How to Inspire Agents for Success

Inspiring employees is key to driving success in any organisation, and contact centres are no exception.

Motivated and engaged agents deliver better customer experiences, handle challenges more effectively, and contribute to overall business growth.

Creating a supportive environment where agents feel valued, recognised, and encouraged to improve is essential for fostering high performance.

To find out more, we asked Risa Eldridge, Senior Director, Product Management, CallMiner, to outline the ways managers can inspire their employees to improve their performance.

Video: How to Inspire Agents to Improve Their Performance

Watch the video below to hear Risa explain how managers can inspire agents to improve their performance:

With thanks to Risa Eldridge, Senior Director, Product Management, CallMiner, for contributing to this video.

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Five Ways to Inspire Contact Centre Agents to Improve Their Performance

We have put together 5 practical steps to help manager inspire and motivate their contact centre agents:

1. Offer Fair Compensation

Ensure agents are paid fairly for their work. Feeling valued starts with receiving fair compensation, which sets the foundation for motivation and commitment.

“So you inspire contact centre agents, honestly the same way that you inspire most employees. Start by paying them a fair wage for the work that that they’re doing.”

2. Show Agents the Impact of Their Work

Help agents understand how their performance contributes to the success of the business and the satisfaction of customers. When agents see the bigger picture, it fosters a sense of purpose and pride in their work.

“Really show them how their performance helps the business or the customer. I think people naturally, they want to do good work.”

3. Provide Recognition and Micro-Coaching

Recognising achievements and strengths is key. Celebrate what agents are doing well and balance this with micro-coaching opportunities to identify small, actionable areas for improvement.

“They want to be helpful. So recognize them for the things that they do well and then use, you know, micro-coaching opportunities to help them really see the small things that they can do that can have impacts. Be consistent, have fun with it.”

Highlighting both strengths and opportunities helps agents feel supported rather than criticised.

4. Make Work Engaging and Fun

Introduce friendly competitions between agents or teams to drive engagement and performance.

Fun activities can make performance improvement feel less like a chore and more like a collective goal.

“So little competitions between the various agents or teams is always a good way to try to improve performance as a whole.”

5. Focus on Strengths and Growth

Balance constructive feedback with praise for what’s going well. When agents see their strengths acknowledged alongside areas for development, they’re more likely to embrace the process of improvement.

“And then again, I think the key part on that is we focus a lot on trying to do better. Make sure that you also highlight the things that folks are doing well, and when they feel like they’re not a complete failure, if you will, that everything that they’re doing is not wrong.

They can see that there are some things that are going well and there’s these few areas that that they might need to work on. I think it’s a lot easier to get behind the work necessary to improve those things.”

By implementing these strategies, managers can create a supportive and motivating environment that inspires agents to perform at their best.

If you are looking for more great insights from the experts, check out these videos next:

Author: Risa Eldridge
Reviewed by: Robyn Coppell

Published On: 26th Sep 2023 - Last modified: 29th Apr 2025
Read more about - Video, Agent Performance, CallMiner, Leadership, Risa Eldridge, Videos