How to Improve Call Center Morale

Employee motivation, regardless of position, is a serious issue. A new Gallup report detailed the issues of employee disengagement throughout the United States. The study discovered less than 32 percent of workers were engaged in the month of April.

There are many misconceptions about working in call centers. Business 2 Community recently highlighted the negative perception of call centers, describing these professions as “bad” or “stressful.” While some of the stereotypes are true, call centers are not environments void of all color, enthusiasm or camaraderie. It’s also important to note that call center employees must tolerate and find resolutions for difficult customers.

For call center workers, disengagement is especially problematic, as it can lead to some concerning results. If customers are not receiving even adequate service, businesses will pay for it with a damaged reputation and loss of revenue if callers move on to other companies.

So how can companies improve their call centers to turn morale around and maximize productivity? There are a few methods that supervisors and managers can try to alleviate the mood, but it’s also possible to use the technology within the call center to help mitigate any and all possible blues. By using a call recording software, such as the Replay Call Recording solution from Trisys, managers can comb through recordings to discern just how to reinvigorate morale within the organization. Since it’s vital to improve the mood of call center environments, managers and supervisors should use all the tools in their arsenals to reach their goals.

Use the right tools

Organizations that want their call center employees to be productive and happy at their jobs should also have the necessary solutions in place. If something is challenging and confusing to use, personnel will struggle to improve.

Business 2 Community’s article indicates that leadership is essential. Managers should engage with staff members “on a human level” to sustain performance, as opposed to being “patronizing or condescending.”

One-on-one meetings will be most effective if the manager can come prepared with specific examples of how an employee interacts with customers and clients on the phone. The Replay Call Recording solution from Trisys provides the supervisor with the tools and examples necessary to make a change to a worker’s attitude. By forming a plan together and implementing the updates, the manager/worker duo can move forward into the future by monitoring the success of the arrangement using call recordings.

Revitalize employee training and development

Companies should also realize that the systems they offer can directly lead to productivity gains. Organizations leveraging solutions such as Tapit NOVA together with Replay Call Recording will be in a position to make strides to help employees perform better at their jobs, achieve smoother operations and drive revenue all through one solution.

Proper training is especially important in a call center environment. As an Envision blog noted, employee churn, even in efficient contact centers, continues to be an issue. Training new employees as fast as possible will reduce the amount of time and resources that are funneled into inexperienced agents. Getting everyone on the same level will ensure that the call center runs smoothly and that employees are satisfied with their own work. Workers who are hired to do a job and are never given the necessary training will likely struggle to perform at their highest levels. A lack of knowledge about subjects and processes can lead to frustration and, ultimately, disengagement.

And for the seasoned call center employee, his or her learning should not end simply because he or she has been there for a long time. MagneticNorth reported that offering courses that act as refreshers, not full-on information sessions, can help employees continue to feel valued instead of forgotten and unsupported.

Offer refresher courses to keep agent skills fresh.

How do call recording solutions play into all this? By reaching into real-life situations in the call log, rather than making up hypothetical ones, it’s easier to discern where training need to take place, who needs a refresher course and how often it should take place, noted Envision. For the initial training of the new recruits, it’s far more valuable to give them actual examples of what not to say and situations that require supervisor intervention than to cite fake situations.

Recognition and praise

All organizations, regardless of contact center status, should understand the importance of recognizing goal achievements. When there is a call center in play and call recording software is implemented throughout, it gives supervisors and managers the opportunity to measure specific employee metrics with actual and accurate data.

As Forbes contributor Victor Lipman asserted, providing employees in any field with regular and meaningful feedback is the sign of truly effective management. Of course, this feedback should be constructive and encouraging. Feedback presented in a negative manner may do more harm than good – it should always been seen as a road toward improvement, and it’s necessary to have guidance and assistance on that journey.

​Lipman continued by noting that positive achievements should be recognized soon after they are made, as there is very little meaning in praise that pertains to a moment that ocurred months before. Same goes with comments on performance, both positive and negative ones – positive actions should be praised publicly and poor performances should be addressed in a private one-on-one environment.

While Tapit NOVA reports data on call activity and can be turned into baseline metrics to measure performance, it can encourage a friendly competitive edge among team members. But together with Replay, well-organized and easy-to-access archived recordings also present great opportunities to pull aside low performers and let them know a mistake was made or share how they can achieve goals.

Morale for all

Having healthy morale in the office isn’t just good for the business, but it’s necessary for the employees to do their best work. It’s the duty of managers and supervisors to ensure that everyone’s spirits are high and motivation is running at full speed.

To accomplish this, call center management needs to ensure that the agents know that they are cared about and that there is a real investment in their personal success, rather than just the overall success of a department. By having the right tools in place, acknowledging achievements and working on problem areas together, agents are far more likely to be happy in their positions. Happy employees are more likely to stay and perform to the best of their abilities, which in turn is best for the company as a whole.

With Replay Call Recording from Trisys, it is possible to keep performances up to meet objectives and keep employees happy so they stick around, and that’s call for celebration.