What Drivers Affect Customer Service Agent Satisfaction?

Agent satisfaction in customer support is affected by many drivers that are common in many sectors, such as workplace culture, team spirit, and the quality of supervisory work. Surveypal has studied the drivers of well-being at work in customer service organisations among our customers and literature & research revolving around the subject. If you want to learn more check our complete white paper about measuring customer service using an agent pulse survey.

The key drivers of well-being at work in a customer service organization are

• team management
• training
• meaningful tasks
• the clarity of goals
• recognition for performance
• opportunities for advancement
• compensation.

Agent satisfaction drivers

Team management

If one had to choose the most important driver of customer service success, it would obviously be the quality of supervisory work.  

The role of a customer service supervisor is demanding, and a successful supervisor must master both the content of the work, numbers-based management, and people management.  Management faces additional challenges due to the fact that the average work experience of customer service employees is often limited. 

Supervisors must balance efficiency requirements and cost pressures in the difficult terrain of the customer experience and the staff experience. 

Training 

Lack of training or the poor quality of coaching is a major reason for the dissatisfaction of customer service staff. By its nature, coaching ties up resources and therefore it is essential to target it properly.  

In the best organizations, coaching targets the right teams, customer service staff, and themes. The creation of content and targeting of coaching is most effectively carried out with the help of staff pulse survey data, customer experience data, and quality assurance data where it is most needed.  

Investing in customer service agents by offering training, mentoring, or coaching is proven to enhance job satisfaction and engagement. 

Meaningful tasks 

At worst, customer service is monotonous and emotionally draining work. Realizing the meaningfulness of this work to customer service representatives is central to what a supervisor does. If a customer service representative does not see any meaning in their work or feels that their tasks are monotonous, there is an increased risk that they will provide a poor customer experience and an increased risk of customer service staff turnover.  

Goal clarity

How am I evaluated? When do I succeed in my work? What kind of activities leads to better results? 

If your customer service representatives do not have clear answers to these questions, the conditions for their coping at work will be significantly poorer than in a situation where customer service key performance indicators (KPIs) are clearly in mind. 

Quantitative metrics are emphasised in customer service, but in the best organisations qualitative metrics, such as the customer experience, also play an important role.  

Performance recognition 

In a customer service organisation, a single supervisor can often have a fairly large team, and not all good performances will be noticed. However, it is crucial for the meaningfulness of customer service work that all successes receive recognition, both by the supervisor and more broadly within the organisation. Directing positive customer feedback to customer service representatives improves staff well-being and coping. 

Advancement opportunities

With a hundred customer service representatives and five supervisors, the customer service representative may feel like they have quite a small chance of advancing. In the best organizations, there are several levels of customer service where power and responsibility increase and the paths to progress seem clear and fair. 

Compensation 

Compensation alone can’t motivate your agents to do their best work. That said, however, employees who believe they are underpaid will never embrace the attitude of going the extra mile for the customer. 

It is important to understand that many customer service agents are at the lowest tier in their organization. If they are being paid only the minimum wage, the odds are that they feel minimally valued. 

There is a huge need to be mindful of the messages your compensation strategy is sending.

Other drivers 

Customer service satisfaction does of course depend on many other drivers as well, and the key drivers vary from one organization to the next. For example, internal organizational processes play an important role in well-being at work. Work tools such as applications and equipment also have a direct impact on well-being at work, as do office conditions. 

Conclusion

Do you know how your customer service employees are coping? Why is this? What can be done about it? What are the effects of the changes? A good pulse survey gives you an understanding of these drivers, a more accurate picture of the situation, and helps you find the root causes that help you to correctly target resources for making improvements. Check out our whitepapers about measuring customer service with an agent pulse survey to understand follow topics:

• The purpose of the pulse survey 
• Roles and motives in customer service
• Content and structure of the survey 
• Reporting methods 
• Improving survey response rate s

Grab the best advice and methods to move on making YOUR customer service even more efficient and satisfactory!