Today, the industry average is just 11 months. For the first time, the average is less than one year. If we carefully analyze the data on the reasons why talent leaves positions or, worse, the sector, there are many factors that contribute to this. This is the rate at which call center employees leave their jobs over a period of time.
According to Nextiva, the average turnover rate is 30 to 45% per year. According to the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI), the CSAT benchmark for call centers operating in the telecommunications and information industry is 63 to 78%. This is for companies that provide wireless phone services, subscription television services, video streaming services, and Internet service providers. According to the Service Quantity Management (SQM) group, an FCR rate of 70 to 79% is considered good, while an FCR rate of 80% or more is world class.
If you ask C-level managers of a company what the key performance indicator (KPI) is to determine if the call center is working effectively and efficiently, most will respond to the level of service, some will say customer satisfaction and even less will say resolution on the first call. But in the pandemic era, are those KPIs the most important? This isn't to say that these KPIs aren't important; they are, but maybe it's time to focus on call center turnover as the most important KPI. As a result of increased agent turnover, job burnout, absenteeism, operating costs, and decreased FCR and CSAT, it can be strongly argued that call center turnover is the most important KPI. This belief is because the call center turnover KPI is crucial to help manage the operating practices of a call center.
efficiently and effectively. Reducing call center desertion or turnover rates can be extremely difficult, especially considering that there is no single cause driving low agent retention. This blog is a comprehensive guide to help call center leaders reduce call center turnover to improve FCR, CSAT and operating costs. The blog will address the differences between the call desertion rate and the turnover rate, how to calculate desertion and turnover, reference points, why turnover is high, why turnover is important, and tactics to improve retention.
The call center turnover rate metric measures the percentage of agents who stop being part of the total workforce during a given period or year. Specifically, the call center turnover rate is based on the number of agents who left the call center, either internally or externally, but the company hired new agents to replace those who left and the total number of agents. As the old saying goes, you can't improve it unless you measure it. To measure the call center's turnover rate, it's useful to use the correct calculation.
A common calculation method used is to divide the number of agents who left the call center by the average number of agents working in the call center, including new hires. The call center attrition rate metric measures the percentage of agents who leave the total workforce during a given period or year. The difference with the call center turnover rate is that the attrition rate metric is that the company doesn't hire a substitute. The term call center desertion is also known as loss of agents.
The cost of call center turnover is at an all-time high and affects the efficiency and effectiveness of call center operations more than any other. performance metric. In most cases, call center turnover puts enormous pressure on your operating budget. In addition, there are many other areas where call center turnover has a negative impact and that are more difficult to measure, such as the impact of customer experience on a company's brand reputation, referrals, and retention.
You can strongly argue that call center turnover costs associated with negative CX may have substantially higher costs than previous call center costs (for example, when there is high call center turnover, there is a rush to call new employees by phone, and it's common for companies to reduce the training and training needed to respond to customer calls).With the return of more call centers to the United States, there may be an even greater risk of employee turnover as they search for a job that suits them. You can calculate your turnover rate by dividing the average number of employees in your call center over a period of time by the number of employees who left in that same period. As part of the onboarding process, inform new agents about the career opportunities they have working in the call center and other departments. Comprehensive initial training should cover all aspects, from product knowledge and best practices in call centers to escalation protocols and access to resources.
In addition, SQM Group research shows that, in most call centers, 25% or less of the agents who left the call center went to work in another department (e.g., while the industry average for annual call center billing is 30 to 45%, don't wait until the end of the year to assess the situation). Call center costs to replace an existing agent with average performance are significant and include hiring (e.g., compounding the agent turnover problem is that 81% of agents prefer the work-from-home (WFH) model, 16% want the hybrid model, and only 3% prefer the call center. The call center turnover rate is a crucial metric and a key performance indicator of employee engagement, calculated as a percentage. Call center leaders must invest in call center managers and team leaders as much as they do in their agents.
