Call centers are changing and the work in call centers is becoming more challenging
Customer service is shifting and so is the work in the contact center.
In the past, call centers were the first communication channel for consumers. That made work easier.
Today, with web help, chatbots and FAQs, users don’t call the call center unless they absolutely must. They make a call to the call center when these self-service options fail. The consequence of this shift is that easier inquiries are usually dealt with online, leaving the agents to face more complicated issues. Another obstacle for the agent is being ‘Plan B’, essentially meaning that Plan A has failed. Therefore, agents deal with customers that are frustrated that their first channel of choice has failed them. So, there is no surprise that agents aren’t happy and avoid taking customer calls.
As a result, turnover and absenteeism are two issues that call centers deal with all the time, losing the potential to create experts which both teach younger employees the tricks of the trade, and ensure continuous superior service.
Happy Agents=Happy Customers
We all know that when agents are happy in work, they talk about it, and they are more inclined to promote the brand and act as a recruiting arm. There is also a reduction in churn, since customers are happier with the service they get. This makes it economically worthwhile to invest into your agents.
Choose Gamification
The big question is how can you create a happy environment for your agents?
The old-school way to improve performance was to address supervisors and provide them with data to improve their work and insight so they can better manage the people that report to them. But, if the issue is disengaged agents, why not focus on the agent rather than the manager?
If we choose to focus on the agent, gamification is the clear choice.
Conventional wisdom is that gamification creates a competitive atmosphere driving overall better performance. However, this isn’t always true. Instead of attempting to improve everyone’s performance, let’s focus on the individual and let that person feel in control of their own performance. Someone in their first month shouldn’t be compared with the best agent, if they are, they would feel demoralized from an early stage and you would create the opposite effect. Most agents on the floor are in the middle-tier, therefore by motivating the bulk of your agents, there is a higher chance secure better results. Gamification addresses all types of learners through visual, analytical and verbal channels. By providing personalized learning and not segmenting, the ability to motivate is higher. Gamification is a game for one, like a fitbit for work.
Don’t forget other goals when thinking of a gamified program. Training and on-boarding employees is very important. Speed to proficiency is the goal for contact centers. The old model to enhance this goal was to teach agents quickly and get them out on the floor ASAP. The new model is expanding the goals and focusing on:
This gives a new understanding on how agents can become more proficient and achieve high performance.
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Prior to Centrical, Dalit worked at LivePerson and NICE creating digital transformation and customer engagement solutions. Her areas of expertise include complete product lifecycle management, translating market and customer requirements to draw a viable product roadmap, identifying champions, and then harnessing their enthusiasm to drive adoption of innovations.
Dalit Holds a Master’s degree in Chemical Engineering and Computer Science from the Technion Technological institute in Haifa.
Previously the Global Head of Marketing for SAP SuccessFactors, April was responsible for end-to-end marketing for SuccessFactors around the world. In this role, April led strategic marketing plans to grow global brand recognition, revenue, customer success and category creation of human experience management (HXM), which is focused on solution innovations that put the employee at the center of work. April also served as a Diversity and Inclusion Lead at SAP and led global thought leadership and strategic partnerships inspiring an inclusive culture, women’s equality, supplier diversity, and sustainable supply chains.
April has been honored by various organizations including CRN’s “Women of the Channel” and as a “Top 100 Ethnic Minority Executive” by EmPower. She holds a B.A. in Communications and Marketing from Simon Fraser University, Canada’s leading comprehensive university.
Ella holds a B.A in Psychology from the Hebrew University and MSc in Organizational Behavior from Recanati Business School at Tel Aviv University.
Previously, she held the role of Head of Product Experience and Communications for LivePerson, a leading Conversational AI platform, where she played crucial part in delivering significant product innovation and customer growth. Prior to her time at LivePerson, she held multiple senior product roles at NICE, a leading enterprise customer experience (CX) software provider, including Director of Product Portfolio and Director of Product Management.
Linat holds an MBA from Tel Aviv University and a BA in Computer Science from Reichman University (IDC Herzliya). She graduated magna cum laude from both institutions.
Prior to that he was CEO of Gilon-Synergy Business Insight, a national leader in Business Intelligence. In 2010, Gilon-Synergy was acquired by Ness Technologies (NASDAQ:NSTC) and Gal went on to serve as Senior VP at Ness, and was member of its executive management.
Prior to that he was VP customer relations and operations at Deloitte Consulting. He also worked at EDS and Bashan. He holds a MBA degree in Marketing and Information Technologies from the Tel Aviv University.
Jayme Smithers brings 25 years of leadership experience in enterprise software. He has been building and scaling high performance revenue teams in the worlds leading technology companies including Oracle, NetSuite, SAP, BusinessObjects, Crystal Decisions and most recently ThoughtExchange.
As the CRO at ThoughtExchange (a leader in Enterprise Discussion Management) he helped significantly scale their growth, led them into new markets, brought in key investment and helped them become the leader in community engagement across the Education sector.
At NetSuite, Jayme helped innovate, grow and scale key verticals as NetSuite become the standard Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) thanks to the introduction of new channels and a value centric approach to the sales process.
Prior to NetSuite, Jayme worked at SAP where he led various roles including global revenue channels, large enterprise and mid market teams. It was here at SAP where he built a strong partnership with our CMO April Crichlow where they focused on building world class teams with clear expectations, coaching and career development!
Outside of work, Jayme can typically be found with his family in the mountains sharing his love, passion and knowledge of nature and sport.
Jayme is actively coaching the Nancy Greene Ski league and competitive youth soccer.
Jayme holds a business degree from University of Denver where he competed in two varsity sports (soccer and alpine skiing) and he helped led the Alpine Ski team to back to back NCAA National Titles in 00 and 01.
Daphne has over 15 years of experience in Customer Relations and Retention in both B2B and B2C environments. Her area of expertise is leading customer success, consulting and global professional services teams within public and private sector companies. She is focused on leading teams to grow the partnership with our clients.
Prior to Centrical, Daphne worked software and service companies in the online marketing and gaming industry.
Daphne holds MA in Statistics – Specialization in Operations Research and a MBA degree, both from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Ariel has over 16 years’ experience in a wide variety of R&D leadership roles. He is highly experienced at building R&D teams from the ground up, driving high levels of accountability and ownership and setting up automation infrastructures. For the past 10 years Ariel has managed both in-house and offshore development teams at companies ranging from startups to enterprise organizations.
Prior to joining Centrical, Ariel served as VP of R&D at Worthy.com where his team dramatically improved product stability, quality and execution. Before that, he was VP R&D at Applicaster where he led infrastructure changes from project to product. Ariel has also held various R&D positions at Retalix (later acquired by NCR).
Ariel holds B.sc in Computer science & Math, and MBA degree in Information Technologies, both from Bar Ilan University
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