Our Agent Voices blog posts are drawn from the results of research on over 5,000 agent surveys conducted in North America.
Contact center agents in North America provide mixed, but generally positive, feedback on their satisfaction with their jobs. The 5,180 respondents in our study furnished us with rich feedback on their feelings, though some results offer challenges for interpretation.
Specific findings from the surveys include the following:
- Most respondents enjoy their jobs and plan to be working for the same employer in two years’ time.
- A large majority of respondents would recommend their place of work to friends and family. This complemented the large majority who indicated they are proud to work for their employers.
- Supervisors are keys to happy contact centers. Supervisor style scored the highest of all categories in the survey. The more that supervisors are aligned with the interests and well-being of the agents, the better.
- The sense of belongingness is also ranked very high on the list of categories.
- Over 85% of respondents agreed, or strongly agreed, that customer service is the focus of their organization’s vision. Three out of four say this vision is clearly communicated and understood. Supporting this, almost 9 out of 10 said performance measurements used to focus on the customer are effective and meaningful.
- Initial training gets very high marks, but the grades decline precipitously from the nesting (transition) phase onward. Agents do not perceive high concern with their personal growth and career planning.
- Compensation scored better than the research team expected. Most agents perceive their compensation as being competitive with the local market.
- Leadership and Trust category was in the lower-middle tier of categories. Probably related to this, only 22% gave highest rating to the question on work atmosphere usually being “optimistic and positive”.
- Areas that presented mixed results include Resources & Technology, and Coaching
- Work schedules rank relatively low on the scale. Lower scores were also given to Recognition and Work Environment.
- Dead last of the categories was the respondents’ sense of being valued and appreciated.
Thus, while there are many encouraging points that can be drawn from this study, there are also important areas that should serve as foci of improvement for managers, industry-wide.
