Running a call center in 2024 is tougher than ever in large part to Call Center Turnover. While support leaders frequently share KPIs like service level (SL), customer satisfaction (CSAT), net promoter score (NPS), and first-call resolution (FCR), call center turnover often flies under the radar.
Your call center turnover rate is a foundational metric, impacting every other KPI in your contact center.
Many accept high turnover rates as the norm for contact centers, but the industry is changing and some organizations are significantly lowering attrition rates. Looking ahead to 2025, the focus for most companies is on cutting costs, retaining customers, driving new revenue, and improving the performance of existing teams.
You won't achieve these goals if your best talent is constantly walking out the door.
To clearly understand contact center turnover, we reached out to an industry veteran, Omar Recendiz.
Omar is the VP of Customer Support for Citizen Watch and has over 20 years of experience managing contact centers at companies including Techstyle Fashion Group and Nickelodeon.
This article will feature Omar's insights and examine everything from the effects of call center turnover on customer experience to strategies that leading brands are implementing to prevent it.
At the end of this article, you'll find a song about call center turnover. "The Agent Attrition Blues" is the first of its kind and was created, produced, and inspired using real quotes from our interview with Omar. Fair warning: it is deceptively catchy.
As you read through the article, see how many of the song's themes you recognize in your own experience.
Topics we'll be covering:
- Definition of Call Center Turnover
- How to Calculate Call Center Turnover Rate
- The Causes of Call Center Turnover
- The Costs of High Call Center Turnover
- How to Reduce Call Center Turnover Rate
- Example of Reducing Call Center Turnover Rate
- Technology to Reduce Call Center Turnover
- The Agent Attrition Blues Song
Definition of Call Center Turnover
Call center turnover is the rate of which employees leave and need to be replaced. The higher the rate, the more frequently contact centers need to re-staff. "Contact center turnover" is also referred to as "agent attrition" and throughout this article we'll use the terms interchangeably.
There are two main types of call center turnover: voluntary and involuntary.
Voluntary Turnover
Voluntary turnover is defined as when call center agents leave on their own accord, often for better job opportunities, career changes, personal reasons, or dissatisfaction with their current role. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, call center quit rates are 2-5 times higher compared to almost any other occupation.
Involuntary Turnover
Involuntary turnover is when contact center agents are asked to leave the company. A company may choose to part ways with its employees for a variety of reasons that extend beyond performance issues or misconduct. Heavily seasonal businesses like those in retail may hire more agents to handle spikes during the holidays and let them go after demand dips. Companies may also conduct layoffs when the economy tightens and, unfortunately, the contact center is one of the first places many brands look when it's time to make cuts.
What is Call Center Turnover Rate?
Call center turnover rate is the percentage that shows how many employees leave over a certain time period, usually monthly or yearly.
How to Calculate Call Center Turnover Rate
Call Center Turnover Rate = (Number of Employees Who Left During a Period / Average Number of Employees During That Period) * 100%
Example:
You’re running a call center with an average of 150 contact center agents and 15 agents left in a particular month. The average turnover rate of the call center during that month would be 10%. (15 ÷ 150) x 100 = 10%.
Assuming the agents who left were replaced, a 10% monthly turnover rate means that a company will need to hire 180 new agents every year just to maintain its 150 contact center size.
If a 10% monthly attrition rate is maintained throughout the year...
15 agents x 12 months = 180 agents turnover a year
Replacing a call center agent runs an average of $10,000, and that's just for retraining. Factor in lost productivity and potential customer churn, and the real price tag goes up fast. In the above example, the impact of a 10% turnover would cost your department $1.8 million every year.
What’s the Average Turnover Rate for a Call Center?
On average, call centers experience a 30–45% annual turnover rate.
While this is an annual turnover rate, you should be calculating call center turnover more regularly rather than just once a year. While, annual calculations provide a high-level overview on the effectiveness of your retention strategies, monthly calculations can help you spot immediate trends and address issues quickly.
Tip: Keep an eye on your competitors. Are they experiencing similar turnover trends? If yes, it could indicate broader industry challenges, allowing you to adjust your strategies accordingly.
What Causes High Call Center Turnover Rate?
Working at any level of a contact center is demanding.
From the executives like Omar who lead customer support teams, to the frontline agents that face your customers. It's a non-stop roller coaster that only certain types of people are suited for.
Listen to what Omar says are the top contact center turnover contributors in the video below.
There are things we can do to make the challenges worth it, but it's important to know the underlying causes in order to prevent a higher than normal call center turnover rate.
1. Difficult work environment
Working in a contact center is a stressful job. It takes a lot out of a customer support agent to deal with a high volume of calls, repetitive inquiries, angry customers, and meet performance targets. All of this under the close scrutiny of upper management.
According to a Cornell University study, 87% of call center agents feel their job causes them stress.
2. Low salaries and benefits
A call center agents salary depends on the location of the contact center, but typically the salary is entry level for frontline agents.
Being a stressful job, this issue might not inspire longevity in your top performers.
3. Lack of growth opportunities
Many call centers have a flat organizational structure with few opportunities for promotion or skill development. Top performers want to grow in their roles and make meaningful contributions to the company.
4. Toxic work culture
Recognition and reward goes a long way. But it isn't just a lack of fun and games that can create a toxic work culture.
Employees who experience a lack of onboard training, poor or no communication from team leaders, and feelings of being undervalued or under appreciated for their contributions will not stick around long.
Learn more about cultivating a culture of emotional intelligence in your workplace.
5. Demanding performance metrics
There is no getting around that call centers have rigid and high key performance indicators (KPIs), such as first call resolution, average handle time, customer satisfaction scores, and upsell targets.
Sometimes, the performance evaluations are conducted in a short span, leading to stress and anxiety, especially if the feedback is primarily negative or punitive. Demanding performance metrics is par for the course in a contact center, but if any of the other causes of turnover are in play, this will be the final nail in the coffin.
6. Unfavorable working hours or location
Some call centers require agents to work nights, weekends, and holidays to cover peak periods. Due to high workloads, their shifts often get extended, contributing to physical and mental exhaustion.
On top of this, long drives to the contact center for time they're not paid for adds to the discontent with the role in general.
81% of call center agents prefer to work from home, 16% like the hybrid model, and only 3% like physically going to the call center for work. (80)
The Costs of High Call Center Turnover
The costs of a high call center turnover are seen at every level of the organization. The first casualty in the battle of employee retention is customer experience (CX).
Let's break down the hidden costs:
Lowered Customer Satisfaction (CSAT)
High call center turnover = poor customer experience (CX) = lowered CSAT.
New agents may struggle with complex issues, impacting CX, which in turn will lead to lower CSAT scores and the potential for lost customers.
Financial Losses
The direct cost of replacing a frontline agent averages $10,000 per agent. This includes recruitment, hiring, and training expenses.
There is also the financial loss associated with reduced productivity during the process of onboarding new agents.
Lowered KPIs
New hires take about 90 days to get up to speed. Losing a top performing agent will lead to longer wait times and frustrated customers.
"If you have to train new people, it takes at least 90 days for them to get up to speed. In those 90 days, they're less productive than somebody who has already been in that role for a year and decided to move on for some reason."
Plummeting Team Morale
Constant turnover will negatively affect the remaining team members. Even if they understand the reasons, the increased workload and stress on your veteran agents will lead to an exodus of your top talent for better working conditions.
Product Knowledge Loss
When experienced agents leave, they take valuable information about your company, products, systems, and services with them, impacting your team's ability to handle complex or unique situations.
Losing a veteran agent is like losing a product knowledge-base.
How to Reduce Call Center Turnover Rate
It's not easy to reduce call center turnover but it is possible.
The causes of call center turnover leaves clues on how to address or improve each potential root cause. By focusing on each solution individually, the combined efforts will lead to even higher impacts.
1. Improve the work conditions
Have flexible schedules and work arrangements. Offer options for remote work and flexible hours.
Look for ways to save your team members time and stress.
2. Offer enticing compensation
Contact center's run on tight margins, but, the cost is even higher to replace an agent if they leave. Develop individual or team performance targets linked to rewards or bonuses to motivate.
Review pay structures, offer attainable performance bonuses, and provide advancement opportunities.
3. Establish a positive company culture
Recognize achievements, foster empathy, appreciation and respect.
As a contact center team leader, ask yourself:
- Are you providing effective coaching and personalized feedback to all your agents?
- If yes, how do you know?
- Are your agents feeling valued and recognized?
The goal is to build a call center where potential and current agents want to work.
At the end of the year, somebody could get a trip somewhere, so you could do things for employees beyond the regular coaching and training that we talked about, such as employee recognition programs.
~ Omar Recendiz
4. Invest in training and development
Continuous learning opportunities, skill development programs, and career growth paths keep employees engaged and committed to their roles.
Give each agent one-on-one time, personalized training, and coaching. Adequate training boosts agent performance and increases job satisfaction and retention.
Are you doing things that create attrition and do those employees end up leaving voluntarily? Or are you providing sufficient training, coaching, and development so that those employees can meet your performance expectations of them?
~ Omar Recendiz
Note: Many BPOs ask us not to reveal their names because doing so would reveal their "secret sauce." For that reason, we've kept this BPO's name anonymous.
A global healthcare business process outsourcer was experiencing a high call center turnover rate of over 11% a month and low engagement amongst their contact center agents.
The BPO onboarded AmplifAI’s call center performance management platform to help reduce call center turnover.
AmplfAI identified key areas for improvement:
- Personalized training
- Create a standard recognition process for agents who performed well
- Reduce manual coaching prep for team supervisors
With the help of AmplifAI’s AI-powered coaching and data-driven insights, the BPO improved its call center turnover rate by 12% within three months.
Agents were happier and more fulfilled. Positive vibes weren't the only result: the lowered attrition rate led to an annualized cost savings of $1,500,000 for the company.
Technology to Reduce Call Center Turnover
We've reviewed the causes and strategies to reduce call center turnover rate. While you don't necessarily need technology to implement these strategies, the right tools can significantly improve your efforts and provide a favorable ROI.
The biggest challenge in reducing call center turnover is that there's simply not enough time in the day. Technology can help with that.
Modern call centers generate an overwhelming amount of analytics data. Team leaders don't have the time to review, interpret, and effectively coach each agent individually based on all this information.
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The right software can alleviate the burden on quality trainers, managers, and team leaders, allowing them to focus on the human-centric strategies that technology can't replicate.
Here's how technology can help leaders:
1. Make data-driven decisions
Software solutions like AmplifAI can aggregate all of your contact center analytics data into one role based dashboard, providing actionable data-driven insights into agent performance and behavior. By centralizing information from various sources, these tools help you identify trends and potential issues early.
2. Personalize coaching and development
One of the key reasons agents leave is the lack of growth opportunities. With software like AmplifAI you can leverage data-driven coaching to identify skill gaps and tailor coaching sessions, ensuring each agent receives the development they need to succeed and feel valued.
3. Keep your teams engaged and motivated
Gamification and recognition features give team leaders the insights and tools to recognize and reward top performers. AI driven software like AmplifAI comes with these features out of the box. Real-time feedback and gamified incentives will significantly boost motivation and engagement.
4. Create a positive work environment
AI-driven actions and tools can help cultivate a positive and supportive work environment. AI is able to identify issues and offer the next best actions required to remediate the issue ensuring agents feel heard, valued, and challenged.
While AI technology can't (or shouldn't) replace the human touch, it can free up your team's time to focus on what matters most - building relationships and developing your agents.
Final Thoughts
Reducing call center turnover is important because a more stable workforce leads to happier customers and benefits your business in the long run. Addressing the root causes of employee attrition while promoting a positive work environment can go a long way, but don't be afraid to tackle turnover the "old fashioned" way.
Many companies are already leveraging technology to identify and automate the time-consuming parts of their employees' day and, if you ask them, they will never go back. In the case of AI, look for providers who are interested in enhancing your team, rather than replacing them. After all, that is what addressing turnover is all about.
If your organization is struggling with a high call center turnover rate it's worth checking out how AmplifAI has already helped over 150 brands and BPOs.
Schedule a demo today.
The Agent Attrition Blues
You've made it to the end and, as promised, here's your song. "The Agent Attrition Blues" captures the realities of call center turnover in a catchy jazz blues tune. It's our musical take on the challenges we've discussed.
Give it a listen and feel free to download and share with your team!
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