Delivering Effective Feedback to Call Center Agents

Delivering effective feedback to call center agents is a skill that every manager in this area should master in order to guarantee their employee's well-being. As Bill Gates once said:

“We all need people who will give us feedback, that’s how we improve.”

Nowadays there seems to exist a consensus about the fact that interpreting feedback as a singular occurrence ignores the larger context of work, which includes continuous interpersonal interactions, personal experiences, and the culture of the workplace in general. Big companies such as Microsoft, Adobe, and GAP are increasingly promoting frequent, real-time feedback and putting less emphasis on formal performance reviews. With this article, we sought to present the importance of effective feedback and its impact on call center agents.

Why is feedback important?

If you want a motivated and happy team, delivering constructive and effective feedback becomes a crucial task for their development and well-being. Not only will it increase productivity and engagement, but also create a healthy environment where employees grow a stronger feeling of inclusion and fellowship.

Putting it simply, feedback can:

• Motivate, guide, and reinforce efficient behavior, which in return saves time
• Contribute for effective job performance when it’s given with frequency and in an adequate way
• Create a clear and honest communication flow
• Promote a trustworthy and honest environment
• Help employees to deal with negative criticism and use it to improve
• Promote personal and professional growth
• Lessen uncertainty, preserve emotions of self-efficacy, and gain a better understanding of the incentives and other environmental factors

Effective feedback for call center agents

Feedback is a great practice that should be applied in general, yet, for customer service functions it becomes indispensable. Because they must satisfy increasing client expectations, productivity targets, fluctuating demands and workloads, call center agents frequently face a lot of stress and anxiety while working. They are more prone to be absent and dissatisfied with their jobs and in more extreme cases, they can also face burnout, i.e, a long-lasting response to psychosocial stressors which encompasses three dimensions: overwhelming exhaustion, professional inefficacy, and cynicism. However, call centers don't have to be stressful places of work that harm employees' health. Some management practices can enhance the working environment and lessen stress and burnout. These methods include investing in employee skills, giving employees greater autonomy over how they interact with customers, and providing effective feedback. Call center quality feedback is an essential tool to keep agents on track and assist them with their performance improvements, which in return will help your company achieve its organizational goals. Additionally, feedback not only improves performance but it’s also seen as a motivational booster, it demonstrates gratitude and words of recognition from managers and peers which can reduce anxiety and stress levels.

Communication is key

Besides body language, verbal communication is at the base of understanding each other. It is important that as a manager you try to understand your agents’ feelings and thoughts. If you communicate with them regularly, you will create a stronger relationship with each other, and they will feel appreciated and better understood. In addition, it also stimulates self-reflection about their own behavior, making them more autonomous for future tasks.

Here are some questions you can ask your agent:

• How are you feeling today?
• Did you struggle in any way with your previous task?
• What do you think went well and didn’t go so well?
• Do you believe there’s space for improvement?
• What can I do to help you?

After these questions, you can also give your feedback. This way, the agent has a much more complete view of their actions and is more prepared to solve problems and receive customer criticism.

Build a valuable feedback repository: How to do it right

Employee feedback is important because it’s a gathering of different perspectives on the organization that provides constructive insights into the work environment. You should focus on giving honest, timely, and meaningful feedback in order to make it more effective and well-received. You should always consider two main aspects: (1) feedback is continuous and (2) you must be empathetic when you give it.

Here are some tips that you can follow:

• Feedback must have a clear purpose to help employees grow and start a conversation about work issues.
• As mentioned, feedback must be continuous – it stimulates everyday improvement and provides insightful information about performance and behavioral outcomes.
• Don’t wait too long to share important information. As humans, it’s normal for us to forget and it's better to start making an impact today than not next week or next month.
• Give employees space to talk about the challenges they are facing and provide a solution to overcome them together. This can be a simple weekly question or check-in.
• Don’t forget that you’re just as important - ask your colleagues, superiors and subordinates, for helpful advice and use that feedback to consistently improve your own performance as well as your teams.

How can Tap My Back help you?

The process of receiving feedback at work is now being scrutinized more closely as companies continue to improve and adjust their feedback systems – and this is where we step in! Tap My Back is an example of a great tool that simplifies this process which can be rather time-consuming and complex. Here are the software’s main features that will help with your team’s well-being and promote a continuous feedback culture that increases employee engagement.

This isn't all of it though, we have many more resources to help you and your team with daily, constructive feedback. If you want to learn more about us and our features visit our website or schedule a call with us! We will be happy to help your company reach its full potential.