.
6) Utilize communication software that allows agents to motivate each other and bond. Sometimes the best praise a person can get is from their peers; so making the environment open with easy communication can lead to great things.
Happy call center agents mean happy customers. There are many things that contribute to employee morale; including financial compensation and an environment that welcomes employee feedback to their opinions are heard. Call center incentives and recognizing efforts when agents are not only meeting customer expectations, and also exceeding them, is also extremely critical in creating a successful call center.
This blog post is based on an article from Business2Community. To read the original article, please click the link below:
How to Create a Customer Service Employee Recognition Program – Robert C. Johnson
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