Customer service jobs are notoriously hard to keep filled. Expectations
for the quality of interaction with the modern consumer are high, as are
stressors on the modern retail associate. Add to that common challenges of
minimal training and experience and you find that the typical new employee
feels both overwhelmed and underqualified. Corporate training best
practices offer some insight around how to increase performance and engagement
among your retail associations through careful design strategy and impactful gamification.
Better engagement leads to better customer service, so both your employees and
your customers are happier.
Call Center Retention
Call center retention may be the best, or worst, example of
customer service employee retention. Call center retention rates are abysmal, with
research suggesting between
a 30% to 45% loss. For comparison, the same study cites an average of about
a 15% loss across all U.S. industries.
Lower engagement leads to increased job-hopping.
There appears to be a correlation between call center size and retention as well. Larger call centers lose more employees. The
smallest centers lose around 17%, while large centers sit at 44%. Moreover, entry-level employees are the biggest loss, making a large gap in the knowledge and skills of employees.
Engagement Leads to Increased Retention
There is a way to increase employee retention that is within your grasp. If an employee is engaged in their workplace, they are more likely to stay with the job. Gallup reports show how lower engagement leads to increased job-hopping. People who don’t feel connected to their role, team, manager, and organization are already more likely to leave than their peers, and throwing minor perks, like food, at them is regarded as, “a Band-Aid fix for a much bigger problem.”
You can, however, fix
that bigger problem by using training tactics like gamification to increase
employee engagement. But it isn’t just about what you do in training, but how
you do it. Gamification generally offers benefits like friendly competition,
motivation for course completion, engagement with the material, and a sense of
achievement.
Types of gamification
Practically, gamification means implementing training tactics that draw
on certain motivational factors and user engagement methods. There are multiple
forms that gamification can take, with a continuum stretching from almost
invisible elements to outright play.
Motivational elements in training can be nearly invisible, using game
design in stealthy or unconscious ways to simplify, re-enforce and drive
behaviors. In motivational design, users are not aware that they are playing a
game. Some examples of motivational design include programs like Delta’s
Skymiles™, WeightWatchers™. These examples reward progress and achievement but
avoid the overt elements of gaming.
Engaged employees will gain more experience, and better serve your customers.
Serious games, on the other hand, are a much more overt form of
gamification. Though the words serious and games may appear contradictory at
first, they refer to two distinct elements. The serious side of training game
design is based on specific skills and behaviors relevant to the training,
while play describes the mechanisms of the activity. It’s important to
implement game design in transparent and obviously motivated ways. For example,
use upbeat music, animation, or progress bars to give players a sense of
achievement and enjoyment in a serious context are hallmarks of serious play
design.
For a classic example, let’s look at Where in the World is Carmen
Sandiego. You may remember the catchy intro music by Rockapella from the
game show version, but the computer game series from the early 90’s exemplifies
gamification. It’s marketed as a game, presented to the young user as a game,
and has all the hallmarks of game play: a memorable villain. However, the intent
was to use the mechanisms of gameplay to help young minds unknowingly learn
both geography and history.
Keeping Your Best People Means Better Customer Service
Customer service training can use any number of design
strategies to increase engagement, but gamification have proven to be both
effective and enjoyable. Engaged employees will gain more experience,
and better serve your customers. Moreover, engaged employees stick around
longer, significantly reducing the costs of employee attrition.
