The Pros and Cons of Working in a Call Center Environment

Call Center | 5 minute read

No matter where someone’s working, there will always be positive points and pain points. Though they vary from person to person, there are a few universal pros and cons to working in a contact center environment that all agents tend to agree on.

Link to free guide with quotes from industry influencers discussing the state of the contact center.

 

The best way for call center managers to combat the cons is to identify what they are and what they can do to help your agents work through them.

The pros of working in a call center environment.

It’s important to celebrate the great aspects of contact center life before we dig into the not-so-great ones. Knowing what agents can gain from working in a call center can help you to better motivate them and also ensure you hire employees best suited for the job. Just a few of the many pros include:

Honing transferrable skills.

From developing excellent communication skills to practicing problem-solving, call center agents leave their job every day having worked on a variety of proficiencies that can help them excel in other areas of life.

Impressive compensation, benefits and overall earning potential.

Call center work often comes with excellent perks including paid holidays, set annual salaries, extensive benefits, paid time off, and desirable working hours. Earning commission is also a possibility for agents who work in sales positions. Plus, there is plenty of potential for promotions and raises throughout an agent’s career.

The option to work from home.

Flexible and remote work options are a big selling point of contact center work. Remote work offers better work-life-balance for employees who would’ve otherwise had to spend hours commuting to an office.

TIP:

Add these pros and any others you can think of into job descriptions when hiring new agents. It’s a great way to catch the eye of potential call center employees who will be more likely to stay long-term.

Common cons of working at a call center.

It’s not enough to simply identify the daily struggles agents face. To ensure agents are set up for success, it’s important to have solutions in place that can help boost employee satisfaction and give agents somewhere to turn if they’re stressed.

Here are some common issues that come with working in a call center environment and how to help agents overcome them.

Link to free guide with quotes from industry influencers discussing the state of the contact center.

Agent burnout.

Call centers can be great places to work, but they certainly aren’t for the faint of heart. On top of being a fast-paced environment, agents know that their performance activity is monitored throughout the day. Add in a few irate customer interactions, and it quickly becomes clear why burnout is one of the most common challenges for call centers.

SOLUTION: There are a few ways to stop burnout in its tracks. The first is to equip your contact center with technology that takes some pressure off your team. Tools like Voice Call-Backs and Scheduled Call-Backs help to smooth out call spikes and prevent long lineups in your queues, so agents feel less pressure to rush through calls.

Second, book bi-weekly or monthly one-on-one meetings with your agents and encourage them to discuss any recent high-pressure interactions they’ve handled. Regular check-ins will help them to feel supported and give you the chance to work on conflict resolution together.

High turnover rates.

Call centers are notorious for high turnover rates, which has a huge negative impact on agent engagement. According to a study conducted by DailyPay, large-sized call centers experience an average turnover of 44%. This is extremely costly, not just for your bottom line, but for your call center service quality.

SOLUTION: Focus on hiring the right call center employees to try to keep turn-over at a minimum. Start by writing down the needs of your call center and the experience and personality types that best suit your situation. Then, ensure your job descriptions are specific and targeted to the types of candidates you’d like to hire.

Promoting from within can lead to improved agent retention, as it demonstrates to agents that there is room to grow within the company. If an agent is excelling, try promoting them, offering a raise, or providing training and knowledge advancement tools to keep them motivated.

TIP:

According to a study conducted by DailyPay, large-sized call centers experience an average turnover of 44%.

Repetitive tasks and demotivation.

Even the perfect call center employee will eventually tire of performing the same monotonous tasks on the daily. It’s unreasonable to expect your staff to remain engaged in their work if they lose their motivation – or worse, begin to hate their job.

SOLUTION: Answering the same types of calls for hours and hours may cause call center employees to check out, which can negatively impact customer satisfaction scores. To keep employees interested and committed to their work, develop an employee engagement strategy:

  • Recognize employee success by offering bonuses or rewards when milestones or goals are achieved.
  • Share valuable data and statics with staff so everyone’s on the same page and has something to work toward.
  • Provide employees with the opportunity to contribute to training, hiring or other call center work that isn’t directly tied to their day to day role.
  • Create, distribute, and act upon employee satisfaction surveys to show your team that the company is invested in their overall happiness and success.

When cons come into focus, always show your support.

We can’t stress enough how important it is for call center managers to be hands-on when it comes to supporting agents through rough patches. Showing empathy toward an agent’s struggle and offering them support when they most need it is the best way to build employee trust and ensure your call center is functioning in a healthy and productive way.

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Link to free guide with quotes from industry influencers discussing the state of the contact center.

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