Zappos vs. Electrolux vs. General Mills vs. Fenwal: How Do You Keep Agents Engaged?

Happy agents create happy customers. You can’t satisfy customers without first satisfying your customer service representatives. An employee-centric business is a customer-centric one.

Pick your clichê—all of them refer to the same management philosophy: agent engagement is a pivotal part of the customer experience journey.

When on the record, there is nary a business leader in existence who does not espouse his undying commitment to that philosophy. When tasked with executing on that commitment, records of success are far less universal.

Given the important, irrefutable connection between employee engagement and customer satisfaction, one would assume that if there were any business unit in need of that successful execution, it would be the customer service department.
Why, then, does that tragically seem to be one of the greatest sources of organizational frustration? Why are workers unproductive and unengaged? Why are turnover rates so high?

Or, from a more proactive and positive perspective, what must a business actually do to put money where its mouth is? What must it do to transform the contact center atmosphere from one of disappointment into one of overflowing happiness that cannot help but to spill into each and every customer interaction?

From pizza parties, to new methods of coaching, to innovative performance measurement strategies, contact center leaders have spent decades investing an endless array of options for boosting agent engagement.

To help steer them in the direction of those strategies—and philosophies—that are most effective, Call Center IQ reporter Shawn Siegel asked several esteemed members of our 14th Annual Call Center Week faculty how they engage in the contact center.

Perspectives from more than a dozen other contact center leaders—and more insights from those featured below—are aggregated in our exclusive Call Center Week Speaker e-Book.

Jonathan Wolske, Zappos
We hire people who are aligned with our company’s values and vision. We are a service company that just happens to sell clothing and shoes, so everyone fully understands what we are all about. The culture includes the value ‘Create fun and little weirdness’, which means that our individual personalities shine through all we do, so there is the sense of ownership in the customer experience. We also celebrate lots of ‘wins’ and share great customer responses with everyone, which helps to reinforce the importance of ‘Delivering WOW through Service’ and reminds contact center reps that we truly value the work they do.

[eventPDF]

Kevin Wilde, General Mills
Engagement is a matter of connection to the job, the company and the mission, but also the immediate manager. And we have had an initiative here for a number of years now from going from a company with good managers to great. And we have done some internal studies that show the difference between good and great and show the enormous high levels of engagement. So we have been spreading the news, and doing training and encouraging managers to take their good skills about being a good boss and being great. We have seen traction on that. We have seen employees reporting higher levels of having a great manager experience. And all that translates to engagement, innovation, and extra motivation.

Jane Pearson-Wray, Electrolux
Working in a call center by nature is challenging. Most consumers are not contacting you to tell you how great you are (although we do occasionally get those calls). Most are contacting you because they have an issue requiring your attention and resolution. So this means, as a leader, you are often faced with attrition, absenteeism and morale issues. With this in mind, we often have team and individual contests. We have monthly and quarterly rewards and recognition programs. When special projects come up, we reward high performing agents with an opportunity to work on those projects. This presents a huge opportunity for cross-functional learning. And when we hear or see an agent doing a good job, we make an effort to acknowledge it right then and there.

Toni-Ann Mills, Fenwal, a Fresenius Kabi Company
We are all challenged by one or more of the following motivators - ego (I did it), task (satisfaction from the completion of the job), social solidarity (being member of an identified group), external rewards (certificates, gifts etc.). We make sure that we are focusing on these motivators on a regular basis. Publicly recognizing individual performers, undertaking group celebrations and fun events, ensuring that people can complete the task and it is measured in a way that provides them with satisfactory feedback.