Terry Rybolt is the Chief Revenue Officer at LiveXchange Technologies, Inc., a tech platform that enables a virtual, on-demand workforce.
There is a customer service recruitment crisis taking place. In 2021, analysts reported that contact centers would struggle to keep hiring people, as general attitudes toward work have changed since the pandemic. Now we see this playing out. The Financial Times recently reported (subscription required) that European contact centers are specifically targeting older workers with industry experience because they just can’t find any younger people to do the jobs. Companies that are not offering flexibility are losing people rapidly as workers seek roles that allow them to adjust their hours and work for at least some of the week at home—if not completely work-from-home.
According to Harvard Business Review (HBR), this changing attitude was developing before the pandemic. People have always had family responsibilities, but the office job with day-long shifts from Monday to Friday made flexibility very difficult. But the experience of every customer service adviser being forced to work at home because of Covid caused even managers to see that more flexibility is possible. HBR lists five R’s that are contributing to the situation in the present labor market: “Workers are retiring in greater numbers but aren’t relocating in large numbers; they’re reconsidering their work-life balance and care roles; they’re making localized switches among industries, or reshuffling, rather than exiting the labor market entirely; and, because of pandemic-related fears, they’re demonstrating a reluctance to return to in-person jobs.” Workers are making life changes that enhance their abilities to provide care for young or elderly family members. It’s clear that people want more control over their work-life balance.
The people are out there—including those interested in customer service roles with flexible hours. Leaders just need to search for them and then offer the flexibility they are looking for, rather than a 9-to-5 job in a contact center far from their home. Here are a few ways you can retain and find skilled customer service talent for your company.
1. Work with a business process outsourcing (BPO) specialist.
The challenge with a BPO is finding the right one. Should you work with a global giant with experience across multiple industries or an agile specialist? In my experience, the most important consideration is simply finding a partner with a similar culture to yours so you can work well together.
2. Utilize gig customer service platforms.
Another option is to use a gig customer service (GigCX) platform to build a bench of expert talent for your business. (Full disclosure: My company offers this service, as do others.) GigCX platforms allow you to actively reach out to gig workers who are genuinely interested in the products they are supporting. These flexible workers can then select their own hours from their homes. This type of system also allows you to hire anyone from anywhere, including those who have been excluded from customer service roles in the past, such as older workers who may have already retired but want to earn some extra cash to avoid using too much of their pension.
GigCX works better if your training is fairly rapid, as the onboarding can then be very flexible. A long onboarding process can be more challenging because workers typically want to guarantee they will get the hours they want, so they will likely want to start being productive as quickly as possible. This is also why it can be advantageous to search for people with existing skills, such as recruiting gamers to support gamers.
3. Redesign your employee experience.
McKinsey reports that contact center attrition has increased since 2021, leading to variability in the quality of customer experience. Targeting the cause of this attrition could help improve the experience for your employees and customers alike. Consider using services such as Great Place To Work to audit what is missing for your employees, fill the gaps and then become a more attractive employer.
For example, most attrition is caused by people seeing contact center jobs as low status with very little flexibility and no career development. Target all these factors by equipping your team with the right tools, training and ongoing coaching. Create and advertise career development opportunities for those with frontline customer service experience who want to move into sales, marketing or HR. The challenge with redesigning your employee experience is that it requires management effort and investment, but ultimately, it could lead to long-lasting positive change.
Whatever tactic you use, the aim is to deliver greater flexibility and to make the available customer service positions more attractive. There are many people who could work in customer service roles but would not want to commute every day to work in a contact center. Offering more flexible opportunities can help you fill those open positions and reduce attrition.
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