How to Turn Agents into Brand Promoters

Paul Stitt looks at how you can make sure that your agents build your brand rather than damage it.

Step One – Hire the best and make them want to stay

Start by hiring the right candidates. Hire for attitude, coach for skill. Put in place a solid reward programme that recognises excellence.

Offer shifts that deliver great work-life-balance. For example, flexible shift patterns that respect childcare or college arrangements is one way of retaining staff and boosting morale.

Don’t make the mistake of assuming that everyone wants to work 9-5 Monday to Friday. Some people actually relish the shifts that other people hate, e.g. evenings and weekends.

Step Two – Improve first contact resolution

Numerous studies have revealed that first contact resolution (FCR) is directly linked to customer satisfaction and therefore to the customer’s perception of the agent. For example, one study concluded that 12% of customers leave if it takes more than 2 calls to address their issue.

Improving FCR is easy to say but not so easy to do. It could mean updating your call-routing technology; it could mean process re-engineering; it might require IT upgrades; and it will almost certainly involve training and cross-skilling of agents so that fewer hand-offs are required to address customer demands.

Step Three – Education, education, education

Personal development is intrinsically motivational. The skills gained by top call centre agents open doors to many career opportunities.

If we train our agents to fulfil their potential, the inevitable consequence will be better customer service – and a better reputation for the agents and the brand.

Traditionally, call centre education has meant taking agents off the phones to attend classroom training. Today, web-based e-learning enables agents to learn best practice at their own pace and during quiet periods when they might otherwise be unproductive.

Good e-learning will have a comprehensive curriculum and offer mastery tests which may be taken at the end of each module, so that agents – and their supervisors – can monitor progress.

Step Four – Happy agents = happy customers

Numerous studies have concluded that businesses with positive, motivated and engaged employees end up with happy customers who enjoy interacting with the firm – and ultimately buy more products and services.

How can we make the agents in our call centres happier? Job satisfaction isn’t just about salary and promotion. We know what agents don’t like: They hate being burned out, swamped with calls as a result of understaffing. The answer is not just to hire more people.

It’s about creating shifts that put the right number of agents in their seats at the right time, so you have people on duty when you need them – and not when you don’t. It is a mathematical fact that if you staff up for average demand, then for 50% of the time you will be understaffed.

Step Five – Adopt just one of the good practices referred to in this article

To quote the ancient Chinese philosopher Lau-Tzu, the longest journey begins with a single step.

By adopting just one of the good practices referred to in this article, we are taking a step towards an industry where people really want to work and which attracts the best talent.

With thanks to Paul Stitt at injixo