It should come as no surprise that over half of adults work over 40 hours a week. What might sound a little more surprising is that, by working 40+ hours per week, we are spending roughly 35% of our waking hours at work! With statistics that jarring, it is no wonder that some of the most common concerns employee candidates have are around work/life balance, company culture, and physical environment!

Employees are the most valuable asset to any organization. For customer service representatives, managing customer service is a stressful job. With angry customers and complicated (and sometimes confusing) problem-solving, it can be easy to feel beat up and burned out. As an employer, there are lots of ways you can combat stress and inspire your CSRs to stick around and continue to do great work for customers.

1. Encourage Individual Space

It may be the company’s office, but it is the employees’ space. Whether they have an office, a cubical, or a desk to display photos of family, friends and furr babies, employees need a personal space while at work.

Here are some tips to help out with encouraging individual space:

• Let employees decorate as they wish, as long as it isn’t offensive to others, and encourage them to define their space.
• Create a decorating contest around holiday time and MAKE IT FUN. Get the whole office involved through voting for prizes and bragging rights.

And don’t forget about company common space! Companies should define common spaces that identify the culture while promoting their mission and values. Keep it casual, bright, and clutter-free to ensure employees feel comfortable using the space.

2. Provide Relevant Training Regularly

It is hard to do your job well when you are not equipped with the best technology to back you up.

• Ongoing training and advanced call center technologies equip agents to assist customers quickly and accurately. That boosts agent pride and cuts down on cranky customers.
• Keep agents in the loop with regular communication about company news and client product/service changes.

3. Reward Outstanding Work and Share Successes

• Acknowledge and reward good work, right away. Reinforcing smart actions and creative thinking encourages folks to do more of that.
• Use small rewards liberally – tickets to a game, lunch or dinner coupons, special training. Build a “wheel of fortune” people can spin to learn their prize.
• Surprise them with thanks in person. Kick it up a notch by having a key executive make the call or stop by the agent’s desk.
• When one person does a great job the whole team wins, so spread the news! Agents who care about each other are happier, and they inspire and support one another.
• Contests that promote friendly competition are fun, but only if you emphasize the friendly.
• On the flip side, if you must correct or criticize, do that only in private!

P.S. Get to know your people. Understanding what is interesting or important to them tells you what will motivate them.

4. Promote from Within

The ability to rise in responsibility and pay is a huge motivator. But beware – promoting an agent leaves an empty seat you’ll need to fill with another outstanding candidate. A few tips on how to best promote:

• Promote internal job opportunities in the lunch room.
• When you do promote someone, have a party!

5. Value Employees’ Families

Employees are people, with real-life concerns outside their job. That gives you an opportunity to think broader about meaningful incentives and rewards. Here at The Connection®, we started a Back-to-School Backpack program a few years ago, and boy, has it been a big hit! At the start of each school year, we hand out backpacks loaded with all kinds of cool school supplies to the kids and grandkids of our employees. So far, we have given more than 1600 backpacks!

We do it because we know how expensive it is to raise kids these days, especially if you have more than one! And backpacks are only one way we reach out to employee families. We give away turkeys for the holidays, we have seasonal raffles and contests and a Summer Family Day in August, and we have a community donation matching program. We have to say, though, that those backpacks are #1 on the hit list.

Whatever motivational techniques you choose, you are investing in your employees. In turn, that encourages them to invest in the communities where they live. It also boosts morale, motivating employees to continue working for you and doing their best every day for customers.