Much has been said about employee motivation, including detailed works that cover it in the context of business and psychology. Nevertheless, it cannot be said that this topic has exhausted itself – it is a rather difficult direction, which is constantly replenished with new “findings”. Of particular interest are new approaches in the field of motivation within a particular type of activity, as they are described in more detail and can be immediately put into practice. Let us consider what new things can be offered in the context of operator motivation – what new ways or nuances this direction includes, taking into account current trends.
What should be the motivation of modern call-center operators?
Modern methods of motivation are quite different from those that were practiced in the times of our grandparents, which is natural. Values, general trends and the very concept of “work” are changing. Many people do not just want to go to work for the sake of earning money, many people want to enjoy the process and be the best they can be. Focusing on this trend, it is worth paying attention to non-standard methods of motivating call center operators.
Schedule flexibility.
It is not uncommon for call centers to employ young mothers who need to work with a flexible schedule. In addition, sometimes to work in call centers are students of distance learning. And in general – everyone has their own urgent matters, which sometimes need to be solved during the working day. Flexible schedules will allow operators to solve their personal issues in their free time, instead of constantly taking time off work. This will have a positive impact on the work environment, as other employees will not have to fill in for absent operators who, for example, are sick more often than others, have to leave to take care of a child or are in a hurry to pass another exam. In addition, operators who are parents of schoolchildren must devote their time to their children in the run-up to the start of school and attend meetings on the first days of September. And, for example, operators who are soccer fans would like to keep their time during the next championship. So, it is possible to distribute work schedules according to the preferences of the employees – perhaps they will even agree to work for periods without days off to devote the next week to their business. For example, operators who need to collect children for school can swap shifts with soccer fans and so on. This way of motivating operators will help to solve not only the issue of a harmonious environment in the team, but also to increase the efficiency of work in general.
Encouraging the best workers by training newcomers.
In the best call centers in the United States, such a way of motivating operators as encouraging employees with certain experience by training newcomers to the service or operators with different experience is becoming more common recently. For example, one operator is the best at a certain task – active sales. But at the same time, he is worse at solving problems with incoming calls. So, one operator can be assigned the task of teaching another operator what he does masterfully. In turn, the inbound operators have something to tell the operators who work in the direction of active sales and so on. At the same time, it is worth getting rid of the labels “best operator” or “operator of the month” – all this will only divide the team, without actually giving any positive effect.
Career development opportunities.
It is very important to discuss with employees the possibility of their further professional development within one call center. This should be done in such a way that the operator is motivated already at the early stages of his work. Seeing the potential of this or that employee, the call center management has every opportunity to understand what professional development and career can determine the operator’s future fate within the call center. At the same time, such motivation of an operator will work if he is notified about it in advance. Thus, he will understand what is worth striving for, which always disposes him to realize his professional potential with the greatest efficiency.
Incentivizing employees through bonuses.
Many modern call centers encourage operators for the best work with various bonuses – tickets to the cinema, a pack of coffee, chocolates and so on. Pomimo this, it is worth considering the option of motivating operators at the expense of “20-minute off” – that is, a specialist who has performed his work on “excellent” according to certain criteria, can leave his workplace 20 minutes earlier. In this way, all operators will have equal opportunities to leave work earlier.
Customer appreciation.
Very often we see how the work of operators or managers is written about on various online platforms. Customers write both positive reviews and negative ones. Nevertheless, if the resolution of negative situations in the call center is given a lot of attention, then gratitude, as a rule, is something “taken for granted”. That being said, call center management could record them, bottom line, using them as part of operator motivation. Call center employees who work with people all day long would be very pleased with such words of gratitude.
Call of the Month.
It’s important enough that call centers have their own schemes for dealing with problem situations. Nevertheless, there are really difficult calls that require real creativity and iron stamina from operators. So, after a month, the management of the call center together with supervisors can choose from the total number of such calls the most exemplary – that is, those in which the operator worked really virtuoso. Having solved a client’s problem, such an operator has set an example for others, which should be reported at the end of each month. Such motivation of operators will be useful in several directions at once, including for improving the quality of call center work in general.
Fighting fatigue.
We all know that in call centers very often work young people, whose life is quite full of various events, which often interferes with night sleep and collectedness in general. Thus, the management of the call center is faced with the task of instantly improving performance, which is very well promoted by a 5-minute warm-up or a variant of “work on the tables”, which is used in some American call centers. It consists in the fact that during the day operators work one hour of their working time standing on their desks. This allows operators to get back to being active, and to work more efficiently. Nevertheless, operators, as a rule, still need to enter information into the system, so this option of motivating operators will not be suitable for all call centers or will require additional technical capabilities. It should be taken into account that operators with medical contraindications should be exempted from this. Such non-standard ways of motivation allow you to improve the work of the operator staff, stimulating each employee to do their job more effectively. For more effective application of each of them, it is worth using at least two or three methods in parallel.