Employee churn is one of the biggest challenges customer support leaders have to deal with today. In some cases, people leave because they do not see a future in customer service. In others, they look at customer support as an “in-between” option and don’t have the intention to move up the career ladder.
During this year’s Customer Service Week, we decided to discuss this with a few leading voices in customer service at our webinar “Developing agents’ careers amid the COVID-19 pandemic”.
We invited four panelists to share their insights: Petra Hageman, former Head of Customer Support from Tripaneer, Rui Chaves, Director of Customer Experience from Deel, Jeff Perales, Global Head of Customer Support from Rocket, and Jessica Gajadien, Head of Customer Support from HomeDeco. Shaakirah Chettiar, our Head of Customer Experience, hosted the talk, focusing on the key topics in agent career development:
- How has COVID-19 impacted the paths of career development for customer support experts in general and for agents in specific?
- What can customer support managers do to help their team members to develop their careers?
- What does it take for an agent to be promoted?
Key takeaways:
- Set clear recruitment expectations. When hiring new people, make sure that you know what you expect from your new agents. They need to have passion for the company and for learning. A day not learned is a day not lived
- Enable remote learning. In this mid-pandemic world, it is crucial that everyone does not just have everything necessary to be productive when working from home, but can also learn and grow every day.
- Recruit people who love customer service. Make sure you know if your agent genuinely likes working in customer support. So they actually want to develop in that career, stick to KPIs, and move forward in a couple of years.
- Set a good example. Don’t forget about your own growth when you have lots of tickets. Have regular contact points. Do regular one-on-ones, weekly or biweekly, and make this development and continuous learning a two-way street.
- Always challenge your team. Help them learn and grow. Set clear goals, clear expectations, and use development tools. It’s more about making the time for it, having one-on-one’s with the team and looking into what people want to do with their career.
We hope this webinar gives you some actionable insights on how you can help your agents grow within customer support. For more advice, stay tuned for our virtual meetups and subscribe to our blog!
