Agent, a term that is of vital importance for any contact center. Whether you have a cloud-based call center or On-premise infrastructure, what you absolutely need is the “agent”, however in a small number or in large. Do remember, your call center runs due to your agents. No matter how much a technical software you have for your contact center, if you don’t possess the right agent then all the technology goes in vain. Now let’s take a look at the most common call center problems that occur because of agents and discuss its solutions.

What are the call center issues and their solutions?

To answer the above question, I would now describe the main agent-related issues and what their solutions are:

No Proper Training

Training is the foremost rule of any contact center. You can never expect your agent to work without being trained. But the question is, have you trained your agent well? This is the most important question and those who answer it correctly are the ones who have the best agents with them and are able to fix more than half of their contact center problems. Training is always not about making your agents remember your products on the fingertips and have them as an expert on the software, but it also means to make them adjust to their surroundings as well.

High turnover

High turnover rate is always problematic whether it’s from your side or from agent’s. If you are the one who is firing your employees with high rate then you need to be cunning enough to select the right agents for the training. Pick the one who has the “Will” to work. As there goes a saying:

Where there is a will there is a way

Just like it, as long as your agents have the will to work they will always grow stronger. But one thing is decided that is, your agent’s nature of work is actually mentally draining so you can’t blame them when they show tiredness and eventually end up resigning. They are human as well and a part of your business family. It’s your task to keep your family healthy and happy so that they may flourish, hence resulting in flourishing your business as well. Give them incentives when they show progress and from time to time, set outdoor camping, pizza party or drive them to outdoor games to let their mind be free at times.

Absenteeism

Absenteeism are of two types. One, where there is really a serious issue with the agent and he/she would have to take a leave. Another type is the one where your agent is being irresponsible about the work and takes the leave whenever he/she feels like. The other type of absenteeism is a serious problem for your call center. It means that your agent has no serious interest in his/her career development. In any case, you should always first, talk it out with your agents. Be honest with them and make them be sincere as well. Only you can do it. Be harsh where you absolutely need to be but remember that, sharp words do not resolve sensitive issues. So at first, try to talk and make your agents feel responsible for their actions.

FCR

First call resolution (FCR) decides your agent’s capability. If your agent is capable enough to handle any kind of customer query then that’s all the best. But this does not happen always. Now and then, your call center may face an issue where multiple agents would end up resolving a single customer call. To avoid such problem, you need to set up extra training sessions and seminars to train your agents so that they would be able to respond to any type of query of the customer.

Tough environment

Tough environment is the worst thing for any employee. No employee in this world would ever want to work in a place where he is not liberated enough for mere talk. Setting rules and regulations are all good but having too many of them where their basic requirements are confesticated, is always the worst thing to do.

Unreliable agents and Inability to work on new technology

When there is a dire situation and your agent is perplexed and unable to take initiative to fix the issue then that means that your agent is unreliable. And when they end up messing up with the software and wouldn’t know to run it properly then in such situation what you need is, to train them well enough so that they may handle any type of situation and work on the problem calmly. You should hold seminars and demos for them and make them practice from time to time.

I will say this here, almost every agent related problem comes with the lack of training. When your agent is not well trained, every type of issue will arise, sooner or later. So, always remember to question yourself first, have you trained your agent well?