Five Tips to Overcome Your Contact Center Staffing Challenges

A steady stream of challenges confronts leadership teams at contact centers. 

Fortunately, these obstacles can be toppled, especially if you follow the five tips suggested below: 

Agents Should Only Speak to the Appropriate Customers 

Ensure that all calls are routed to relevant staff. This approach is specifically vital if you have a smaller number of agents. 

For some context, imagine a customer calls for a refund. In this instance, they should be speaking with support. Now comes the need to ensure the caller doesn’t go through multiple agents to reach the agent responsible for refunds. 

One option is call routing, which transfers the customer to the proper department (i.e., support). 

There’s also Interactive Voice Response (IVR), which automates the routing process as a receptionist would. 

Manage Holidays Efficiently 

For contact centers, holidays always present a steady stream of challenges that can negatively impact team morale. After all, people want to spend time with their families. 

All the same, you need your agents around since your phones don’t stop ringing just because it’s a holiday. 

How do you ensure your staff arrives on holidays ready to put their best foot forward? Here are two tips to consider: 

  •     Offer incentives such as work-from-home or remote work options.
  •     Consider using holiday routing, which strictly sends calls to available agents who can also be working from home.

Both of these suggestions are compromises, ensuring your agents spend time with their families while not missing any calls. 

Keep Your Team Motivated 

There are a few reasons a job at a contact center can seem like thankless work. 

First, agents solve similar - if not precisely the same - problems every day, call to call. With that comes the very real problem of boredom and a lack of stimulation. 

Provided nothing is being done to encourage engagement from your agents, they’ll not only lose motivation to perform, but they might stop coming into work. 

As far as solutions go, potential absenteeism can be overcome by offering work-from-home options. This perk cuts out the daily commute, which can wear on your talents’ psyche. 

Gamification is another way to motivate your team. It encourages healthy competition and improves team unity. And, overall, it makes things at your call center more fun. 

Abusive customers are another massive demotivator for your team. As a leader, it’s up to you to provide de-escalation training and general support to overcome any unpleasant interactions. 

Always Have Strategy in Mind 

Leadership teams set themselves up for failure at a contact center when they’re too focused on ensuring each phone is staffed by an agent. There’s so much more to the process. 

In fact, staffing your call center is equal parts art and science. These are dynamic environments where day-to-day activities (e.g., numbers of calls and difficulty of calls) change almost by the minute. 

The fact is, agents will call in sick. Some calls last longer than others. And there’s agent attrition and after-call work time. These are all issues you must consider before figuring out your hiring strategy. 

Partner with a Specialized Staffing Firm 

The leadership at your staffing firm might be responsible for staffing, but that’s likely not their only responsibility. 

Unfortunately, solving staffing issues can be a full-time job in and of itself. So, why not team up with a recruiting agency, such as Bear Staffing, specializing in contact center staffing?

This way, you’ll have someone who not only uses the most efficient hiring practices but also knows the ins and outs of your workplace operations. 

At Bear Staffing, we’ll ensure you have an enthusiastic, highly skilled team that’s ready to perform. Contact us today for your contact center staffing and high volume staffing needs. 

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