When it comes to customer call centers in Toronto and around the world, many advertise their advanced services, cutting-edge technology, and professional training as their best assets. While these are all important, the truth is that the most fundamental part of customer service is actually the call center agent. Without a good agent, you cannot have good customer service. Call center agents are the face and voice of your company. It is their skill, professionalism, and attitude that your customers will encounter directly.
One of the best ways to ensure happy customers is by having happy call center agents. Research has shown that a call center agent’s perceived mood has a direct effect on how customers view service. When a call center agent seems happy, customers are more likely to be satisfied with their service and have a positive view of your company. The reverse is true too, with customers being more likely to be dissatisfied with service given by dour or unhappy agents, even if it’s the exact same service in every other respect.
Keeping call center agents happy is crucial to providing good customer service, but exactly what is the best way to brighten the mood of your agents? While many might believe it to be higher salaries or cushy benefit packages, call centers actually have found a variety of effective methods for keeping their agents happy.
Here are some of the top ways to keep agents happy in a customer retention call center in Toronto or your local city.
Ensure Training and Expertise
Being a customer service agent requires the same skills and training as any other job. However, many companies who hire their own agents don’t prepare them effectively or train them properly, which leads to agents who cannot handle the duties of their job. This leads to customer service agents becoming stressed out, frustrated, and short-fused, which is the attitude that greets customers. By training your agent, you can make sure that they have the skills and expertise to provide level-headed customer service. They will be more calm and happy, and so will your customers.
Provide the Right Tools
The easiest way to make an agent happy is to make his or her job easier. Call center agents want to be able to provide good customer service and do not want to deal with angry customers or unnecessary hurdles. Providing the tools and technology needed for effective customer service will increase the happiness of your agents. There is now a wide range of technology—such as tools which help prioritize customer calls—that can allow agents to interact with customers quickly and more effectively. As well, by providing customer service across multiple platforms (such as online chats, email, phone), agents can provide more efficient service.
Empower Your Agents
In the past, many call centers gave their agents scripts to follow with each customer. Not only is this tedious and boring for agents, but it ends up providing worse service that isn’t tailored to your customers’ needs. Now, many call centers have empowered their agents, letting them interact with customers more congenially and allowing them to infuse some of their own personality with the call center’s approach. Call center agents are much happier when they can make some decisions on their own, and customers end up receiving service that is suited to them.
As the leading provider of outsourced call center solutions, 3C Contact Services teaches its partners the necessary customer service skills needed to engage and retain customers. For more information, call us today at 1-888-353-2335.
