What’s the single-most important asset at a contact center?  People.  On each call, with every customer, a customer service representative (CSR) makes the difference between “good” and “great” service.  Because they are the key to managing the customer experience, contact centers should invest in their talent throughout the employee lifecycle.

However, contact centers today are facing a major hurdle, experiencing between 30-100% annualized CSR attrition. [1] With the cost to recruit, hire, and train ranging between $5,000-$18,000 per CSR [1], this attrition rate means that large contact centers annually spend hundreds of millions of dollars on CSR replacement.  A 1,000 seat contact center with an annualized attrition rate of 120% and recruiting/hiring/training costs of $4,000 per CSR will spend $4.8 million yearly on CSR replacement.  If CSR attrition could be reduced by just 10%, the contact center would save $480,000 annually.

The struggle is how to identify the CSRs that provide great customer service and are also contemplating quitting.  How do you intervene and proactively change the employee’s experience so they decide to stay?

AnswerOn’s CSR Optimization Solution is a combination of proprietary technologies and predictive analytics developed specifically for CSR management and retention.  Using machine learning and prediction technologies, AnswerOn builds a model that accurately predicts several critical behaviors:

1. Employee propensity to leave
2. Employee performance and productivity

Additionally, the AnswerOn solution provides insight into why CSRs are considering quitting.  With this knowledge in hand, managers can proactively intervene with coaching packages or incentives to modify the behavior or work environment of those agents they wish to retain.

Data-driven solutions like AnswerOn’s CSR Optimization Solution can be leveraged from the point-of-hire to the floor to maximize the return on employee investment.  During recruitment, quantitative profiles of highly-capable employees can be used to identify and select the candidates most likely to succeed, minimizing new-hire attrition.  During training, historical analysis and predictive analytics can help place new employees in skills sets where they will deliver higher productivity, enhancing the customer experience.  On the floor, CSR attrition can be mitigated using analytic technologies that predict CSR churn, allowing proactive interventions that reduce replacement expenses.

Data driven solutions can help throughout the employee lifecycle by:

• Building a profile of success: Analyzing and modeling best agent performance
• Increasing CSR productivity:  Predicting “best fit” skills for new agents
• Reducing replacement expenses: Identifying which agents are likely to leave

As stated above, the cost savings from reducing replacement expenses alone are significant.  But in addition to the savings available from reducing CSR attrition, AnswerOn’s CSR Optimization Solution also provides savings due to better recruiting, training and placement.  Increasing agent productivity in all these categories means an overall reduction in administrative costs as well as a decrease in operating expenses such as Average Handling Time (AHT).  Taken together, all these savings contribute significantly to reducing the ongoing lifecycle costs of CSR management.

AnswerOn’s models are built on transactional and interactive data sources readily available to our customers.  The entire project can be completed in as little as 8 weeks.   Interactive voice data can also be added to transactional models using AnswerOn’s patented data interface.  The combination of transactional and interactive analytics creates a powerful data-driven decision tool for managing CSRs that:

• Improves operational efficiency
• Increases agent loyalty and retention
• Enhances marketing and sales effectiveness
• Improves business intelligence

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[1] Phillips, Jack and Natalie Petouhoff. Recruiting and Training Call Center Employees. Virginia: American Society for Training and Development, 2001.