You may not realize this, but hiring a new CSR is going to be a lot more expensive than just investing in the ones you already have in order to make sure that they stay with you for as long as possible. Here are some things you can to do keep a high retention rate among your customer service representatives.
Provide Feedback Constructively
There are going to be a lot of situations where your customer support representatives are going to need to be given some feedback, if for no other reason than to ensure that they end up performing better at their job in the future. However, the manner in which you provide feedback needs to be as positive as possible. Make it all about how they can improve rather than what they did wrong, because doing the latter can make your CSR potentially feel like they are not appreciated and this could make them feel like they would be better off working elsewhere.
Appreciate Good Performance
You may think that CSRs owe it to you because of the fact that you are going to pay them a regular salary to perform well at their job, but the fact of the matter is that the human mind does not quite work like that. Indeed, the truth of the matter is that your CSRs need to know that you notice when they perform well, and they also need to feel like you are going to reward them for doing so. You obviously are not going to have to do anything huge, just give them some appreciation and give them a small gift if they have truly exceeded expectations.
Optimize Technology to Reduce Workload
Your CSRs don’t have to work all that hard if you want them to be able to get the job done. You can use software such as the helpdesk support software offered by Kayako to keep things easier than they would have been otherwise. It is now the norm to supplement your customer support with a software, so if you do not implement a software in this manner it is probably going to become very difficult indeed for you to keep the CSRs that you have since they are probably going to end up going to a company that would not unnecessarily make them work so hard.
Keep Things Interesting
You don’t have to make your office seem like a stifling environment that only involves work. Indeed, you can keep things interesting by spending some of the excess money that you are making from not having to hire new CSRs on giving the ones you have a treat. Take them out to lunch, organize team getaways, make coming to work the sort of thing that makes them happy rather than the sort of thing that they dread when they wake up in the morning.
Make Everything a Team Effort
If your CSRs feel like they are going to have to handle everything on their own, chances are that they are going to end up feeling like they are working far too hard and they would want to leave as soon as possible for greener pastures. However, if you group your CSRs into teams and allow them to go on to work together in order to solve problems and the like they are going to feel far more included and are also going to end up incorporating as much of the work into this team dynamic as possible which is going to lead to a great deal of synergy.
Have an Open Door Policy
There are going to be a lot of situations where your CSRs are going to feel rather victimized or perhaps they would have some other problem with how they are being treated or with the overall work environment that they have been given. Hence, it is very important that you have an open door policy and make yourself available to all of your employees at all times so that they end up feeling comfortable working for you. If they feel like their boss is on their side chances are that they are going to want to keep working for you.