Exit Interviews Can Help to Reduce Turnover and Improve Customer Service Operations

PRLog (Press Release) - Nov. 10, 2011 - Customer service centers and call centers are often difficult to recruit for, and just as often are plagued by high turnover rates. But what can customer service managers do to mitigate these problems?

One possibility, says Beth Carvin in the November issue of "Customer Service Newsletter" is to make regular use of exit interviews to collect data on why customer service reps are leaving and what might have kept them at their jobs longer.

Carvin, the CEO of Nobscot Corporation, says that exit interviews can tell you a lot about what is going on in your center. Training is one of them. If customer service reps are leaving because they don't feel they have the skills or have been given the training to do parts of the job successfully, then you might be able to stem the tide by offering additional training and coaching in some areas.

In addition, "If you have different layers of supervision in the call center — various coaches, trainers, and supervisors — not all of them will have the skills and demeanor necessary to help reps get up to speed and improve their performance," she says. "Exit interviews can help you to pin-point which supervisors might need some help and training."

Sometimes exit interviews will tell you that reps just weren't expecting some part of the job — the performance-driven culture, the long hours, a largely scripted dialog with customers, or an emphasis on problem-solving — and that might signal that you need to improve your recruiting effort to provide a more realistic job picture.

The full text of the article, "Exit interviews can help reduce turnover and improve operations," appears in the November issue of "Customer Service Newsletter." You may see tips from Beth Carvin on how to write an exit interview at the newsletter website at:
http://www.CustomerServiceGroup.com/csn_web_extras.php

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About the Customer Service Group

For more than 20 years, the Customer Service Group has helped customer service, call center and help desk managers increase productivity, improve service quality and boost customer satisfaction, loyalty and retention. The Customer Service Group publishes "Customer Service Newsletter" and "The Customer Communicator."

Website: http://www.CustomerServiceGroup.com