When you’re talking about the ROI in the context of a contact center, typically the discussion will almost exclusively center around customer satisfaction. While this measurement is important, there is a potentially larger and more fundamental cost pool that is generally ignored.
How satisfied your agents are with their job.
Their satisfaction matters because of its direct relationship with turnover, attitude and performance. In fact, research from Call Me! IQ reports that large call centers experience an average annual attrition of 49 percent – almost half the call center staff turns over every year.
Those numbers may sound like great news for HR departments and recruiters, but they represent an enormous and unnecessary drain to the contact center. Couple that with a variety of reports that suggest the total cost of exit/rehire/train is as much as 20 to 40 percent of salary – just in tangible costs – and we can understand the impact to ROI.
What’s more, agent job dissatisfaction manifests itself before an employee quits in a lack of interest in their jobs, as well as a lack of concern for your customers. And though that kind of discontent can be hard to quantify, there’s no doubt this agitated mindset can significantly undermine the quality of care your customers are receiving.
So why are your agents unhappy? And what can you do about it?
It is these frustrated customers that create costs rarely tracked, but massively punitive. Here’s how:
In short, improve your agents’ job satisfaction to reduce turnover and associated costs, and increase their attitude and performance. Concurrently, create a more personalized and responsive IVR to drive up customer satisfaction and loyalty while you’re at it.
It isn’t hard, and doesn’t need to be expensive – you just need to ask an expert.