Agents believe their organizations remain focused on CSat, BUT...

Santa Barbara, CA – 76.64% of surveyed agents believe that their respective organizations are focused on Customer Satisfaction according to BenchmarkPortal's 2020 Agent Voices Report. The survey reports that 45.66% of the respondents "strongly agree" to the ...
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Agent Satisfiers

The surveys taken by the respondents included two open-ended questions:
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Agent Satisfaction by Region - USA

Our research showed some interesting results when surveys were broken down by geographical region. The following information is for the U.S. only:
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Agent Satisfaction and Center Size

There has been much speculation but little hard data regarding the relative merits of large centers vs. smaller centers. Our research offers a window into the impact of center size on agent satisfaction, which is important given the attendant impact of agent ...
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Agent Satisfaction and Commute

While most managers do not consider commuting distance in their recruiting and hiring decisions, the following data challenges this norm.
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Satisfaction: Full-Time vs. Part-Time Agents

The over 5000 agents surveyed for our study broke down as follows between Full-time and Part-time:
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The Impact of Tenure On Satisfaction

Parsing out agent satisfaction by tenure provides some interesting results:
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Agents and Team Leads

Agents participating in this survey N = 4,683 (90.4%) Leads participating in this survey N = 497 (9.6%) The role of “Lead” or “Team Lead” varies from center to center. In general, however, the Lead is a senior agent who supports newer agents, handles ...
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Innovation and Involvement

The skills of ‘taking initiative and taking ownership’ are being evaluated on more performance reviews these days at all levels of responsibility. Some organizations nurture these skills and harness the results more than others. Agents, like all employees, ...
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Value/Appreciation

This area is of obvious importance to agent satisfaction. Agents tend to stay and be satisfied where they feel valued and appreciated.
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Communication

Communication is the grease that makes things happen smoothly in contact centers. It is also an area in which there is often the greatest variance between management and agent perceptions. Managers sometimes feel they are doing a good job of communicating to ...
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Direct Supervisor/Manager Style

Research shows that the relationship between a contact center agent and his or her supervisor is a crucial component of agent satisfaction. Fostering good working relationships at the team level is one of management’s most important functions.
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Recognition

Contact center professionals are, in general, people who feed off of the approval of others, both external (customers) and internal (managers and colleagues). Superiors who understand this dynamic and who act on it help foster positive feelings and superior ...
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Voice of the Customer

Listening to the voice of the customer is not just a cliché - - it is a key for measuring performance and for determining areas requiring improvement. Successful centers usually have open channels and open minds when it comes to gathering information, both ...
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Customer Focus

Agents exist to satisfy the needs of customers. Most agents feel this keenly and appreciate working for a company that is structured to support the goal of superior customer service.
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Coaching

Superior coaching is a key differentiator for contact centers. Content, delivery and follow up are all important to a great coaching program. Technology and training that facilitate the coaching function make sure that the participants have the information ...
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Quality Processes

Quality is key to customer satisfaction and loyalty. It is important that agents perceive a true commitment to quality on the part of their organizations, and that they feel the processes aimed at guaranteeing quality are working properly.
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Expectations and Compensation

As every lawyer knows, the three elements of a contract are “offer”, “acceptance” and “consideration” (compensation). A clear, common understanding of what the offer entails is key, and a reasonable level of mutual satisfaction with the compensation is ...
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Resources and Technology

Properly selected and trained agents require the support of good technology to allow them success with customers. Proper IVR and routing capabilities, good Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems, well-chosen and continuously maintained Knowledge ...
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Training and Promotions

Job initiation and career prospects are both very important to contact center agents, as they are to all employees. This category starts with questions about initial training and transition and then asks questions about the individual’s professional and ...
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Belongingness

Contact center agents are, generally speaking, “people people” who like to interact both with customers and with their colleagues.
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Work Environment

Perceptions of work environment are important factors. The topics that make up this category are often the “buzz” of call center talk, and are easy to bring up with agents in casual conversations.
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Work Schedules

This category takes a close look at agents’ perceptions regarding the scheduling function - - its fairness and its ability to facilitate a balance between work and personal life. It also addresses senior management’s effectiveness in ensuring that required ...
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Leadership and Trust

”Leadership means never having an off day.” Not many leadership teams can live up to this high standard, and contact center leadership is no exception. However, we have to try! The questions in this category focus on whether leadership listens to employees, ...
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Organizational Vision

Vision is what helps employees see beyond the day-to-day tasks that confront them. It links them to something more important, more engaging and more energizing.
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Overall Satisfaction

Our Agent Voices blog posts are drawn from the results of research on over 5,000 agent surveys conducted in North America.
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Agent Voices

Our Agent Voices blog posts are drawn from the results of research on over 5,000 agent surveys conducted in North America.
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Agent Satisfaction and Customer Contact Success

“Happy agents make for happy customers.” As custodian of the largest database in the world of contact center metrics, BenchmarkPortal can vouch for the statistical relationship between agent satisfaction and customer satisfaction. Satisfied customers, in ...
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