Focus on Employee Engagement

Fact: Engaged employ­ees pro­vide bet­ter cus­tomer ser­vice. Tap into your center’s great­est resource – the employ­ees – and reap the rewards! Engaged team mem­bers go above and beyond to solve cus­tomer issues and con­sis­tently pro­vide supe­rior cus­tomer experiences.

Engaged Employ­ees Take the Time to Build Rapport

Before you start to worry about your cen­ter met­rics, I sug­gest you take a moment to think about this sce­nario: A slight increase in average-handle-time results in a sig­nif­i­cant increase in first-call-resolution. Cus­tomer per­cep­tion is real­ity. Cus­tomers who have their issues resolved cor­rectly the first time are much hap­pier than cus­tomers who have a shorter call dura­tion but end up hav­ing to call back again. Encour­age agents to take the time to engage with cus­tomers. Agents who con­nect with cus­tomers are likely to receive more detailed and hon­est responses which expe­dites the res­o­lu­tion process.

Engaged Employ­ees Add Value to Prod­ucts and Services

Engaged employ­ees are excited about edu­cat­ing customers.

One word answers could be reduc­ing your rev­enues. Mil­lions of dol­lars are lost each year by sales and ser­vice peo­ple who “answer” ques­tions cor­rectly but not effec­tively, from a busi­ness stand­point. If you want to have a suc­cess­ful and prof­itable busi­ness, you need to have wel­com­ers on the front lines. Richard Shapiro – The Wel­comer Edge

No one can add value to your prod­uct or ser­vice bet­ter than front-line per­son­nel. Front-line employ­ees who posi­tion them­selves as experts and take the time to answer cus­tomer queries not only cor­rectly, but with details, ensures increased first-call-resolution since fully informed cus­tomer don’t need to call back. Engaged employ­ees nat­u­rally exert extra ini­tia­tive and use past expe­ri­ence and avail­able resources to pro­vide cus­tomers with the most com­pre­hen­sive solutions.

3 Easy Ways to Increase Employee Engagement

1. Say Thank You. Grat­i­tude starts with you. Show your staff that you value them by thank­ing them for a job well done. Employ­ees who have fre­quent pos­i­tive inter­ac­tions with man­age­ment feel a stronger con­nec­tion to the com­pany and are more likely to pro­vide con­sis­tent world-class cus­tomer service.
2. Acknowl­edge Achieve­ments. Employ­ees who are rec­og­nized for per­form­ing well are more likely to con­tinue the desir­able behav­ior and encour­age oth­ers to do the same.
3. Invest in Your Employ­ees. Invest­ing in com­mu­ni­ca­tions skills train­ing and prod­uct and ser­vice train­ing for your employ­ees demon­strates that you care not only for the suc­cess of the com­pany but also their per­sonal suc­cess. Agents who receive reg­u­lar train­ing and are prop­erly coached and men­tored by man­age­ment staff are more likely to stay long term. Invest­ing in employ­ees increases engage­ment and reduces employee turnover.

As a con­tact cen­ter man­ager you have a heavy work load. Tak­ing time to engage and empower your employ­ees will lessen the load and dra­mat­i­cally improve your met­rics. Con­tact cen­ters that increase their employee engage­ment lower over­head costs and increase agent per­for­mance. To learn more about how you can increase employee engage­ment today check out our call cen­ter coach­ing train­ing course Mak­ing It Happen™.

Are your employ­ees happy? Find out today! Down­load the Employee Sat­is­fac­tion Sur­vey and learn what you need do to cre­ate a team of engaged, pro­duc­tive, loyal employees.