Who Are Today's Contact Center Agents?
May 22, 2015
Contact center agents are the frontline of your company, and they have the greatest potential to affect the customer experience. In order to best make decisions about the frontline, it's important to understand the DNA of the work they do, how they are compensated, motivated, stressed, and affected by decisions.
ICMI and Five9 recently published a study that indicated that most agents may not be that much different from a historical version of you.
59% of contact center supervisors polled in the study were promoted from the role of agent.
ICMI's research dives into finding out more about today's contact center agents and their biggest struggles.
So... Who are today's agents?
- The average agent is 31 years old and seeking financial stability
- The average entry-level agent is earning around $13.50 per hour, or $28,000+ annually
- Top paid agents are earning in excess of $20 per hour, or $41,000+ annually
- Over 52% of agents stay in the role for less than three years, 25% stay 3-5 years, and just 24% stay beyond the five year mark
- For the agents that don't find internal opportunities for growth, they are quick to pursue alternative careers
What challenges do today's agents face?
Being a contact center agent is no easy gig. Here are just a few of the key findings from ICMI's survey:
- 87% recognized that their agents experience a moderate to high level of stress during their workday
- 71% recognized system and tool inefficiencies and difficulties as the top contributor to the agent's workday stress
- 92% stated that they believe their agent facing applications could be more effective
This degree of ineffectiveness is going to cause more problems as the agent's job becomes more complicated.
Learn more about the most common contact center agent pain points and the business benefits that can come with improving the agent experience.
Check out ICMI's latest research. View the Interactive Research Report:
