Working in a call center gives you the opportunity to earn a starting salary more than anywhere else. Although it is a good start, yet working in a call center comes with stressful situations and challenges unique to this industry. Amidst these challenges, some employees have decided to stay due to certain circumstances and some have decided to quit their jobs. Below are the top four reasons why they chose to quit.
Salary (low salary / salary disputed).
One of the main reasons why operators quit is low pay. It is true that working in a call center implies a decent starting salary. But for a long time, due to the instability of the call center industry itself, salaries tend to stagnate and stop increasing altogether. As a result, the perception is that the salary is low or does not meet the expectations of the employees over time.
There are no opportunities for career advancement.
The employee’s goal is not only the salary, but also the possibility of his own professional career path growth. In the professional world, it is an unconditional requirement for companies to train their employees by giving them the career opportunities to participate in trainings, seminars, projects that will allow them to improve their professionalism. Unfortunately, some companies do not provide their employees with this opportunity and would rather pull everything they can out of their employees than organize their training and coaching. This selfish approach often leads to massive agent attrition as contact center agents don’t want to be in the shadow of someone all the time. Put yourself in the shoes of experienced agents, who always show high agent performance, service customer calls in accordance with service level, process all the most important call center operations, including also repetitive tasks and…they get no career opportunities. Isn’t this enough to justify existing turnover rates for call center employees?
Office politics.
Some companies rely on protectionism. As a result, there is an unhealthy and unprofessional atmosphere. Managers tend to indulge those who are personally closer to them by giving them perks and immediately approving their vacations. Such an environment poisons the team atmosphere and wastes energy and time. The best solution is to leave such a company immediately.
Health risks.
Among the reasons described above, this reason is likely to be the most important. When choosing a job, the first thing you should understand is what impact the job will have on your health. Working in a call center may make you want to die if you don’t take the necessary steps to protect yourself from negative factors. On the other hand, people who really don’t want to go through all that every single day (or night) drop everything and leave the company. This decision is in no way cowardice, but rather it is a health concern.
These reasons can be a fair warning to all aspiring call center operators, and emphasize that it is not easy to work in this industry. Along with this, employees have to overcome underlying hardships and sacrifices. Layoffs are not something to be frowned upon. Rather, these actions should be commended as they draw attention to the need to break the cycle of stagnation.
No reward system
In call center environment with its extreme stress levels, repetitive customer issues, high requirements to customer service and customer satisfaction standards, the thing that could have made call center agents happy and increase job satisfaction is fair praise and reward for their efforts. Agents often show poor performance due to no reason (from the first sight), and call center managers try to find the cause for agent churn and agent turnover – and they fail. Why? Well, agents as all other people have to be motivated, and motivated materially too. Agent turnover rate will decrease significantly as soon as you will implement fair reward system.
No transparency in communication
Another thing that destroys team morale and makes team fail to provide positive customer experiences is lack of communication between contact center managers and agents. Agent retention rates depend on how you can listen to agent needs and wishes, and what’s more important, how you can go for compromises and implement solutions agents ask for. This relates to regular training programs, salaries, agent scheduling, etc. If you only say what agents are supposed to do without constructive dialogue, there is no chance for employee retention.