How to Retain Call Center Employees

The call center services industry is notorious for having high turnover rates for live operators. Many times call center managers feel like they are constantly hiring and training new employees in order to replace the ones which have left. The key to retaining employees is keeping the call center staff motivated and interested in their jobs. Additionally, it is important to properly screen job applicants.

Skill Enhancement

A common reason employees quit a professional call center is lack of intellectual stimulation. In other words, employees become bored. One solution is to develop multiple skill sets of certain employees. Managers can do this by assigning multiple call center campaigns to employees who seem most interested. This will keep them from becoming bored of performing the same job function every day. This will also develop skill sets and work experience, which can help them their careers, therefore providing incentive and motivation. However, managers should not force this upon any employees. Some employees are perfectly satisfied with doing only one job function on a daily basis.

Promote Active Participation

Employees who are encouraged to actively participate in the management of the call center business will feel more empowered. When an employee feels insignificant and unimportant he or she may experience dissatisfaction. This increases the chances of attrition, therefore reducing efficiency. Call center managers can promote active participation and employee empowerment by asking the employees for suggestions on managing the call center business. Forming teams and creating contests, to reward effective work performance enhances interest and motivation.

Offer Promotion Opportunities

Employees are more motivated when there is an incentive to perform. Call center managers can offer is the possibility of being promoted within the company as an incentive. This provides employees a reason to continue their careers with the company and fosters a sense of ownership. If there are no promotion opportunities available, then employees will eventually begin to look elsewhere to further their careers. This causes high turnover and forces management to spend more time, money, and energy on hiring and training new employees.

Treat Employees Like Real People

Call center managers have an easier time retaining employees if they have empathy for employees' lives outside of work. The call center services industry refers to this as the employee's work-life balance. Employees have various personal obligations to family and friends outside of work, which may affect their performance at the workplace. Live operators working at a professional call center can be a stressful job. Therefore, call center representatives need time to recharge by enjoying free time in their personal lives. Managers should consider employee work-life balance when scheduling to ensure employees have enough time off in between shifts to rest. Management should consult with each employee to make sure they understand the employee's personal needs and to address any problems with his or her work-life balance.

Keep Things Fun and Positive

A fun and positive work environment helps retain employees and reduce attrition. Motivational games help to keep employees interested and increases productivity. Many call center businesses give away prizes to employees who perform well. Some call center managers will treat their employees to the occasional free lunch or party in order to build a sense of teamwork. Allowing employees to dress casually on specific days or perhaps even every day will also keep the work environment relaxed and free from stress. Permitting regular breaks helps relieve stress caused by answering the phone. These call center management techniques boost morale, while keeping the work place fun and positive.

What Types of Businesses Use Lead Generation Services?

Almost any type of business can utilize some form of lead generation. Whether hiring a contact center service provider for lead generation services is a viable option depends upon the type of business. If your business requires a large volume of sales calling, then hiring a lead generation service may be your best option.

Insurance Agencies

Insurance agencies generally have a wide target audience, which may include people from a variety of ages to various locales across the nation. With this much ground to cover, insurance agencies require a large volume of lead generation and sales calls. This makes insurance agencies a prime candidate for hiring a call center services provider to make the initial lead generation calls to potential clients. This allows insurance agents to concentrate mostly on closing sales, rather than sifting through huge lists of cold calls.

Educational Institutions

With the rise of private colleges, online universities, and specialized trade schools, comes the need to recruit new student enrollments. These types of schools do not receive government funding like traditional educational institutions. Therefore, they have to use more aggressive marketing and sales techniques to find enrollments. Brick-and-mortar private colleges and trade schools may want to focus on a localized target market. However, online universities have a much wider target market, which may include potential students from all over the nation. Both brick-and-mortar and online private universities may be able to use contact center solutions to generate leads.

Marketing and Advertising Industry

Companies involved in the marketing and advertising industry may also wish to consider contact center solutions to generate leads for new clients or sell more advertising. Generally these companies will concentrate on a list of small and mid-sized businesses. It may be difficult to contact the decision maker of a business, due to receptionists and secretaries screening phone calls. Many times it will be necessary to call a business on multiple occasions before actually being able to identify the business's decision maker. Marketing and advertising companies may save their sales team valuable time by hiring a professional to generate leads.

Real Estate Agents

Real estate professionals and agents have to generate two different kinds of leads: sellers and buyers of real estate. However, much of their time is allocated to preparing paperwork for existing clients and a variety of other administrative tasks. They also spend a significant amount of time showing houses to potential buyers at open house events. As a result, their time is limited for cold calling and producing new leads. Many real estate agents outsource cold calling and lead generation to professional s in order to save time. Real estate agents generally pay a fee for each lead generated or they may pay a flat rate for the number of calls made by the .

Mortgage Industry

The mortgage and loan industry operates similarly to real estate agents. Their sales process also involves calling upon the consumer sector in order to generate leads for people interested in obtaining a loan. Loan officers are also looking for homeowners who may want to refinance their existing mortgage. Although it is common for loan officers to make their own cold calls, some prefer to outsource to a service provider to generate leads. One common method which loan officers use is having the representatives live transfer warm leads directly to the loan officer. In this way, the loan officer is able to speak to the potential customer while he or she is still thinking about obtaining a mortgage or refinancing a home loan. Other times the will simply record the generated lead's contact information in order for the loan officer to follow up at a later time.

The most common reason a business may use a service provider for generating leads is to save time on cold calling. On the other hand, using a may not properly suit every type of business. Some businesses have more intricate sales processes and more complicated products or services. However, most businesses which involve searching for leads and closing sales may be able to find a use for outsourcing to services.