Many companies have moved toward self-help for customers (think airline reservations, shopping, banking, consumer services, transportation). While this trend offers a level of convenience for basic transactions, customers still seek live-agent support for more complex issues or purchases.

Frustration spikes when customers are unable to reach a live person for support[1].

In a global customer service report by Microsoft, 54% of people surveyed say they have higher expectations for customer service today than they had a year ago, and this number jumps to 66% for younger respondents. In addition, 56% of global respondents have stopped doing business with a brand because of a poor customer service experience.[1]

As customer expectations continue to rise, agent turnover and the shortage of staff to handle the workload makes it even tougher for businesses to meet new service standards.[2] That’s why contact center managers are seeking new solutions to attract and retain the talent they need – looking for the right blend of customer focus, problem solving, and resiliency.

Consider Call Center Simulations to Attract and Retain Talent

With more than 30 years of experience working with contact centers worldwide, our team at Employment Technologies has built a reputation for creating award-winning job simulations that help contact centers find and keep the best employees. We specialize in new technologies that immerse candidates in job-specific contact center roles, letting them test-drive the job, and accurately predicting their on-the-job success.

Here’s how call center simulations can help:

Expand Access to Bright New Talent. In today’s challenging labor market, contact centers have an opportunity to look beyond their traditional candidate pool. Call center simulations help recruiters and hiring managers discover diamonds in the rough in talent pools they may never have considered before. In addition, our job simulations offer an engaging experience your candidates will actually enjoy, boosting completion rates and keeping top candidates in your pipeline.

Encourage Diversity. A key goal for many contact centers is employee diversity. Unfortunately, some hiring practices, such as traditional interviews, can introduce subtle bias. As Kimberly Giles points out in Forbes, “One of the main problems is subconscious bias – hiring people who are just like you. When you do find any small commonality, you tend to exaggerate it, and in the end, you misread people and put the wrong people in the wrong positions.”[3] Call center simulations assist by providing objective data about each candidate, helping to overcome the unintended bias that plagues many otherwise well-meaning interviewers.

Find the Right People for the Right Jobs. Not all contact center jobs are the same. Some are service focused, and some are sales focused. Others focus on solving complex issues that require data analyses across multiple systems, while others center on live-chat and written communication. Each job requires a unique skill set that must be assessed to ensure you have the right person in the right job. To help contact centers identify the best talent for each role, Employment Technologies offers the most comprehensive suite of call center simulations and assessments for every kind of call center job.

Personalize Onboarding. Exploring key issues facing today’s call centers, Manpower lists “inconsistent onboarding and training of virtual workforces” as one of the top challenges in 2021.[4] The best call center simulations not only diagnose current skill levels, they also create personalized development guides, tailored to the needs of each new hire. This gives team leaders a personalized coaching guide to effectively onboard and develop each team member – increasing consistency, engagement, and retention whether agents work onsite or remotely.

Engage Talented Leaders. Savvy contact center operators know the secret to building a winning team is a great team leader. As the adage goes, Agents don’t leave contact centers, they leave team leaders. For our clients, a key engagement and retention strategy is to identify leadership talent early and to help aspiring leaders develop their strengths. This ensures they have great leaders in place to inspire and retain their teams; and the investment in individual employees goes a long way in helping them feel engaged and a key part of the company’s ongoing success.

Find the Right Call Center Simulations to Match Your HR Needs

With all of the challenges facing today’s contact centers, it’s encouraging to know that proven tools are available to help you attract and retain the best talent at all levels. Call center simulations help our clients expand their reach, increase hiring quality, and reduce turnover by 30 to 50% or more. These benefits result in cost savings of thousands to millions of dollars each year while helping organizations meet the complex and evolving demands of their customers.

For a full catalog of our contact center tools, click here or check out our proven call center simulations for these key jobs:

Contact Center Agents >

Advanced Multitasking Jobs >

Team Leaders and Managers >