![[Ultimate Guide] How to Set Up a Call Center in 2022?](https://cdn.c-zentrix.com/blog-images/the-checklist-for-your-call-center-setup.jpeg)
Call Center, Omnichannel
[Ultimate Guide] How to Set Up a Call Center in 2022?
People have experienced a lot of uncertainty during the pandemic. Locked inside their rooms, employees had a lot of time to reflect upon their lives and their jobs. As many people lost their jobs, some excelled in their niche. However, once the normalcy was returning, many people realized they were better off their current jobs. This onset the Great Resignation 2021.
The problem doesn’t arise only from people not coming back to the office but arises when many are deliberately quitting. Many are going independent or joining a freelancing venture and working remotely. A Deloitte survey on the current labor shortage stated that 73% of industry leaders are facing operational disruption due to agent attrition.
One industry that is at great risk due to agent attrition is the contact center. Contact Centers are already blemished to be hectic work environments. And having a disruptive call center is dangerous for your reputation, revenue and prospects. It is very difficult to now retain or attract newer employees. The millennial and the Gen-Z labor force have a modernistic approach to work-life culture, as many tasks get automated or digitized these days. It would be wiser to accommodate these new schools of thought and take proper measures.
As times are changing, organizations are realizing how important it is to support their agents and ensure a healthy work/life balance. While some companies eradicated work from office completely, others adopted a hybrid model. Some are offering mental health packages whereas others are incentivizing the work. Despite all that, it is evident that the Great Resignation has had a tremendous impact on the contact centers. Now employers are curious about how to tackle such high attrition for CX agents. Well, let’s find out!
It is high time to realize that your employees required some agency flexibility in their workspace. This means you must consult your agents or employees and arrive at a decision in regards to work style, working hours, and such. One of the finest cities in the world, Dubai, adopted a 4.5 day work week, which increased productivity and boosted employee well-being. Let’s discuss what you must do to retain your employees.
Mental health is the biggest focus in every sphere now. It was often termed as a mid-life crisis and laughed off, but that is no longer the case. Employees are recognizing how burned out they are due to workforce shortage, lack of stability, stress, and more. This is the reason why many people are looking for remote options or switching to freelancing. Hence, here’s what you can do to reduce their workload.
- Automation: Automating routine tasks is a huge stress buster for contact center agents. Reduction in mundane tasks will definitely free them off these nitty-grittier and allows them to preserve their energies for more dynamic work.
- Encourage Self-Service: It would be beneficial for you and your employees if most customers are inclined towards self-service. Customers hate waiting for agents to receive the service. Leveraging this to promote self-service will improve their satisfaction while reducing your agent’s workload. Petty, small tasks like card renewal, due clearance or troubleshooting, can be performed by following FAQs or taking help from chatbots. In either case, the customer is happy without any agent interference.
Staying at home during the pandemic, made people realize how detached they were from their personal lives. An average working person wastes hours per day in preparation for coming to work and commuting to work. With the work-from-home module, agents saved up on their energy and their time to enjoy a balanced work-life. As offices are opening up, many employees are not willing to give this up and it is only natural.
On the other hand, many businesses have reported productivity loss with the long work from home model. Also, meeting up with your colleagues, doing a high five, or just a smile reinforces a stronger bond in the workplace which is completely missing in a work from home model.
Hence, conduct a survey and see what the majority wants. Despite that, switch to CCaaS model to run your operations. This will ensure that remote or not, your productivity is on and work is never hindered.
To generate happy customers, you need happy employees. I cannot emphasize enough on this point. Employee loyalty is essential as any other thing to generate revenue. Earlier employees feared losing their jobs and performed their tasks obediently. However, with so many options available, employees can choose to resign and join another. It will cost them nothing, whereas it will cost the company more to hire and train a new employee.
It is important to identify what is causing employee dissatisfaction in your organization. A transparent discussion can help you recognize the problem. To improve employee well-being, you can do the following:
Employee experience is a new focus area for an employee-centric organisation. It goes beyond employee satisfaction and benefits. How easy it is for an employee to get her issues resolved? How empowered are they to take the decision sans approval? Here is an interplay of technology like self-service bots and behavioural science. So, more the organisation cares of improving the employee experience/agent experience, the more the agents feel empowered and get charged up for the next day.
The ideal way of tackling agent attrition is by accepting modernistic values. Creating a sustainable workspace with AI-integration and cloud-support can alleviate most of the pain points that your agents face. To top that off with personalized adjustments with pay scale and benefits, will enhance their experience. Empowered agents do not shy away from their work, neither do they question their loyalty. Hence, for the coming years, one must focus on empowering their workforce to ensure reduced turnover.
