The call center industry is known for having a high turnover rate. The longest tenure of most professional telemarketers is 3 years. Training new employees to answer calls is easy enough, but keeping the telemarketers who have mastered the “art of telemarketing” is the difficult part, especially when these individuals have knowledge of business rules and processes that are critical to your operations. How do you keep these employees? Would offering a higher salary work? It might, but as long as your employees are not satisfied at work, a high salary will not suffice as a motivation, and would only mean increased expenses on your part.
What you should aim for is a way to prevent your employees from wanting to leave and keep them motivated and productive. This can be done by looking at how the top companies in CNN’s list of 100 Best Companies To Work For attracts workers.
What does it take to become a company that employees would want to work for? The answer is company CULTURE. Your products and services separate you from your competitors – but only in the eyes of your customers. Your company’s culture is what separates your company from the rest – in the eyes of your employees. Does your company culture promote telemarketing as a rewarding experience? Does it help alleviate the stress of spending long hours on the phone sorting through a calling list?
Let’s take a look at Google’s culture. Employees are required to follow the 70/20/10 rule, which means 70% of their working hours are to be spent on the company’s core business, 20% on related projects, and 10% on unrelated new projects. Although employees are working the entire day like in every other company, they are allowed to work on projects that they are personally passionate about.
Another company whose culture is outstanding is Zappos, whose employees are encouraged to “Create Fun and A Little Weirdness” and “Be Adventurous, Creative and Open-Minded” as a part of the company’s core values. Zappos customer service reps have no predetermined scripts and limited call times. Are your telemarketing teams allowed the same freedom when making cold calls?
Of course, as a call center, it would be difficult to follow the same cultures for your company. A company’s culture should be unique and separate your brand from the rest. It is a part of your company’s branding that is designed to attract not only clients but also future employees. When your company culture allows your telemarketers to enjoy their job, they would be less likely to contemplate about looking for a new job and will be better motivated to give their best when doing cold calling.
This post originally appeared at CallBoxInc