47 Ways to Motivate Your Agents

Our readers share their favourite tips and tricks for motivating contact centre agents.

1. Allow your agents to buy additional holidays

Our agents buy additional holidays through a governed scheme that our People Services department run.

They have a % deduction from their salaries via a reduced tax code to fund the purchase.

It’s capped at three days per year currently so we’re not inundated, but it’s a very popular scheme.

With thanks to Susanne

2. Have a theme every Friday

We pick a theme every Friday.

Agents are encouraged to dress up and decorate their pods. We also focus any games and competitions around that theme too.

With thanks to Marie

3. Host a table tennis night in your break-out room

A table tennis tournament is a great way to have a company gathering without the expense of leaving the office.

Just set up a scoreboard next to your table tennis tables – and get the competition started.

With thanks to one of Call Centre Helper’s readers

4. Have a food day to celebrate your over-achievers

We incentivise great performance by having a food day celebration when the team have exceeded their targets.

With thanks to Amelia

5. A “fun club” is great for getting everyone socialising outside of work

We have a team which organises fun events for the contact centre staff, from days out at Alton Towers to “bring your family to work” days.

To fund this, agents are asked to pay a subscription fee of £2 per month. The company then matches this.

With thanks to Suzanne

6. A “dish party” is a cheap and fun way to lighten the mood

One of the best – and cheapest – ways to liven up the contact centre is to arrange a “dish party” (where everyone is asked to bring in a dish of food).

It’s a great excuse to bring everyone together and boosts team spirit as everyone contributes.

With thanks to Karim

7. Set up board games in the break-out room

We have seen great success with putting board games – especially giant-sized editions – in the break-out room.

With thanks to Gary

8. Host a fantasy football league

Host a fantasy football league in line with any major football tournament.

Then give out replica trophies and footballs as prizes.

With thanks to Cecilia

9. Recognise your employees who aren’t on the front line

Make a special effort to reward your staff who aren’t on the front line.

We have a recognition scheme which rewards these people for going the extra mile – instead of making sales.

With thanks to Rachel

10. Offer an ‘early finish’ incentive

We offer an ‘early finish’ incentive to our top performers.

With thanks to Kate

11. Job swap so agents can coach their supervisors instead

One prize that always goes down well is “job swap” – where the agent and their supervisor swap roles for half an hour.

With thanks to Christine

12. A weight-loss club can be both fun and supportive

We once ran a club called ‘The Transformers’, where agents set personal goals to either quit smoking or lose weight.

Their progress was monitored and after 6 months we awarded prizes to the people with the best results.

With thanks to Karim

13. Award commission as a percentage of their salary

The overall contact centre target is split down into a ‘by hour’ target, which each agents gets according to the hours they work.

If they achieve, they get paid a percentage of their salary.

With thanks to Rachel

14. Give out prizes to your top 3 performers every month

We pick our 3 best performers every month and give the following prizes:

1st – half day off (paid)
2nd – £50 voucher
3rd – £30 voucher

With thanks to Marie

15. Ice cream and sweets are great for a quick win

We regularly give out ice cream and sweets to put a smile on our agents’ faces.

With thanks to Marie

16. A paid day off always goes down well

We give out paid days off in our contact centre, as prizes for great performance.

They go down well with everyone – without fail.

With thanks to Robby

17. Give out staff recognition awards

We run a staff recognition reward scheme which gives our agents a chance to top up their wages each month.

Every month the managers get together and nominate the 5 agents who they think most deserve it.

With thanks to Cleo

18. Randomly award spot prizes

We randomly reward spot prizes to our agents.

We have a budget of £50 each month to buy “spot prize” wine – and give it out when we see agents going above and beyond in their job role.

With thanks to Cleo

19. Take your team out for a night on the town to say thank you

We have a regular team night out to say thank you to our agents for all their hard work.

With thanks to Marie

20. Reward agents for their brilliant ideas and exceptional work

In our quarterly scheme, we have specific themed categories such as “Brilliant Idea”, “Above and Beyond” and “Exceptional Work”.

We find that running quarterly incentives helps us to stretch the budget a bit further and give out bigger rewards such as theatre and football match tickets.

With thanks to Gary

21. Any excuse to get the agents off the phones goes down well

I think anything which takes agents out of the office for a while helps with morale – even if it’s just a wander over to the nearby park.

It just takes some organising to make sure you still have staff to actually pick the calls up!

With thanks to Cleo

22. Give out drinks vouchers ahead of the Christmas party

We do a company-wide black tie Christmas party every year. This always goes down well.

We also hype it up by giving out “have a drink on us” vouchers in the lead-up to the big night.

With thanks to Susanne

23. Ask your team where they would like to go

To make sure that the team night out is something the agents will really enjoy, I always ask them where they want to go.

With thanks to Marie

24. Play music on your sales floor and let your agents DJ

We allow music on our sales floor.

Our team love to play the DJ and choose the music.

With thanks to Gary

25. Hand out small rewards often

We give small rewards to agents who have high productivity or customer praises.

We take a “little and often” approach.

With thanks to Cecilia

26. Take your agents to the local ice-skating rink

A great way to boost team spirit is to take your agents to your local ice-skating rink.

It is good fun and something everyone will be talking about in the weeks that follow – especially if you pin some pictures up around the office!

With thanks to Christine

27. Play ‘Wheel of Fortune’ on the sales floor

Having a ‘Wheel of Fortune’ on the sales floor – which agents get to spin for a prize when they make a sale – is a fun way to boost morale.

With thanks to Gary

28. Reward your best agents every week

Reward your “Agent of the Week” with a high street voucher.

With thanks to Gareth

29. Treat everyone to a breakfast to boost them for the day ahead

We regularly host a breakfast day, where we get breakfast for everyone in the morning. Everyone is so much happier after a fry-up!

We sometimes boost the incentive even further by having the management team serve up.

With thanks to Marie

30. Reward your agents with vouchers that can be spent anywhere

We buy shopping vouchers in bulk for a discounted price.

They make great rewards as people can spend them almost anywhere – even on a weekly food shop at their local supermarket!

With thanks to Kylie

31. Make sure all the incentives you run are visible and achievable

I have found that the key to properly motivating agents is ensuring that all incentives are visible and people know exactly how they can achieve them – otherwise they can be counterproductive.

With thanks to Gary

32. Host a pizza day

We had a pizza day a few weeks ago and everyone loved it!

With thanks to Cecilia

33. Give agents the option to leave early on a weekend shift

We have seen success with allowing our agents to leave early on their weekend shifts – once their personal targets have been met.

With thanks to Darren

34. Pitch your homeworkers against your office team

We regularly pitch our homeworking teams against our office teams to boost sales.

With thanks to Darren

35. Base management bonuses on your agents’ quality scores

We have seen success with basing management’s bonuses on the agents’ quality scores.

This encourages the management team to get more involved in boosting the mood of the office.

With thanks to Cleo

36. Personally treat your team to dinner

Along with general company incentives, I tend to organise a quarterly meal with my team.

This is paid for by myself rather than the company. I think that this shows true appreciation for their work and in turn increases productivity.

With thanks to Ben

37. Uncap your bonuses to encourage high performance

We don’t cap our bonuses, as we want to be able to properly reward our agents who over-achieve.

With thanks to Christine

38. Bring in home-baked goods for your agents to enjoy

I bake most weeks and bring the cakes in for my team.

This always boosts the mood on the floor – especially on a Friday.

With thanks to Cecilia

39. Give out monthly trophies to your most deserving agents

Each month all of our team managers are given trophies to award to their most deserving agents.

We find that they sit on the agents’ desks for months afterwards and are a great reminder of a job well done.

With thanks to Amelia

40. Get your managers to award champagne to the best agents

Every week our managers have a meeting and nominate someone on their team with great stats.

The overall winner is awarded a bottle of champagne by the management team – who all sing our “Agent of the Week” song as they hand it over.

The commotion puts a smile on everyone’s faces!

With thanks to Kylie

41. You can never go wrong with a “Most Sales of the Week” competition

You can’t go wrong with a good old-fashioned ‘Most Sales of the Week’ competition – whether you pitch team against team or agent against agent.

With thanks to Gareth

42. Issue “golden tickets” to people who turn up to work on time

We issue “golden tickets” every day to our agents who turn up on time.

These tickets can then be cashed in for prizes such as “extra break” or “first pick” of Christmas or summer holidays.

With thanks to Cleo

43. Offer quadruple time to people with good sickness records

Occasionally we run an incentive whereby people with good sickness records earn up to quadruple time on their shifts.

This is especially effective around bank holidays and Christmas.

With thanks to Ben

44. Take your agents to the races for team-building fun

I once took my staff out for a day at the races.

I gave each team £50 each to bet on the horses and asked them to present their winnings/losses at the end of the day. It was a great way to build teamwork and morale.

Funnily enough, our IT team won as they thought it would be safer to not place one bet at all!

With thanks to Gareth

45. Restrict updates to a condensed monthly email

Rather than bombard our agents with lots of emails and team-briefing sessions, we issue an email update to everyone once a month.

This keeps everyone in the know without dragging the mood down or confusing anyone.

With thanks to Gary

46. Take your team on a “think tank” outing

If you can accommodate it in your schedule, a “think tank” outing is a great way to get your team out of the office for an hour or two.

It can be a great way to brainstorm new ideas or find out how your agents are really coping with the new software/manager/office layout, as well as get some fresh air.

With thanks to Karim