“Why does my job matter?”
Every employee asks that question at some point or another, often during the hiring process. And yet, frequently, the answer is lost in the day-to-day activities of work.
When employees lose sight of why they should keep showing up and how they matter to the company, they can quickly get disillusioned, bored, and burned out.
However, genuine enthusiasm for your company and its mission can inspire call center agent engagement to new levels. The key is uniting your company’s brand and culture with your mission and continually promoting it to your employees. It won’t be easy, but it will be worth it.
Your company’s mission statement is more than just a simple high-level goal. It explains what makes your company stand out. The mission is the company's core purpose and ultimate objective. It’s how you show your customers, investors, and employees that the company has a bright future and has values and a purpose that will get it there.
According to HubSpot, “A mission statement clarifies what the company wants to achieve, who they want to support, and why they want to support them…mission statements are the purpose a company serves.” Why does this matter?
Getting behind your company’s mission is more than just being engaged with a job. It’s critical to not just overall company performance but also employee satisfaction. Employees need to feel that their job is meaningful. Otherwise, 76% of them will fall victim to a purposeless employee experience.
During every customer conversation, your call center agents should keep the company mission in mind, even if their day-to-day tasks seem removed. That’s because mission-driven workers are 54% more likely to stay with your company and 30% more likely to grow into high performers.
On top of that, a well-known company mission breeds authenticity and transparency, so you can build more trust with your call center agents. And trusted organizations are 2.5 times more likely to function as high-performance organizations with revenue growth. This results in agents with a strong work culture driven by deep engagement and meaningful work.
So, how do you communicate your company’s mission to your call center agents and get their buy-in? How do you make it a critical element of their everyday work? It all comes down to communication and connection.
First, you need to make sure your agents know your company's mission. It's estimated 60 percent of employees don't know the mission of the company they work for. This is a problem considering 60% of millennials—the dominant workforce—said the company purpose contributed to their decision to work somewhere.
Call center agent engagement requires them to know why your company does what it does—its main selling points. Your mission statement should be the focus of what you do at all levels of the company. So, whenever a call center agent reaches an impasse, she should return to the mission statement as a guiding principle underpinning how to handle it.
The key is to put your mission statement everywhere. Put your mission statement in the breakroom, on company materials, and vocalize it in training sessions. Remind your call center agents regularly why your customers choose your company and why your company offers what it does.
While it's fine for Alphabet (Google’s parent company) to prioritize its mission of “freedom and focus,” they can’t achieve that goal without each team member participating. It is therefore essential to translate the mission of the company into concrete, executable tasks performed by your call center agents. Your company purpose must be aligned at critical points with your people and culture.
To make this possible, follow the example of companies like Patagonia. For decades, they have embedded their purpose into everything they do, and their purpose is bold, “to save our home planet.” That has given Patagonia the impetus to expand their business, drive their portfolio, and inform their choices.
You can connect your mission to your agents in a few ways:
Part of aligning with your company’s mission is sharing ownership of the company's success. That’s why call center agent engagement requires giving agents a stake in what they do. Through team meetings or feedback sessions, give them a voice in how a product is created or service delivered. You can also create a flowchart or graphic that shows how each agent’s work impacts others and the company at large.
Bonus and incentive programs are another option to give agents a feeling of shared purpose with management. The key may be to determine rewards based on criteria related to the company’s mission. Then make sure your agents know what’s expected of them and how to meet those expectations. Ask for call center agent feedback about:
Cynicism prevents employees at all levels from performing their best. When it comes to the company mission statement, management should demonstrate commitment to following its principles to maintain employee morale.
Agents quickly lose their excitement for the mission if they sense management isn't sticking to its own goals. So, for the sake of transparency, share how leadership objectives align with the mission. Make it a regular part of team meetings to discuss how daily tasks at all levels help reach the main objective.
You don't have to lay out the nitty-gritty of your business plan to all employees. Just be open enough to show you're also willing to put in the work and that you're ultimately chasing the same goal as the agents.
To encourage call center agent engagement with your mission, you need to stay grounded. It's less important to be unique than to be authentic. If your mission is to “provide the best customer service,” stick with it. Your mission won't win any awards for innovation, but it's clear and actionable.
By properly communicating a clear and actionable company mission, you're making life easier for your call center agents. Your agents will better understand how to handle all types of customer interactions by knowing their ultimate objective. Just make sure to provide regular direction and feedback on what’s expected. Be clear and direct and discuss any concerns or achievements with them.
Finally, make sure you connect your company mission to QA metrics in the call center. Your mission can and should be rigorously measured. This means identifying the key performance indicators and quality assurance metrics that tie to your company’s purpose. By tracking these metrics over time, you can incentivize your call center agents to meet their purpose targets.
Mission metrics should be about both day-to-day operations as well as agent allocation decisions and company-wide transformation initiatives. Examples of call center metrics you might use to measure your mission include:
This is where scorecards come into play. Scorecards help you track the KPIs most essential to producing a successful call center. They empower your leaders to evaluate outcomes based on customized criteria (such as your mission) by giving them the tools necessary to monitor and manage your agents. As a result, your call center agents will know exactly what they need to do to meet their goals.
Your company’s mission statement is the purpose of your company. That’s why it’s critical to call center agent engagement. When you start with a vision, mission and purpose, it’s easier to build everything else around that.
The key is to consistently align and motivate your call center agents to fulfill their mission. You can do this by communicating the mission regularly, connecting the mission to your people, emphasizing shared goals, committing to transparency, focusing on authenticity, and identifying metrics for measurement.
And when you hardwire your company’s mission into your call center, your mission will become the source of your competitive advantage and the incentive for your agents to remain engaged.
