End the year on a high

YOUR call centre agents are your brand ambassadors; your values, reputation and, in most cases, profitability is often in their hands.  How do you ensure that they are looking after your callers and, consequently, your business?

With high unemployment, most people are happy just to be in a job.  However, is this enough keep them happy and retain them as the economy and employment levels improve?

Aside from the obvious commission-based incentives for sales agents, there are many other ways to reward your staff.  Remind them that they are doing a good job and share with them what their efforts do for your company, such as bottom line profits, competitive edge or simply reputation.

Incentive schemes can be team-specific, departmental or business-wide.  A blend of all three is ideal. To be the best in your team is great for morale, to be the best performing department in your business is a profile-booster and can help drive quality, but to be recognised as a contributor to or a key player in your company’s overall success story is possibly the best acknowledgment at any level.

A company-wide reward and recognition scheme should aim to give praise and incentives for work and behaviour that meets a set of criteria: it regularly exceeds targets and expectation, adds value, gives your company an edge, improves efficiency, saves money, saves the planet – and so on. A scheme with one or more levels of recognition will give it depth.

Issue points, perhaps one for exceeding targets and going the extra mile, three for changing behaviour and adding tangible business value.  Each quarter, the agent with most points wins £100 and appears in the company newsletter.  This keeps the scheme fresh in the minds of your employees regularly and helps encourage them to get nominating.  At the year end, every point should count as one entry into a big cash draw.  This helps end the year on a high with winners walking away with some nice cash prizes just before Christmas, and should help create a big buzz around the scheme.  In our call centre, which has 180 agents, we will have awarded more than more than £15,000 in cash prizes and over £1,000 in token gifts by the end of the year.

Alan Sawyers, marketing manager, Spark Response; alan.sawyers@sparkresponse.com