Press Release

Research shows customer service industry acting to improve performance and reduce staff turnover

13 July 2005

Research by people management experts, the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), Institute of Customer Service (ICS) and Aston Business School, into employee motivation in the customer service industry shows that flexible working and innovative approaches to reward can reduce staff turnover, deliver business objectives better and improve customer satisfaction. Call centres experience 25% more than the average staff turnover but the research, carried out in organisations with call centres and other customer service led structures, shows how this can be tackled.

Work-life balance is an important tool in any organisation's recruitment and retention strategy as unemployment within the UK reaches its lowest. Flexible working arrangements can help to attract underused groups, such as parents and students because they offer staff more control over when they work.

Young women make up a large proportion of customer service employees for whom worklife balance is likely to be more important than most other groups. This makes it more difficult for these organisations to compete in the war for talent as more employers introduce flexible working practices.

David Parsons, Chief Executive, Institute of Customer Service, says, "Call centres and other UK customer services roles have a poor reputation. They are often referred to as low paid and low skilled. But they don't have to be modern day sweatshops. They should remain employee focused to create a positive and supportive culture as they rely on staff to retain customers and promote the brand. Treating staff as individuals, rewarding them for success and helping them to fit work around other commitments demonstrates appreciation, and can make all the difference in retaining staff and improving performance."

Flexible benefits must be combined with the total reward package if they are to produce positive results. Organisations who develop a benefit package that meets the needs of bot the business and employees generally achieve a higher standard of customer service. The report found that organisations with the highest levels of customer service used the following techniques:

• Individual performance related pay
• Performance judged against customer satisfaction, not just productivity
• Team-based communication, reward and recognition schemes

Charles Cotton, CIPD Reward Adviser, says, "Reducing the amount of face-to-face contact increases competition and makes employers reliant on high standards of customer service in order to succeed, leaving them with new challenges for improving staff performance.

"High performance requires staff to feel valued and depends on line managers or supervisors providing support and feedback to all staff, and engaging with them to understand their individual needs. There is no one size fits all solution, and what works for one employee or drives the reward strategy for one organisation may not work for another.

"Reward and recognition is a two-way process. Employers must make sure the reward package is complemented by a good people management policy, only then will they gain commitment from staff and improve motivation thus raising the standard of customer care."

Rewarding Service - using reward and recognition to deliver your customer service uses case studies to investigate what forms of reward and recognition encourages high levels of performance, commitment and customer care. It also looks at how other factors such as organisational culture affects satisfaction with reward and recognition.