The call center is one industry in the world that experiences a high employee turnover. And its agent attrition rate remains one of the highest in the world. When an agent leaves their job, a company has to spend 33% of the cost of his annual salary to hire a new agent.  

Unfortunately, this trend is only rising with the passage of time.

So, there is a need to understand the cause of agent attrition and prevent it from happening in your call center.

In this post, we will look at the reasons for agent turnover and strategies to reduce this trend in your company so you can save money and spend it on other effective practices.

So, let’s get started.

Reasons for High Employee Turnover in Call Centers

Call centers experience high employee turnover due to a number of reasons. These agents are made to think that there is absolutely no growth in the call center industry. The environment is usually quite stressful with high burnout and inflexible work hours.

Moreover, there is lack of training in most call center facilities which makes the job even more difficult than it already is. Not to mention having to deal with abusive and disgruntled customers that never seem to be satisfied with an agent’s efforts to solve their problems.

As a result of all these reasons, employees are seen walking out the door quite often. Unfortunately, managers do not see this as something alarming or worrisome as they are used to this kind of culture.   

Well, it does sound like hell, doesn’t it?

What is even more alarming is the fact that agent turnover is becoming an even bigger challenge with the passage of time. The ever-growing “gig economy” is only one of the factors that have made the call centers’ competition even more fierce and impossible to catch up with.

Tactics to Reduce Agent Turnover

One of the first steps to counter this mounting issue is to optimize your recruiting efforts when hiring call center agents. There is a need to look beyond standard job qualifications for this type of job because you’re not just filling up a seat but looking for someone who actually possesses the right attitude and the right personality for the role.

It is also a good idea to list down growth opportunities when hiring talent for your call center. This helps boost their confidence and makes them stick to their job in hope of getting promoted to a manager’s level after achieving certain milestones.

Training also plays an important role in reducing agent attrition in a call center facility. When there is adequate and effective training, agents have a sense of security in their job. They also start enjoying the process and take on challenges with more zest and motivation.

Since agents are your frontline fighters when it comes to customer retention and increasing sales, you should promote an open communication culture in your organization. Your agents should be able to communicate with the managers and give valuable suggestions to improve the overall setup and make the environment more conducive to success.

Performance monitoring, agent valuation, showing appreciation, and rewards and benefits are also some of the measures that can help reduce your agent turnover rate.       

Impact of High Agent Turnover on Vendor Pricing

More and more companies are now moving away from developing in-house call centers to using BPO vendors that offer reliable and experienced call center services.

While the economics of outsourcing are pretty simple, agent turnover is one factor that may make vendors rethink their contract rates. And since these rates are already on the rise because call center activities becoming more complex with the passage of time, it’s becoming something of concern for call center vendors.

If the vendor agrees to below-market pricing, expect your return on investment to suffer as a result because employee turnover will be inevitable in such a situation. However, vendors can also look at the above-mentioned strategies to reduce their agent attrition rate and be able to offer competitive pricing to their clients.  

Wrapping Up

A high agent turnover rate is damaging to not just an in-house call center but also to BPO companies offering call center services. As a result of agent attrition, a company has to spend thousands of dollars again on advertising, recruiting, and training and the vicious circle goes on.

The need of the hour is to find out the root cause of why this happens and then take effective measures to prevent it or at least reduce the attrition rate to some extent. From having a positive environment that is conducive to growth to empowering your agents to improve their skills and achieve success, we have discussed some of the best strategies that can help overcome the issue of agent attrition in your organization.   

Finally, you can consider nearshore and offshore outsourcing as a viable option to combat agent attrition issues in your in-house call center.