Telemarketing is known as one of those industries with a big Staff Retention problem. However, it is actually very easy to have low staff turnover in your Telemarketing room when you know exactly what staff need to be happy.
Traditionally telemarketing does have high staff turnover. I believe this is for a number of reasons:
- Many telemarketing rooms are poorly run and put undue pressure on their staff or manage them in an overbearing fashion.
- Often people are hired who have never done telemarketing before. Many of these people realize that they don’t enjoy it and only stay until they find a new job.
- As it is usually only a 4 – 6 hour shift, many people leave looking for full time work.
- It can be quite draining work and if the employer doesn’t understand this and make a workplace that supports its staff, then staff will leave.
It is actually quite easy to overcome this problem and have quite high staff retention.
By hiring suitable telemarketers, providing adequate training, good management, ongoing motivation, recognition and encouragement along with a comfortable work environment and good rates of pay, you can have a telemarketing team that is happy and stays with you long term.
Let’s look at each of those seperately so you have a very clear plan on how to overcome staff retention problems.
Hiring Suitable Telemarketers
I comprehensively cover this topic in my E-book..The Complete Guide to Recruiting, Training and Motivating Telemarketers.
But to sum up, I believe it is worth spending the time on getting the right staff in the first place. Many people are not suited to Telemarketing, so we are best off finding the “gold” staff members. These are the people who will love their work, who find the hours convenient and who have the right skill set to give you results.
Providing Adequate Training
Click here to find out more about training Telemarketers… Training needs to be provided before new telemarketers even pick up a phone. But it also needs to be followed through with daily training to expand and cement new knowledge.
Good Management
To me, if you get this right, you have success. A great Telemarketing Manager will hire the right staff, train them well, motivate and appreciate staff. When telemarketers are led by someone they admire, trust and respect….someone who supports them and guides them, they are content in their jobs. Get the top Management training tips here…
Ongoing Motivation
Keeping the team motivated equals keeping the team happy. Staff who come into work wishing they could be someplace else will not only give you poor results, but will ultimately end up in you having to deal with unnecessary staff retention issues. This means too much time is spent recruiting and training new staff. It is far better to retain the staff you have already put much effort into. For tips on staff motivation click here…
Recognition and Encouragement
When staff feel appreciated, recognised and encouraged… they enjoy their work. When they feel like only their mistakes are noticed or that someone is always looking over their shoulder to correct them, they soon lose all sense of confidence and trust in their ability to do a good job. This leads to a feeling of “I don’t do a good enough job.” People who feel this way, will rarely stick around. Instead they will look for a place where they can feel good about themselves.
A comfortable Work Environment
The physical and emotional/ energetic environment of the Call Centre is vital to good staff retention. Again, I cover this topic in great detail in my E-book, which is a must have for anyone who runs a Call Centre.
The environment needs to support staff. It needs to make them feel a part of a team, but at the same time breed a feeling of responsibility and accountability for producing quality results.
Good rates of pay
A good rate of pay for a Telemarketer currently is between $20 and $35 per hour. This will depend on their skill level, what results they give you and in some cases on their experience.
In saying that, results are my main measure of what a telemarketer is worth per hour to my business. For this reason, I would normally start all staff on the same hourly rate and then pay a generous bonus commission for results. This way everyone is paid what they are worth to your business.
Underpaying staff is a quick way to ensure staff retention issues in your Call center. There are so many telemarketing jobs out there that staff will often be on the lookout for a better deal if they are underpaid. This means that they not only eventually leave you, but they were probably not overly committed to the role while they were with you. This is clearly not the formula for Top Telemarketing results.
