Why agent development is the most underutilised opportunity in contact centres

Despite huge advancements in operational practices, the contact centre industry is still struggling with an age-old challenge – agent churn. ContactBabel recently reported that agent turnover is sitting at an average of 34%, placing a heavy burden on already stretched contact centre resources.

This issue not only affects operational efficiency but also places immense pressure on the remaining agents, leading to a continuous cycle of dissatisfaction and even more turnover. Is there a way to finally overcome the challenge of high agent churn?

In this article we share why focusing on agent development and training is essential to the success of contact centres and the dynamic technology that can support these initiatives.

What’s causing high levels of agent turnover?

A lack of well-rounded training programs

Most training and onboarding programs are focused solely on getting agents up to speed with procedural and regulatory information as quickly as possible so they can start taking calls.

This rush to get agents to the front line leaves little room for them to develop a deeper understanding of their role, their potential future at the company and how they can build customer service skills to deliver an exceptional experience.

The initial training can also lack depth in areas like problem-solving and emotional intelligence. Without a well-rounded training program, agents can feel unprepared and unsupported leading to job dissatisfaction right from the early days in their role. As they’re new to the company, they don’t have a sense of loyalty so there is a higher likelihood of them quickly looking for a new job.

Ongoing development opportunities are scarce

Once agents are taking calls, ongoing training tends to be reactive rather than proactive, addressing issues only as they arise rather than focusing on their personal continuous improvement and growth. This leaves agents feeling stagnant and unchallenged and is a point of stress for managers too.

One experienced line manager told us: ‘One of the worst parts of my role is having to cancel development time for my agents because of call volumes. It’s the one opportunity they have to focus on their own career advancement and having to take it away doesn’t feel good at all. One of the biggest reasons people leave us is because they don’t feel like we care about their development.’

Perceived lack of career progression

Agents often feel stuck in their role believing there’s nowhere to progress their career in the contact centre environment. Many believe they need to move to different departments or even leave the company to get ahead in their careers.

The manager role within contact centres is often perceived as too stressful and dissuades agents from wanting to achieve a promotion. The lack of engaging and enjoyable career paths means that contact centres are often losing their best people who could have been excellent additions to the management team.

Time pressure for managers

Line managers can feel overwhelmed with call monitoring and reporting responsibilities, leaving them little to no time to nurture their teams. This perceived lack of support, despite managers’ best intentions leads to agents feeling undervalued and unsupported in their roles.

The manager’s performance is typically judged on metrics like call volumes, average handling time, call resolution rates and schedule adherence, which means their focus has to be on performance monitoring rather than team development.

There’s often a high agent-to-manager ratio, which makes it even more challenging for managers to provide individual coaching and support. Managers may also feel like they lack the training and resources to effectively coach and develop their teams, which limits their ability to drive a supportive and development focused culture.

The role of an agent

The role of a contact centre agent is recognised and known for being a high-pressure job. Agents often have to deal with emotive calls, constantly changing priorities and procedures and are at the mercy of wider business changes. Agents are dealing with frustrated or upset callers and trying to resolve complex issues in real-time. The emotional toll of these interactions can be substantial, leading to job dissatisfaction and burnout.

Lack of recognition

Recognition in contact centres is often tied to hitting call targets rather than delivering exceptional service. This can lead to agents feeling unappreciated for their work and demotivated when they’re only judged on call metrics. Meeting targets is important, but it’s also just as vital to recognise the other facets to agents’ performance like their ability to communicate effectively, resolve complex issues and provide a positive customer experience.

Agents become commoditised

With the biggest high-performance indicators being focused on call metrics, agents can feel commoditised – perceived as just another number rather than a valued team member. Although it’s not intentional, it is a byproduct of the high-pressure environment and metrics-driven nature of the contact centre manager role.

Many agents feel like their unique skills and strengths are overlooked because of the one-size-fits-all approach to performance management and development. This can damage trust and engagement, making agents more likely to look for a role elsewhere where they believe they’ll feel more valued.

How can contact centres help agents feel more valued?

The common theme that runs through the challenges causing high agent churn is recognition and development. Here are some of the areas contact centres can focus on to start to turn the tide of high turnover.

Improve reward and recognition

Valuable recognition has to go beyond just meeting call targets and have to be inclusive so that all agents have equal opportunities to be recognised. Contact centres need to find ways to reward agents who deliver exceptional customer service and display positive soft skills like problem-solving and empathy.

Informal and spontaneous recognition can also have a powerful impact. Simple things like verbal praise, thank-you cards or public acknowledgments during team meetings can make agents feel valued and appreciated. Creating a culture of recognition where agents regularly receive positive feedback can deepen their sense of belonging and motivation.

Comprehensive training and development plans

Training and development plans need to include career and personal development elements, not just process and regulatory learning. Factors to include are:

Onboarding – Comprehensive onboarding that covers company values, product and service information, career paths, customer service skills and other soft-skills.

Continuous development – Regular development time that can incorporate both technical skills, soft skills and career advancement learning.

Career pathways – This should include regular reviews, goal-setting sessions, opportunities to job shadow and future leadership development.

Unsurprisingly, when most contact centre leaders think about improving reward and recognition or training and development, it feels like a challenge they don’t have the resource to deliver. But it becomes easy, quick and efficient when you have the right technology supporting the initiatives.

Having the right technology is crucial

AI-powered contact centre technology like agent guidance provides multiple benefits that also drive a culture of positive agent support and development:

Accelerated training and onboarding

Agent guidance streamlines the initial onboarding process, allowing more time for career and soft-skill development. Agents only need to be trained on the software and not the entire end-to-end process as it guides them to the next best action. This means more of their initial training time can be focused on more engaging development activities.

Processes are simplified

With agent assistance technology providing the necessary information at exactly the right time, agents can relax into the call and focus on the customer experience rather than remembering every process detail. This simplification can reduce pressure enabling agents to handle calls more confidently.

Performance insights

The analytics from dynamic AI-powered platforms provide managers with a deep insight into all of their agents’ performance in real-time. This enables them to equally evaluate all agents, identifying strengths and areas for improvement. These outputs can be used to create targeted and personalised coaching and development sessions. Rewarding and recognising agents becomes easier with the analytics from intelligent AI platforms meaning agents feel valued for their individual contribution.

Career progression opportunities that appeal to agents

With the agent guidance platform able to handle the majority of monitoring and reporting, managers can focus on more rewarding and enjoyable aspects of their roles like training and coaching. This has a knock-on effect of making the manager role more appealing for agents. They can see that there is an opportunity to progress into an enjoyable role and with more time focused on their career progression, they know how to get there.

Improved customer experience

Customers notice when agents are knowledgeable, confident and really listening. Agent guidance software enables them to handle complex customer interactions in a confident manner. With real-time guidance to the next best action, the need for managers to intervene or hover over agents while they take a difficult call is eliminated. They can spend their time supporting their teams in a more effective way while agent guidance takes care of the process.

Improve your agent development and reduce turnover with Awaken

At Awaken Intelligence we’re pioneers of innovative and flexible software to help you see the complete picture for your contact centre.

Get in touch to arrange a free demo and experience our intelligent agent guidance and analytics solutions for yourself so you can drive a culture where agents feel supported and valued in their development.