Contact Center Convictions

Thanks for all the feedback on the at-home blog.  Several of you posted online and I received a lot of email directly. 

I have been thinking about call center agents, or more accurately- I have been worrying about them.  I recently came across this list of the most common criticisms of call center staff:

• Restrictive working practices and repetitive job tasks
• High stress: common issue with front-end jobs where employees deal directly with customers
• Low compensation (pay and bonuses)
• Poor working conditions (e.g. poor facilities, poor maintenance and cleaning, cramped working conditions, management interference, lack of privacy and noisy)
• Close scrutiny by management
• Rude and abusive customers

Many of us can sympathize with items on this list.  As I thought back to the call centers I’ve been in that struggle with these issues, I contrasted it with the experience of at-home agents.  Call centers with an at-home workforce have told me before that their agents are happier.  I sent an email to a few of them to confirm … and the response was a strong YES.  One call center even quoted my previous blog and said, “we found at-home agents are happier and more productive”.

We all like to see people be happy.  By employing at-home agents we can feel a sense of satisfaction that they are happier working from home.  But, why should companies care if their call center employees are happy?

There are a bunch of reasons, but let us consider just the following one for now.  I’ve read several articles over the last year claiming that customer satisfaction is directly proportionate to agent satisfaction.  They claim that centers with happy agents have happy customers – and they back up the claim with data and evidence.

Now, we know there is more to customer satisfaction than simply putting agents at home.  But, I would like to propose that it is a giant step in the right direction.