Contact centers use technology such as business texting to optimize processes and improve communication with customers. However, business texting technology can also increase employee engagement and reduce attrition rates. A high turnover affects the quality of the customer service and ultimately leads to a decrease in ROI.
In this post, we’re going to walk you through the major reasons for contact center employee turnover and tell you about three benefits of using texting technology to keep your staff engaged and improve productivity.
Top Reasons for Contact Center Employee Turnover
The contact center industry is growing as more companies rely on them to communicate with their customers. Businesses use contact centers for sales, customer support, billing, and marketing.
Although the industry is growing, so do contact center attrition rates. According to a 2019 study from Daily Pay, attrition rates average between 17% and 45%, depending on the contact center’s industry and size.
What Causes High Attrition Rates in Contact Centers?
Contact centers can be a stressful place to work. Fortunately, the right strategy can reduce stress levels and turnover rates. There are, however, a few other reasons for attrition in contact centers:
1. Inadequate training
The fast pace of a contact center sometimes means that new recruits may need to start working before being completely trained. However, not training new employees to deal with the different use cases and complex customer situations may lead to frustration. A recruit who is frustrated usually performs poorly and will look for a better place to work.
Good training directly impacts employee engagement because it stimulates employee confidence and motivates people to perform. Companies that invest in training their employees can reduce their attrition by 53%.
How do you identify this problem? If you see a higher turnover in new employees, that can be a sign that it is due to poor training. You can solve this problem by providing engaging and comprehensive training for new employees.
2. Employee fatigue
Many contact center employees experience burnout. Lack of support, high expectations from managers, and a high-pressure environment contribute to this situation. Burnout is one of the top causes of employee turnover in contact centers. Multitasking and unpredictable work cause stress and a lack of motivation. According to the American Psychological Association, these factors can reduce productivity by 40%.
How do you identify this problem? Unlike lack of training, burnout affects employees who have been in the organization for a long time. Therefore, if you see a higher turnover rate in long-term employees, it may be due to burnout. You can solve this problem by providing support, allowing for flexible schedules, and promoting a positive work environment.
3. Lack of motivation and limited advancement opportunities
The longer you stay in an organization, the better development opportunities you may expect. Still, contact centers don’t typically offer formal career advancement paths. This can lead to demotivation, especially on top employees. A 2019 Achievers study found that 43% of employees planned to leave their jobs because of a lack of career development.
How do you identify this problem? When you are losing your top performers, chances are, they are looking for greener pastures. Your best employees are the most driven for career advancement, and if they don’t have good opportunities, they can leave. You can solve this problem by establishing a defined career path with a feedback process and clear expectations.
4. Outdated tools
Ineffective software can lead to employee stress, low productivity, and poor performance. For instance, manual dialing or relying exclusively on phone calls may be frustrating for staff and lead to poor conversions. Employees who are aggravated by unsuitable software may turn to other opportunities.
How do you identify this problem? When you see your turnover rates increasing, it’s worth investigating whether one reason is inadequate technology. The right software can make workers’ lives easier and increase productivity.
Advantages of Using Texting Technology in Contact Centers
Adding text messaging to your contact center toolbox can improve your customer service and streamline operations. It reduces on-hold time, provides faster service, and enhances the customer experience. Users prefer to deal with companies that offer text messaging as an alternative.
According to an eWeek study, customers prefer text chat to call when dealing with customer service. (Image Source)
However, there is an added benefit of using business texting: it reduces employee turnover. Here are three reasons.
1. Reduces burnout
Contact centers tend to be teeming with activity and noise when relying solely on phone communication. As mentioned above, multitasking and a high-stress environment can lead to burnout. Business texting provides a fast and cost-effective way for employees to reduce stress by reducing noise volume. Agents can text from the computer—or even on the go, using an intuitive user interface.
How can the right business texting software help reduce stress levels for contact center employees?
- It takes care of customers’ issues faster: a quick message can often solve an issue more quickly than a lengthy and draining conversation.
- It allows the agents to multitask without stress: agents can carry on multiple conversations at once.
2. Simplifies tasks
There are many ways a company can integrate text messaging into its processes. Texting can be used to automate repetitive and time-consuming tasks. Autoresponder texts can take care of follow-up calls, on-hold messages, and auto-replies for frequently asked questions. Texting makes the agent’s work more manageable by reducing average handle time and helping to avoid miscommunication.
3. Increases efficiency
Texting helps your agents to handle more cases without reducing customer service. An agent can see the entire messaging history with a customer and request and receive documents and images within the text feed. Having everything on the same thread helps the agent to have context, respond efficiently, and avoid customer frustration.
Textel’s business texting software allows contact center staff to get messages from different channels (landlines and toll-free numbers, messenger, and SMS) all in one inbox.
How Textel Helps Contact Centers Improve Their Productivity
Texting is a preferred method of communication today for most customers. In fact, 98% of text messages get opened. Textel is a cloud business texting platform specifically designed for contact centers. The solution enables omnichannel communication, having two-way text conversations with your customers, or sending a text message to multiple customers at once.
You can learn more about how Textel can improve your contact center productivity by contacting us.