How to Improve Call Center Agent Performance? Why is It Important?

Call center agents are an essential part of a call center’s success. They become the face of an organization when being assigned the role of customer support representatives. They have to handle customer queries, complaints, requests, and more when they are on the phone with customers. Hence it is crucial for a call center’s success that the agents perform at their optimum. Speaking of which, we thought you could use some tips on how to improve your call center agent’s performance. That’s why we felt the need to write this blog post. So, ensure you read this exciting write-up till the end to get the most out of it. Bet you won’t Google ‘How to improve call center agent performance’ anymore.

Tips To Improve Call Center Agent Performance 

Here’s how you can work on improving the call center agent’s performance which is also essential for call center improvement.

1) Maintain Clear Communication With Your Agents

Communication is a two-way process. The call center agent must be able to communicate smoothly not only with customers but also with his colleagues and supervisors. It also plays a vital role in the agent’s training and education. Therefore, effective communication is undoubtedly one of the best ways to improve the call center agent’s performance. Hold on, as there are more tips to come, so keep reading.

2) Empower Your Agents to Make Decisions

You may be surprised to learn that many of the best call center managers do not tell their agents what to do. Instead, they empower them to make decisions on their own. Empowering your agents to decide as per their understanding of the circumstances will allow the client’s customers to receive tailored responses. It will also prevent the build-up of confusion and will avoid disputes. Ultimately lifting the overall call center efficiency!

These are some important things to keep in mind when empowering an agent:

• Don’t micro-manage; let them work as they see fit!
• Avoid interfering with an agent’s work by giving clear instructions or guidelines on how he should do things.
• The best approach would be to have a separate team for handling issues from the field. Hence, when something comes in, not one person deals with it.

3) Go for a Flexible Working Environment 

Let’s face it, being a customer support representative is not easy. You must sit by the phone for a big chunk of 24 hours and seven days a week. Maintaining such availability for the agent is sometimes very difficult to achieve. Because they have other chores to take care of as a human, commuting to the office may also be an issue for the agents as well. Therefore, when you allow them to work at their preferred time, they can put in more effort wholeheartedly. It will eventually boost their performance. 

4) Use Call Center Performance Metrics as KPIs

KPIs (key performance indicators) help you measure the success of your call center. It is essential to set the call center’s KPIs as they:

• Ensure that all employees are working toward common goals. Call center managers should regularly check whether their team members are meeting the KPIs, so they can take action if necessary. For example, if an employee is not hitting their sales quota by the end of each month, he might need more training or guidance from a supervisor to improve his performance.
• Benchmark other companies’ productivity measures against your own company’s standards (e.g., time spent on calls). 

5) Be Open to Agent Feedback

Listening to your agent is one of the best ways to improve their performance. Hearing them out tells about their likes and dislikes. You can then concentrate on what’s important for them. Simply ensure that you:

• Ask for feedback from your agents: This may seem obvious, but it’s actually one of the most important steps in improving the call center’s agent performance. Make sure you ask for feedback on how things are going at work and outside work. If there’s an issue with either one, make sure someone brings it up with management so they can fix it immediately!
• Act on any positive suggestions: If an employee suggests a positive change, such as taking breaks during their shift or giving out higher pay raises based on their performance level within the company, then take action immediately! Doing this will make them feel appreciated, leading them back to being motivated again when needed.

Take Away

This blog post was all about letting you know of some tips to improve your call center agent performance. The best you can do is to empower them to make decisions based on their knowledge and experience. Plus, allow them more ownership over their work, which will increase their motivation and engagement. Most importantly, listen to their feedback and maintain sound two-way communication channels. 

We hope you now have excellent information about how to improve call center agent performance. Furthermore, if we have skipped including something on improving call center agent performance or, in a nutshell, a call center performance improvement plan, feel free to comment or write to us at our official email address.