In a world where customer experience is key to business success, contact centre agents exist on the front lines of customer service. These professionals serve as ambassadors for your business, helping to improve your reputation and develop lucrative relationships with clients. Unfortunately, the demanding and often overwhelming rhythm of the contact centre environment can mean that agents are often exposed to issues of stress and burnout.
A study by SMF discovered that happy employees can be up to 20% more productive than their unhappy peers, and satisfaction in the workplace starts with great engagement. Here are just a few ways that your company can enhance contact centre engagement and potentially make your brand more successful.
1. Start with the right company culture
An effective plan for contact centre workforce management begins with implementing the right atmosphere in your business. Culture refers to the way that people feel when they’re working with you, and your aim should be to ensure that your agents feel happy, supported, and empowered in their roles.
To support contact centre engagement through company culture, start by evaluating your existing situation. [inlinetweet prefix=”” tweeter=”” suffix=””]Do your staff feel comfortable speaking up about their concerns? Do you recognise valuable workers for their input and provide clear expectations on what you want each professional to achieve?[/inlinetweet]
2. Invest in technology that supports engagement
Many of the best employee engagement ideas you’ll find today all centre around having the right technology and resources in place to empower your staff. After all, it’s no good having a company culture that celebrates honest and open communication if you don’t have a collaboration tool available that allows your workers to connect with each other when they need help.
Determine what kind of tech your team will need to help them work more efficiently, and make sure that everyone in your business has access to the same resources. After all, it’s important that you’re engaging remote employees as well as your on-site talent.
3. Offer new, productive ways of working
One of the main reasons that companies struggle with contact centre engagement is that they try to stick to the same tried-and-tested processes, even as the marketplace continues to change and evolve. Today’s workplace isn’t the same as it was ten or twenty years ago. If you want to enjoy the benefits of performance management and access a truly engaged team, then you need to explore all the benefits of today’s advanced technology.
Collaboration tools can give team members new ways to communicate that go beyond the time-consuming and inconvenient options of emails and phone calls. Additionally, by launching your collaboration services in the cloud, you can ensure that everyone in your team is equipped with the right tools and information, even when you start to introduce remote working concepts and flexible schedules into the mix.
4. Implement intuitive and friendly technology
Contact centre workforce management often begins with ensuring that your employees are prepared to give their best work. The only way that they can do this is if they have the best tools to facilitate more productivity and efficiency in the contact centre.
An engaged team is a productive team. The more confident, empowered, and supported your staff members feel, the happier they'll be in their role. Click To Tweet
Investing in friendly contact centre technology is a great way to engage your employees because it can help them feel more capable of doing their jobs. What’s more, investing in the right technology can also mean that your happy agents deliver more satisfied customers through omnichannel connections, quicker problem resolution, and more. The right technology can supplement your unique workflow, adapting to support the processes and tools your team already uses.
5. Try gamification
Finally, gamification has emerged as a popular solution for contact centre engagement. After all, nothing motivates a person quite like the promise of recognition and reward for a job well done. With gamification strategies, you can implement leaderboards and scoreboards where contact centre agents can compete to win prizes.
Just make sure that you don’t make the workplace too competitive. The best employee engagement ideas focus on making your staff feel happier and more fulfilled at work; the last thing you want is for your agents to be questioning their skills.
An engaged team is a productive team. The more confident, empowered, and supported your staff members feel, the happier they’ll be in their role. With gamification, the right technology and a carefully-cultivated company culture, you can transform your employees from a group of dispersed professionals into a cohesive army of experts.
Learn more about how contact centre technology can create a better experience for customers and agentsLearn more
Originally published Apr 24, 2018, updated Jan 17, 2023
