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7 Reasons Why Call Center Agents Quit and How to Avoid Them

No industry is perfect. At some point, your employees may let go of their current position and decide to pursue other interests. While this is a regular occurrence, it also means that you must continuously train recruits to maintain your company standards. 

The call center industry naturally experiences high turnover rates among call center agents since around 74% of the workforce is at risk of burnout due to several factors. Some common examples include a terrible work environment, poor pay, lack of employee training, and poor management, among many more. 
This article explains why call centers in the Philippines are losing agents and what you can do to keep them happy. Use the infographic below as your quick guide.

Why Are Call Centers Always Hiring?

Many call center agents often quit due to several factors they may have experienced. While this is normal in any industry, call centers share the unfortunate reality of having high turnover rates. When too many employees leave a call center, the business has to constantly look for recruits to fill in the gaps and ensure that the company can still handle numerous calls while managing other tasks.

Here are some common reasons why and what you can do to mitigate this undeniable circumstance.

  1. Burnout

An overworked team = poor performance. Burnt-out agents are more disengaged and more likely to quit. To prevent this, encourage your agents to take breaks or use their vacation days for rest.

  1. Issues in team management

Agents need to have confidence in their seniors. Start creating ways to make standard processes more organized. Doing this will help everyone work towards a common goal and succeed. 

  1. Lack of career development

Many agents often feel like they’re stuck in an industry that has no clear growth opportunities. But by providing targets for them, they strive to work hard and gain more ownership over their professional paths. 

  1. Stressful working environment

Being overworked or expected to work tedious hours generates stress among call center agents. To handle this situation better, encourage private workspaces, build regular break times throughout the day, and provide flexible work policies. 

  1. No work-life balance

Agents with no work-life balance may often feel that they must sacrifice their personal goals to meet work criteria. Instead of wasting your workers’ time, set boundaries and encourage them to practice good time management skills. 

  1. Lackluster pay

Being underpaid is a common problem among agents that want to quit. One way of getting around this while remaining fair to others is by providing performance-based bonuses and pay increases. 

  1. Lack of sufficient training 

Agents needing more experience and training may feel overwhelmed with their workload and decide to quit. Conduct regular training programs to ensure that your agents’ capabilities are adequate.

Effects of Call Center Agents Quitting

Whenever an agent quits, your company faces significant shifts. It affects your overall productivity, your reputation, and management. Here are some of the effects you may face with high turnover rates. 

  1. Impact on vendor pricing 

When your company loses employees, you’re forced to spend more on recruitment programs and salary improvements. To maintain profits, you’ll have no choice but to increase your prices.

  1. Undertrained agents 

Undertrained workers are more likely to deliver poorly. They may also feel undervalued in their role, leading to long-term dissatisfaction which may disturb other team members’ flow and hinder the team’s overall progress. 

  1. Inconsistent customer experience 

Customers who experience inconsistency in your service are less likely to become loyal patrons. When you lose customers, you miss out on making sales. It also shows that your agents aren’t committed to the company’s goals. 

  1. Longer resolution times 

When experienced agents leave, you’re left with junior members who may still need to become familiar with the workflow. As a result, troubleshooting will take longer, causing impatience and disappointment in customers. 

  1. A decline in empathy 

Call center agents who consistently experience stress and poor management eventually lose interest in their positions. They become less empathetic when providing customer service, which definitely increases the number of customers who are unhappy with your business.

  1. Reduced credibility in the market 

Without a good team to handle your operations, you risk losing your customer’s belief in your company’s capabilities and losing business to your competitors. 

  1. Increased reliance on automation 

More customers will need to deal with automated processes and responses while recruits are being trained. Heavy reliance on these tools makes the customer experience less personable and memorable. 

Call Center Burnout: How to Prevent Agents from Quitting

Increased turnover rates are troublesome for your company. To keep this factor in check, you must find incentives that will motivate agents to stay. Here are some tips to keep your workers happy. 

  1. Focus on stress reduction

Overworked employees are more likely to leave their positions. To help reduce this occurrence, help your agents find ways to relieve stress. You may also adjust their workload to make it more balanced for the whole team. 

  1. Conduct mentoring programs

If an agent needs to improve in a particular area, mentoring programs help guide them toward improvement. At the same time, you’re also setting a measurable standard they can strive for. 

  1. Offer incentives

Benefits and other incentives help motivate your agents to stay with your company longer. You may also produce loyal workers who can lead and train new recruits. 

  1. Create team-building programs 

Team building exercises help each department understand one another and their needs. It encourages teamwork and allows everyone to work cohesively towards common goals. 

  1. Encourage a healthy work environment 

While call centers are known to be stressful, you must take a few measurements to ensure agents are happy. Some examples include providing flexible work hours and building a no-tolerance policy on workplace harassment and discrimination. 

  1. Create opportunities for career development 

Help your agents reach their professional goals by providing career growth opportunities. It can be anything from promotions to training programs. 

  1. Provide the right tools

When you provide the right tools needed for the job, your agents perform their tasks more efficiently and accurately. This saves you time and money in the long run, as you can use it to solve queries faster and improve customer service experiences.

Leading Your Call Center Team to Success

Call centers experience one of the world’s most significant turnover rates. While each agent leaves for different reasons, it causes many problems for these businesses. As a result, you must look for various solutions to maintain your employee count. 

At Executive Boutique Call Center, we ensure that both your customers and your employees get a consistently high-quality experience. Achieve success sustainably—partner with us today! 

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A Guide to Discovery Calls: How to Successfully Close a Deal

EBCC INFO13 banner discovery calls

When in business, nothing feels better than successfully closing a deal after a long call. But more often than not, doing this can be challenging for many entrepreneurs. Between negotiating, finding common ground, and figuring out fair compensation, everyone has their own style of handling these experiences. 

If you face many challenges in closing your deals during a call, you might be doing something wrong. Learn more about how you can turn your situation around by becoming an expert in discovery calls through the infographic below. 

EBCC info13 infographic A Guide to Discovery Calls: How to Successfully Close a Deal

What Are Discovery Calls? 

After you connect with a prospect, your first call will be considered the discovery call. During this time, you can ask your potential customer a few questions to get to know them and their needs      concerning your product or service. 

For example, a potential client may contact you about your service. To ensure that your brand matches their needs and goals, you’ll need to know more details about what they expect from you and if they can get the desired results. 

A Guide to Discovery Calls: How to Successfully Close a Deal 

1. Uncover your prospect’s problems

To ensure that you give your customer the best service, talk more in-depth about the issues they’re facing. It can include the cause of the problem, how often it reoccurs, and their main concerns. 

2. Ask the right questions

Focus on the current issue and avoid stretching the conversation to other topics. The right questions will always revolve around the center of the problem or make their way towards it. 

3. Stay conversational 

Keeping the tone conversational can help your customers feel more relaxed and answer better. Rather than pressuring them to leak information, make them feel they can trust you with the information they give you. 

4. Maintain the ideal talk-to-listen ratio

Getting interrupted constantly can ruin the flow of the conversation and make your clients feel like they can’t fully express themselves. It can cause them to hold out on valuable details of their problem, which can be harder to solve. 

5. Subtly add a small value 

Suggesting small recommendations to your clients can give them simple ways of remedying the issue. It can be helpful to them while being careful not to overwhelm them with multiple options. 

6. Repeat a few important factors

Reiterating key phrases from the conversation helps make your client feel they’re being paid attention to. These phrases should be major contributors to the idea discussed. 

7. Always clarify your understanding 

Assumptions won’t lead you anywhere. Rather than ending the conversation after your client explains their end, keep asking questions to get a full idea of the situation. 

8. Use assumptive selling tactics

After a great conversation with your client, create further exchanges as if they’re already buying your offer. The key is to be assertive enough to convince them, yet not too pushy that it can lead them away.

9. Provide a synopsis

Summaries help both parties fully realize if you’re on the same page or not. Give a quick rundown of each major factor in your discussion, from the cause and known issues to the proposed solutions.

How to Set the Stage during Discovery Calls?     

Before the Call:

  • Research about the company

Get to know your prospect’s business in every aspect imaginable. Take a deeper look into their values and goals and see how their problems affect those checkpoints. It’ll help you better understand their needs and provide a solution to meet them. 

  • Have solid product knowledge

Before you can help anyone else, you need to establish yourself as an expert in what you do. It starts with understanding the ins and outs of your products to see if they can be a compatible solution for your clients. 

  • Prepare discovery call questions

Always have your questions ready before you initiate a call with your prospects. It’ll give you enough time to determine if your queries are suitable for the client or not. 

  • Qualify the prospect

Since your resources are limited, they won’t always be compatible with your clients. To ensure that you can effectively help them with their issues, you must determine if they qualify for your services. 

  • Set a time and date convenient for both parties

Find out when it’s convenient for both parties to have a lengthy conversation about your client’s issues. It’ll give you enough time to prepare as you establish a goal and agenda. 

During the Call:

  • Ask more about the company

You’ll clearly understand your client’s goals and values by getting them to elaborate more about what they do. It’ll help you get to know both the business and the client, which is essential for establishing a good relationship

  • Know who you’re talking to

Understanding someone is easier when you have a one-on-one conversation. Ask about the client’s position in the company and what they do. While you can always do your research, you can unlock more details when you lead the discussion.

  • Ask about the problems encountered by the company

Discuss the concerns in detail and why it’s an issue for your client. It can help you empathize and better understand the problem.

  • Know what solutions they’ve tried

Being given the same advice repeatedly can be tedious and frustrating. Avoid making your clients go through this and ask for solutions they’ve already tried before you suggest new ones.

  • Move the deal forward

Once all the final details have been established, encourage your client to move the deal forward and check if everything is acceptable. It’ll help prevent major revisions to the plan and save both parties more time. 

Qualifying vs. Disqualifying Questions during Discovery Calls     

Qualifying and disqualifying questions both have a purpose during the discovery call. 

Qualifying questions help uncover the needs and challenges of your client, telling you which of your products can apply to the situation most. Asking these questions is also necessary since it’s the first part of the sales qualification process. 

Here are some examples of qualifying questions:

  • What are your goals?
  • What are the problems you’re trying to solve?
  • What’s the source of these problems?
  • What’s your priority today?
  • How do you envision a successful outcome?
  • What’s keeping you from addressing these problems?

While qualifying questions help you understand your client and their needs, disqualifying questions eliminate other factors that may not be as important. These usually consist of deadlines, budgets, limitations, and many more details. 

Here are some examples of disqualifying questions:

  • What are the roadblocks to implementing the plan?
  • Whose budget does the funding come from?
  • What’s your timeline for implementation?
  • What’s the approximate budget?
  • Is the budget provider an “exclusive sponsor”?
  • Are you flexible with other solutions?

Nail the Landing: Tips and Reminders on Closing a Deal

As a business owner, the goal is to help your clients get what they need according to the set expectations. But sometimes, doing this can be easier said than done, especially when you don’t know how to properly close a deal with a difficult caller. 

Approaching every prospect should be done with caution and careful consideration. Learn how      to polish your discovery call approach with the right call center outsourcing service. Reach out to Executive Boutique Call Center to learn more today.

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