10 important rules for retaining great support agents

Retaining great employees is challenging.

Retaining exceptional customer support agents is even harder.

They have to deal with:

• Angry customers
• Repetitive tasks
• High load of ticket
• Seasonality

That, and many more reasons, cause support agents to switch companies or positions often. After that happens you’re stuck with a task of finding and hiring a new employee who might not even be as good as the one you had before.

Here are 10 things you can do to avoid your agents leaving.

#1 Cut boring tasks

To keep your team engaged, start by eliminating dull tasks. Automate repetitive questions and requests by using chatbots, email bots, and voice bots.

Remove unnecessary manual reporting and equip your team with software that automates repetitive tasks.

Here is an automation built in make.com. Voicebot calls the customer to remind the delivery pickup in the store. Automation benefits:

• No manual calling
• Automatic follow up on SMS if not picked up
• CRM automatically updates

This makes work for your agents easier. Everything you automate removes a repetitive task from your agents, making their job more fulfilling.

#2 Embrace challenges

Involve your team in making things better. Support ideas for improving the call center and processes. Building a culture of continuous improvement can boost team morale and efficiency.

#3 Give them flexibility

Make the work environment more flexible by offering:

• Remote work
• Office work
• Hybrid work
• Flexible working hours

Add personal Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to track individual progress:

• Number of resolved requests
• % of happy customers
• Average satisfaction rating

Etc.

Understand peak hours by having good reporting. By seeing what time of the day the number of requests increase, you can staff your support accordingly.

#4 Grant responsibility

Empower your team by assigning meaningful tasks. Let them:

• Onboard new colleagues
• Manage optimization projects
• Improve reporting
• Communicate company goals

Aligning their personal KPIs with these goals is important.

#5 Provide diverse tasks

Avoid monotony by rotating roles and letting agents handle different support tasks channels such as:

• Emails
• Chats
• Phones

Try to distribute tasks based on personal strengths and preferences.

#6 Feedback loop

Have monthly one-on-one discussions where you:

• Acknowledge achievements
• Address challenges
• Reflect on previous month’s goals
• Discuss what’s working well
• Define the next set of goals

This will allow you to stay on top of how your employees feel and what is bothering them.

#7 Foster innovation

Encourage innovation within your team. Arrange monthly innovation demos where team members can share fresh ideas. Recognize and reward innovative thinking.

#8 Effectively onboard

Streamline onboarding by providing a clear roadmap for the first week. Gather feedback to improve the process and hold support-product meetings to bridge knowledge gaps.

#9 Nurture growth

Discuss growth opportunities with your team by:

• Defining potential new roles
• Introducing promotions
• Expressing your commitment to their development

As your company grows you want the people to grow with you.

#10 Go beyond work activities

Create a habit of taking your team out for some fun activities every once in a while. Think about doing:

• Sports
• Training sessions
• Saunas
• Pub Crawls
• Fun activities

‍
The list of drivers that strengthen your support team and retain the members can continue. The best way to start is to just start. Pick one thing that is the easiest to implement and just start.

At Amio.io, we help companies to automate support. If you want to deflect up to 50 % of repetitive tasks to robots, sign up for a demo.