The secrets to fostering a people-focused call center

Since January 2019, 3.5 million employees (about twice the population of Nebraska) have left their jobs voluntarily, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, costing companies millions of dollars. Employees of call centers are no exception. 

Call center attrition is a very real industry pain point. According to Quality Assurance and Training Connection, turnover in the call center industry averages between 30% and 45%. And when an agent leaves, so does their wealth of industry knowledge and institutional memory. Further, with each agent that leaves, business is left with the unrecoverable cost of acquiring and training a replacement. This is a massive cost when you consider the turnover figures listed above. 

Yes, hiring right is an important business investment, but it’s not the only investment business should prioritize. The missing piece in retention is culture.  

SHRM defines “culture” as the social operating system shaping organizational values, determining how people work and how they succeed within an organization. Workplace culture is dependent on the people establishing it; it is active and always changing. In 2019, SHRM published The High Cost of a Toxic Workplace Culture, revealing toxic workplace cultures had cost US employers $223 billion (about $690 per person in the United States) over the previous five years. 

In May and June 2021, SHRM surveyed hundreds of workers, gaining insight on workplace culture so organizations can analyze and leverage it. From the survey, 94% of managers agree that a positive workplace culture creates a resilient team of employees. And that’s nothing to ignore.  

With more than two decades of industry experience, Chris Halverson, vice president of servicing contact centers at Archwell Operations, reflects on three practices companies can use to improve their call center culture.   
 

Incorporate split shifts so people can be people.  

As with any job, most of the people working at call centers are looking to grow. “It’s an industry where you start at the bottom, but there is unlimited potential,” said Halverson. “I interviewed a woman yesterday in the Philippines who started the same month and the same year as me in the call center. She’s now interviewing to be a VP at Archwell.” She attributed her growth to the call center’s split shift model, which allowed her to care for her three children and grow her career.  

If call centers wish to remain relevant, customer service leaders must consider how the needs of the call center align with the needs of its workers. For this single, working mom, a nine-to-five structure wasn’t an option. The split shift model allowed her to break up her workday and take care of family and career while decreasing her chances of burnout and increasing happiness.  

Research shows that happier employees are more productive employees. A 2019 study by Oxford University’s Saïd Business School, in collaboration with British multinational telecom firm BT, found that happy employees are up to 13% more productive than those that are unhappy. The study emphasizes that when call center workers are happy, they make more calls and convert more calls to sales. The authors of the study also note that while the connections between happiness and productivity have been talked about endlessly, this is the first research of its kind that provides strong evidence for the relationship between the two. 

Halverson plans to incorporate split shifts into some clients’ workforce strategies to better accommodate students and families. It’s an “easy workforce trick we can use to help clients better retain their workforce,” he added. 

Build flexibility into your business continuity plan.   

Call centers don’t have to be drab warehouses of phones and desks. Halverson recalls building a call center in Tucson in 2019 that was anything but miserable. “[The call center] was on the 10th floor of a building. It had the best views ever of Tucson, and we built it out new. We paid $16 an hour, which in Tucson is about the 60th percentile of the market,” said Halverson. More than 400 people attended the recruiting event for the new call center. “It became a place where people wanted to work. Agents’ desks lined the windows so they could enjoy the views. People who started at the call center talked about those views for years,” added Halverson.  

But what if views aren’t an option in our pandemic world?  

Consider more flexible, work-from-home options, which due to the spread of the COVID pandemic will continue to be on the rise. In fact, in a recent survey of customer service leaders, Gartner found that nearly 75% indicated they expect their work-from-home programs to expand after the pandemic. Gartner also notes that customer service and support leaders who are looking to provide flexible call center environments should consider work-from-home options as part of any business continuity plan. 

Champion the human touch over exclusive use of IVR. 

Companies today want to add more technology, “but all the processes and technology in the world will make you mediocre if there’s not a knowledgeable and happy human delivering the customer experience,” said Halverson. The thing is that people remember when they’ve had a positive interaction with an associate from your business. The memory of that experience will prompt them to think better of your business and of your service. Remember, a great call center is made by the people on the other end of the phone. 

A survey by Clutch, a firm focused on B2B research, ratings, and reviews, found in a 2019 survey that 88% of people prefer speaking to a live customer service agent instead of navigating a phone menu. Additional survey findings include that after encountering a phone menu, 72% of people always or frequently ended up speaking to a human; and to bypass a phone menu and reach a human more efficiently, 70% of people have pressed zero, and 65% have said words such as “operator” or “agent.”  

Halverson recalled that in his “20+ years of working in call centers, I have never heard one customer tell me that they decided to stay as a customer due to the quality of IVR; however, I’ve had hundreds of customers who’ve opted to remain faithful due to the actions of one excellent agent.” 

Let’s face it: at the end of the day people want to talk to people, not to IVR. And the data proves this.  

Call centers have traditionally received a bad rap, and quite frankly, some of them deserve it. The good news is that call center operations are starting to recognize the impact of the call center culture on the customer journey and on agent retention and success.  

Halverson’s secrets to managing a successful call center come at just the right time as business begins to reconsider call center practices. Halverson made impressive strides by applying these best practices in the formation of Archwell’s Call Center Support services. And it paid off.   

After launching in January 2022, Halverson grew his small five-person Archwell Call Center team to more than fifty. In their first month on the phones, the Archwell team took over the #1 vendor position for quality and customer satisfaction. (Imagine what will happen as they gain some additional tenure!) Halverson continues to expand Archwell onshore and offshore call centers around the globe, including expanding into Latin America and the Philippines.  

Halverson’s insights are proof that business is finally talking about the power of positive work culture and its broader implications on companies’ bottom lines. And that’s a great start.