Our Top Stories of 2024

All year round, our team have worked with industry experts across the world to bring you articles filled with the latest insights into Customer Experience, Employee Experience and Technology – but what’s been your favourite so far?

To find out, we took a deep dive into the stats to bring you our Top 10 Call Centre Helper Stories of 2024. Enjoy!

1. 16 Ways to Reduce AHT – Without Damaging the Customer Experience

Looking to reduce Average Handling Time (AHT) but worried about damaging the customer experience in the process? There are ways around this!

See what our Consultants Panel – including Dan Pratt, Irina Mateeva, Paul Weald, and more – have to say on creating a win–win situation of reducing AHT whilst keeping customers happy.

16 Ways to Reduce AHT – Without Damaging the Customer Experience

2. 5 Soft Skills Every Agent Needs Before Taking Their First Call

In customer service, where every phone call is a unique challenge, it’s crucial to prepare your team with the right soft skills before they start dealing with calls.

Here, Sirisha Peters, L&D Professional and Leadership Coach, explains the five essential soft skills that every call centre agent should have before going live with their first call.

These skills are not just valuable; they are essential for making your call centre efficient and providing excellent customer service.

5 Soft Skills Every Agent Needs Before Taking Their First Call

3. How to Turn a Bad Agent Into a Good Agent

You have a bad agent in your team. Now what?

Megan Jones, Editor at Call Centre Helper, interviewed Kim Ellis, Chief Learning Architect at Go Ginger Learning Solutions, and Rob Clarke, Director and Co-Founder of Elev-8 Performance, to find out what the experts say you can do to turn a negative situation into a positive – without showing an agent the door.

How to Turn a Bad Agent Into a Good Agent

4. How to Support an Agent After an Angry Call

In a call centre environment, there will be times when agents need to handle some difficult customer conversations.

One of the most stressful is a call with an angry customer. It sends adrenaline pumping and takes considerable energy for agents to control their emotions and response.

For these reasons, Helen Pettifer, a specialist in the fair treatment of vulnerable customers, explains how to give agents the added time and support they need to handle angry callers.

How to Support an Agent After an Angry Call

5. The Top 5 Agent Performance Metrics

With 30+ years of experience working across all communication channels in contact centres, Afshan Kinder shares her thoughts on the top five agent performance metrics that truly drive the right agent behaviours and actions to achieve operational excellence.

The Top 5 Agent Performance Metrics

6. Need to Reduce Absence in Your Contact Centre? Here’s How!

High absence levels are not an isolated issue.

When there aren’t enough people on shift, it has a negative impact on everything from team morale to service levels – and can quickly spiral out of control.

So how do you get your absence rates back down? To find out, we asked our Consultants Panel for the best ways to reduce absence in the contact centre.

Need to Reduce Absence in Your Contact Centre? Here’s How!

7. The 7 Cs of Effective Communication

Our Editor, Megan Jones, interviewed Danny Wareham, Certified Business Psychologist and coach, to find out what the 7 Cs of effective communication are and how best to apply them in your contact centre.

The 7 Cs of Effective Communication

8. How to Develop Empathy as a Skill in Your Frontline Teams

With the availability of chatbots, digital options and automated responses, you might expect the workload of call handlers to be low.

However, call centres are as busy as ever. The fact is that people seek answers and options that are specific to their requirements. In times of greatest need, they want to speak to a real person.

As such, customer service depends on empathic call handlers, so how do we develop empathy? Helen Pettifer, a specialist in the fair treatment of vulnerable customers, explains all.

How to Develop Empathy as a Skill in Your Frontline Teams

9. The 5 Pillars of Customer Experience (CX)

When striving to deliver great CX, it’s easy to become distracted by the latest trends and technology and lose sight of the fundamentals.

That’s why our Editor, Megan Jones, interviewed Shep Hyken, Chief Amazement Officer (CAO) at Shepard Presentations LLC, about the key elements of CX that consistently underpin a great experience.

The 5 Pillars of Customer Experience (CX)

10. 3 Proven Ways to Cheer Up Your Team

On a downward spiral with agent morale? Here are some proven ways to cheer up your team!

In this article, Megan Jones, Editor at Call Centre Helper, brings together long-term strategies and cheer-up activities – from Sir John Kirwan, Vosy Gordon, Martin Teasdale and more – that you can try to boost agent happiness in your contact centre.

3 Proven Ways to Cheer Up Your Team

Stay Tuned for Even More Articles in 2025!

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Author: Rachael Trickey
Reviewed by: Megan Jones