Worried about competition taking our reps

[cnasser]

A colleague of mine is concerned about attrition resulting from a contact center opening up down the street from his. The new contact center is a competing bank. We are looking for feedback as to what to expect. The pay is a little higher, but we are not clear on how their benefit package measures up. If you have experienced this-- what motivated your staff to move on, and was there an increase in your external attrition? Any information you have on this topic is welcome and much appreciated. Thank you!

[mikael]

Your friend should be worried if the competitor is competent about their interviewing. After all, If they can skim off the cream of your friend's operation, that gives them some people who are already skilled at bank call center work, courtesy of your friend's training budget.

The published job benefits are just the bait on the hook. Where the competition will really heat up is when the competitor spots somebody good and offers them even more. I've seen call center staffs seriously hit when another center opened up nearby that needed the same skills.

[joeverde]

TECHNOLOGY!!!! :)

I used to be a call center manager. I worked as one for 6 years and now I have gone over to the dark side selling call center technology to people like me. It helps so much! Our clients are so happy with how easy the proper solution makes their work.

Specifically regarding your post, working with top notch technology that makes an agents job better and allows them to be more succesful will be a difference maker in whether they stay at a call cneter or go somewhere else. When all things are equal except pay, the pay will attract.

Our solutions make it so that the script the agents see is automated and works really well. The agents don't know they are being recorded or listened to which takes pressure off them. There are so many things it can help with, but I won't go on here.

If you want to explore this, please contact me at joe@vocalcom.ca

If nothing else, I love hearing how people are running their call centers :)