Picture this: A call center bustling with energy, where employees feel valued, supported, and driven to deliver outstanding customer experiences. This isn’t just a lofty vision—it’s the reality in many leading call centers. These organizations have cracked the code to hiring, training, and retaining agents who are prepared to thrive in today’s fast-paced world.
Through extensive research and collaboration, we explored how top-performing call centers build systems that empower their agents to succeed. Here’s what we discovered and how you can bring these strategies to life in your own organization.
Building the Bridge to Success
Creating a modern call center isn’t far removed from constructing a bridge. A sturdy foundation, strong supports, seamless connections, and safety measures all work together to ensure a solid structure. Here’s how you can replicate this metaphor in your organization:
Step 1: Laying the Foundation with Culture
Think of your company culture as the unseen foundation of your bridge. Though invisible, it shapes every decision and action. Successful call centers invest in cultivating a culture where agents feel empowered and valued.
- Commit to Visible Values: Managers and agents alike should live by the organization’s core values. One leading company aligned every meeting agenda to its mantra: associates first, customers second, and business issues third.
- Build Trust and Accessibility: Adopt an open-door policy. Give agents clear pathways to share concerns and escalate issues, ensuring they always feel heard.
- Showcase Corporate Support: Actions speak louder than words. When executives sit with agents and even handle calls, it sends a powerful message: You are the lifeblood of this organization.
Action Tip: Create a “Code of Respect” with your team, outlining how peers and leaders should treat one another. It builds mutual respect and sets the tone for a supportive workplace.
Step 2: Erecting the Support Piers
Agents thrive when they know there’s a robust support system backing them. Leading call centers take this seriously, ensuring their agents feel bolstered at every step.
Here are examples of innovative support systems:
- Internal Help Desks: A quick lifeline for agents to resolve issues.
- Supervisor Support Lines: Dedicated teams to handle escalated customer concerns.
- Transition Teams: New hires are surrounded by support during their critical first weeks. For example, one organization tracked how often new hires needed help, adjusting training plans to ensure individual success.
Action Tip: Audit your current support system. Are your agents getting the help they need, exactly when they need it? Gather feedback and make improvements where necessary.
Step 3: Connecting Through Linkages
To function effectively, every aspect of the call center—from hiring to performance management—must connect seamlessly. Misalignment leads to confusion, frustration, and wasted potential.
- Define the Ideal Agent: What does success look like? Leading companies have moved beyond traditional metrics, focusing instead on agents’ innate qualities like a desire to help customers, tolerance for stress, critical thinking, and eagerness to learn.
- Train for Success: Balance soft skills, like empathy and communication, with hard skills, like technology proficiency. Use simulation and mentoring to bring the training to life.
- Create Performance Transparency: Ensure agents know how they’re being measured and provide actionable feedback consistently.
Action Tip: Use competency-based interviews to identify candidates who align with your company’s vision. Incorporate practical tests or mock calls to gauge their suitability.
Step 4: Installing the Safety Railing
Retention is a constant challenge in call centers, but a supportive environment can keep your best employees from “falling off the bridge.”
Address these three core needs to ensure agent satisfaction:
- Clear Expectations: Regularly communicate goals and performance standards. Some organizations even involve applicants in a “day in the life” experience before hiring them to set realistic expectations.
- Consistent Feedback: Monthly performance reviews with both qualitative and quantitative feedback help agents stay on track. Coaching sessions tied to clear goals foster growth and confidence.
- Opportunities to Grow: Whether through cross-functional projects, learning modules, or personalized growth plans, best-practice companies empower agents to take charge of their development.
Action Tip: Introduce monthly action plans for every agent. These are not just annual performance reviews—they’re ongoing guides to help agents achieve incremental improvements and stay engaged.
Inspire Action Through Stories
Let’s take a moment to meet Sarah, a new call center agent in a leading organization. Sarah joined the company unsure of her ability to handle the fast-paced environment. But from day one, she was surrounded by a transition team that answered her questions, helped her practice, and built her confidence.
Within six months, Sarah had not only mastered her role but was mentoring new hires. Her success story underscores the power of a strong support system. Stories like Sarah’s aren’t anomalies—they’re the result of intentional systems that prioritize employee success. Use these stories to inspire people to action.
Harness the Power of Employee Insights
Don’t underestimate the value of agent feedback. Agents are often closest to the customer and can offer unique insights to improve processes. Many leading companies implement structured suggestion programs where ideas from the floor are reviewed, implemented, and rewarded.
Action Tip: Host quarterly brainstorming sessions with your agents. Keep it informal, encourage creativity, and act on their best ideas. Reward participation with small tokens of appreciation.
Conclusion: Building Bridges that Last
Creating a call center for this century (and next) isn’t a one-and-done effort. It requires ongoing commitment, constant evaluation, and a willingness to adapt. Just as the strongest bridges are built piece by piece, your call center can become a powerhouse of stability, strength, and consistency—one action step at a time.
Start today. Lay the foundation, strengthen the supports, build the connections, and add the safety railings. The bridge to your agents’ success is waiting to be built.
Kathryn Jackson is a contact center industry veteran, a long time CCNG member, regular contributor in CCNG member programs and events, and the Co-Founder of ResponseLearning Corporation, a consulting company devoted to making the complex simple for contact center professionals. Kathryn is “rabid” about call centers and owes her fanaticism to the fateful day she applied to work as a call center agent at a startup company. Kathryn started Response Design in 1989 with a partner, and ResponseLearning came soon after. Kathryn’s “rabidness” and fanaticism have never been stronger than in this part of her journey!
