Three Ways to Motivate Disengaged Customer Service Representatives

Did you know that 70 percent of customer service representatives will quit their jobs within the year? Yikes. Not only is turnover expensive, but it's discouraging for the teammates who do stick around.

Companies around the U.S. are recognizing this and adjusting the structure of their organizations to keep their employees motivated. Southwest Airlines is a great example. Southwest says the secret to making employees feel appreciated and motivated is this:

"In our 'order of importance', we put our employees first, then our customers, then our shareholders...and in turn that results in increased business and profits that make everyone happy."

Pretty bold statement, right? But the numbers don't lie. Southwest has posted positive net income for the last 44 years, with record profitability in 2015 and 2016. Southwest teaches us all that putting employees first positively affects their attitudes and reduces turnover. Want to follow Southwest's footsteps? Try these three steps to increase employee drive.

Re-evaluate Your Mission and Values

Are your company's mission statement and values in line with the service your agents provide? If not, it could be that they aren't familiar with your company's values. That might sound crazy, but only 39 percent of employees are aware of their company's mission statement. Of those that do know it, 57 percent aren't motivated by it.

Take a look at your mission and values and make sure they set clear expectations for the type of experience you expect your customer service agents to provide. Getting your employees more involved with carrying out your mission statement will help build employee morale and make them more passionate about being good customer service agents.

Introduce New Incentives

How do you incentivize your customer service agents? Are employees who do the bare minimum treated the same as employees who go above and beyond? The best way to show your top performers you appreciate them is to reward hard work. Consider implementing an employee recognition program that includes some or all of the following types of incentives:

• Compensation — Offer raises, bonuses or prizes.
• Recognition — Thank your employees. If they're the type of person that's motivated by public recognition, praise their hard work in front of the rest of the team.
• Special Events — Have an ice cream social, buy a cake for the department or take top performers to a sporting event.

Whether you award the employee with the most outbound calls or the one who had the best survey results, any of these methods will help your agents feel like their work matters. Experiment with incentives to see what motivates employees most.

Empower Your Employees With the Right Technology

Chase R. on the phone. Literally.

Do your employees have the tools they need to succeed? Listen to their needs to see how you can help make them more successful and productive at their jobs. As an example, say you have an agent — we'll call him Chase R. — who has a hard time handling challenging phone calls with upset customers.

As you talk to Chase R., you realize he gets flustered switching between the call management application and CRM to get a complete picture of the customer's interaction history. While he searches for the information he needs, he sometimes has to put the caller on hold, which creates a negative customer experience.

It turns out that many of Chase R.'s coworkers have the same problem. To help them out, you realize you can improve their jobs with one simple change: integrating your CRM with your call management application. Now all your agents can spend less time flipping back and forth between different applications to look up caller info. Chase R. is happy, your customers are happy, and you're happy!

Whether it's investing in training so your agents feel prepared at work or technology to make tasks easier for them, listening and responding to your employees' needs will make a world of difference.

We won't lie: Reducing turnover in customer service is no walk in the park. But with these three steps, you have a shot at creating an environment that makes your employees want to stay. Just ask Chase R.

Are the Salespeople at Your Dealership More Like Cats or Dogs?

Do you consider yourself a cat or a dog person? Or neither, because you have a severe pet dander allergy which causes you to break out in hives? No matter what type of pet you prefer, you may be surprised to know that the key to successfully training your dealership sales team is getting to know our feline and canine friends.

We realize this sounds a little strange. Allow us to explain.

If you observe your salespeople in their natural habitat, you'll notice that they have different personality types, motivations and work styles that are shockingly similar to those you would find in the average cat and dog. So when it comes to improving their performance, you can assume that you’ll have to tap into a variety of tactics (instead of expecting one to work effectively across the board).

Cats are independent.

When an imaginative idea strikes a cat, such as playing tag with your cockatiel, they rarely consult you about it. Instead, they trust their gut instinct and figure out the solution for themselves. (Like why their friend suddenly fell asleep in the middle of the game.)

You might have some salespeople at your dealership with this catlike quality about them. They’re big-picture people who admire creative ideas and despise micromanagement. They won’t always follow your sales process or put notes in the CRM, but they get results.

How to motivate them: Keep things interesting and minimize manual processes as much as possible. (By the way, if you have reps who have trouble remembering to update the CRM, an inbound and outbound lead tracking solution that integrates with your CRM is a must-have.)

Present them with new challenges that are within the context of your goals. Repeatedly dismissing their ideas because they're off-target with your current objectives zaps motivation. Give feedback and reassurance that their creativity is valued.

Dogs are faithful. 

Dogs, on the other hand, want to follow your instructions to a tee. They trust the familiar and are wary of the unknown. (Are you certain the mailman is not a skilled assassin?)

This type of salesperson is the problem solver on your team. They're detail-oriented and like to use their skills to accomplish clear-cut tasks. However, they won’t move on to the next deal until they perfectly implement the previous one.

How to motivate them: Keep it straightforward. Tell them exactly what changes you'd like to see and give them the opportunity to solve practical problems where they'll quickly see tangible results.

Cats want flexibility. 

Cats don’t keep a tight schedule. They work in bursts of energy. Napping all day conserves their strength for the big hunt that night. (That string on the stick has no idea what's coming.) They like to keep their options open, so they can be spontaneous or comatose, depending on their mood.

The flexible salesperson is unconventional. They'll work late hours, come in early and close more deals than anyone else on your team, but it has to be on their timing.

How to motivate them: Keep things flexible. If possible, allow them to set their own schedule so they can work at a time when they feel they will accomplish the most. Keep rewards performance based. This type of salesperson is highly self-motivated and hard working once they get started.

Dogs want structure.

Dogs find comfort in schedules. If you don’t arrive home on time, they’re concerned. If you promised to go on a walk, they expect you to follow through.

This type of salesperson loves to stick to their established routine. They know what works and they don’t like to deviate from it.

How to motivate them: Maintain structure in daily routines. These salespeople strive for perfection and consistency in a long-term position. But don’t expect them to adjust to new tasks outside of their comfort zone easily.

If a new protocol is coming, give them plenty of advance notice so they have time to prepare. Reward their hard work with promotions, challenges within their field of expertise and public awards.

Cats crave power.

Cats don’t back down in a fight. If you want them off the kitchen table, you’ll have to throw them off every day for the rest of your life.

If you have this type of salesperson on your team, you can count on them to be assertive enough to share their controversial views with you and your prospects. They don't take no for an answer and will challenge a customer’s predetermined way of thinking to make a sale.

How to motivate them: Be reasonable. When you're changing your sales process, be prepared to answer tough questions from this type of salesperson. If there's a flaw in the way they're performing their job, you’ll need to present them with good reasons why they need to alter their process. Always listen to their feedback, reward them tangibly for their success and avoid micromanagement.

Dogs crave peace.

Dogs aim to please. They want to develop a strong relationship with you and make you happy at all costs. This type of salesperson is the relationship builder on your team. They want what the customer wants and will bend over backwards to resolve tensions during a sale.

How to motivate them: Maintain harmony. When you give these types of salespeople feedback on their performance, use more kind words and less criticism. Tell them what they're doing well and let them know what they can do to make things run more smoothly at your dealership. They're motivated by your appreciation. Use that to help them succeed. Most importantly, remember that you need each of these types of salespeople on your team to make it successful. They all play a vital role in closing deals, though the way they go about it may differ from yours.

Now that you better understand your sales team, give them a little coaching to make sure everybody plays nicely together. (Need help? We've got a guy for that.)