This survey of over 250 call center managers found that agent attrition was the top challenge in achieving organizational goals. 52.5% of respondents ranked agent attrition as a key obstacle. Attrition significantly impacts success at 85% of companies. The most effective ways to lower attrition were improving new hire training, increasing training for existing agents, and implementing coaching programs. While some saw temporary reductions, 39% were unable to sustain lower attrition levels long-term. Most would invest cost savings from lower attrition towards their most important goals.

1. Impact of Attrition
Benchmark Study
Results from August 2007 Survey

2. Impact of Attrition Survey
Request sent to Knowlagent internal
database via email
Title Breakdown
251 responses
Unknown
3%
Other
19%
Manager
38%
Number of Agents
VP
17.2% 18%
More than 1000
33.3%
Less than 100 Director
22%
11.7%
501-1000
10.6%
301-500
27.2%
101-300

3. Organizational Goals
Please select the category that most closely matches that of the most
important goals in your call center.
Revenue/Sales related 15.6%
Customer satisfaction related
68% of goals are
40.2%
Customer loyalty related 4.5%
customer satisfaction,
loyalty or experience-
Quality related 8.6%
related.
Cost related 3.3%
Customer experience related
22.1%
Net promoter related 0.8%
Other (please specify) 4.9%
Organization's Success Towards Most Important Goal
Did not meet goal
39% of respondents 4%
were partially or Exceeded the goal
completely 25%
unsuccessful against Partially met the goal
their highest stated 35%
goal.
Met the goal
36%

4. Ranking Challenges to Goal Achievement
What are the key obstacles to achieving the goal? (all that apply)
Other 14.3%
Agents not the right
personality fit 29.5%
Agents without right
skills and knowledge
41.0%
Agent attrition 52.5%
Organizational
alignment 21.7%
Other goal(s) in conflict
23.8%
Not enough resources
37.7%
Not enough budget
19.3%
Attrition ranks the highest. Other issues addressable via hiring
processes also stand out – personality and skill mismatches.

5. Impact of Attrition
Impact of Attrition on Achieving Goals
Doesn’t affect
success at all
2% Major reason for lack
of success
Has little effect on 15%
success
13%
Gets in the way of
success
70%
Attrition significantly impacts success at 85% of companies.

6. Attrition Across the Agent Lifecycle
17 15 17 13
22
29
4 6
8 16
9 5
13
12 8 3 Do not track
5
14 3 17
12 >50%
19
20 31-50%
19
20 20 21-30%
18 27 11-20%
19
0-10%
21
41
36
29 26
24
13
New hire Less than 90 90 days to 1 1-3 years More than 3 Overall
training days on the year years attrition
floor
When reporting on attrition at different stages, respondents
typically reported lower numbers than what would be expected
when reviewing the overall attrition percentages.

7. Why does attrition occur?
Rank order the top 3 reasons for attrition.
The agent has a poor relationship with the
supervisor
Other
The agent does not have a clear career path for
advancement
Number 1
The agent does not have the right knowledge
Number 2
and skills to perform the job
Number 3
The agent isn’t a good personality fit for the job
The job is not what the agent expected
The agent leaves to make more money
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40
While increasing salary is selected most often as the cause of attrition, the most
highly ranked reason is related to unclear job expectations. When Number 1 and
Number 2 rankings are combined, increased salary, unclear expectations and
personality fit appear to be equal contributors to attrition.

8. Battling Attrition
Rating Method Effectiveness Against Attrition
Increasing salaries 13 21 35 13 2 16
Focusing on career growth opportunities 12 30 34 13 1 11
Improving/Creating mentoring programs 11 36 27 7 1 19
Implementing supervisor-agent coaching programs for
19 40 26 7 8
existing agents
Increasing training and communications to existing agents 19 40 29 7 15
Improving new hire training and nesting 17 50 22 5 7
Using assessment tools for hiring 11 23 34 6 3 22
Very effective Effective Somewhat effective Not very effective Not effective at all Method not in use
The methods most reported as effective against attrition are improving new hire training
and nesting, increasing training and communications and implementing coaching
programs.

9. Success Over the Long Haul
Rate Long-Term Effectiveness Against Attrition
10%
Lowered initially and
20% more since then.
Have not addressed.
31%
13% Lowered and stayed
Unsuccessful in at or near that level.
lowering.
26%
Lowered temporarily
but has since
increased.
While 41 percent have had success lowering attrition and at least keeping it steady,
39 percent have either been unsuccessful or were unable to sustain results.

10. Where would the savings go?
Applying Cost Savings From Lowering Attrition
Apply towards the
bottom line
33%
Invest in highest
stated goal
49%
Invest in secondary
goal(s)
18%
Most respondents would take costs saved from attrition reduction and apply
towards their most important goal.

11. About Knowlagent
Knowlagent has enabled
companies around the world to
manage call center agents for 13
years.
Hiring
Training
Communications
Coaching
Easy to use on-demand software
No capital expenditures
Deployable in 30 days
Accessible via the Web
Enabling more companies to optimize
frontline performance faster and more
affordably than ever before.
For more info:
kengle1@knowlagent.com