Do Age Differences
Among Agents
Impact a Customer’s
Experience?
   

1
  

Do age differences among

agents impact a customer’s
experience?
Call centers live and breathe on data, but sometimes data are displaced by myths
that through some unbeknownst force become reality. There are not very many
businesses that are as data focused as call centers. The amount of data being
monitored on a second-by-second basis is staggering. Center leaders use these
data regularly to improve operational performance via coaching, call routing, etc.
Despite being one of the most data-centric businesses in the world, many call
centers continue to allow myths to influence perceptions of agents’ tenure and
on-the-job success.
Many call center insiders believe that an agent’s generation affects longevity and
the quality of the customer’s experience. Without question, driving a better
customer experience is important because it is impacts customer loyalty1 and
improved profitability2. What is less clear, however, is whether different
generational groups produce different customer experiences. Therefore,
FurstPerson conducted research to examine whether generational group
membership is related to tenure and/or the customer’s experience.
Age of Call Center Applicants
The generational profile of call center applicants varies widely between brick-and-
mortar and at-home centers. Data from more than 156,000 call center applicants
indicated that 22% are 40 years of age or older. After separating the applicants
into at-home and brick-and-mortar pools, the generational profile becomes even
clearer. Fewer than 1 in 5 brick-and-mortar applicants (18%) was 40 or older
compared to only nearly 1 in 3 at-home applicants (32%). These data suggest
that, at a minimum, at-home applicant pools tend to be composed of
substantially more people who are 40 or older.

1
A closer look at customer experience and loyalty. Tempkin, B. (2008). Forrester Research.
2
The business impact of customer experience, 2010. Burns, M. (2010). Forrester Research  

 
2
  

Defining Generational Groups

There seems to be some disagreement on how to define Baby Boomers, Gen X,

and Gen Y. Some people define the Baby Boomer generation as those born
from the early 1940’s to the mid 1960’s while others define it from the early
1940’s to the early 1960’s. Although the definitions overlap considerably even
small differences could substantially impact research. We chose to define the
generational groups in the following manner:

The above framework synthesizes the various definitions of the generational

groups into the categories that guided FurstPerson’s research.

Generational Groups in Call Center Recruitment

Many call center leaders and recruiters believe the ideal call center agent is
between the ages of 27 and 45. In fact, a commonly held view in call centers is
that older workers are more mature, stable, and reliable. It seems that this
belief, whether intentional or not, often influences recruitment and hiring
decisions.

There are approximately 144,000,000 people in the U.S. workforce today. Well
over half of these workers are members of the Baby Boomer or Gen X groups -
in fact, 48% or 69.1 million are 40 years of age or older. The good news is that
there are a lot of Gen X and Baby Boomers in the workforce from which to
choose. The bad news is that we haven’t found much empirical research that
supports the conclusion that older workers stay longer and perform better than
younger generations.

Many contact centers appear to prefer to hire older workers when given the
opportunity. The extent to which this preference generates the expected
outcomes (better retention and performance) remains to be seen.

 
3
  

Tenure of Different Generational Groups

FurstPerson’s conducted analyses to evaluate the tenure of different

generational groups in call center jobs. The results indicated that Baby
Boomers have:

 Significantly longer tenure than Gen X (9%) and Gen Y (11%)3

 28% longer tenure before terminating their employment than Gen X and
44% more than Gen Y
 A 19% lower 0 – 90 day attrition rate than Gen Y and a 28% lower rate
than Gen X.

The data suggest that older workers are indeed more stable in call center jobs.

Generational Group and Customer Experience

Although more mature workers are less prone to attrition, an equally important
issue concerns whether generational groups produce an equivalent customer
experience. Agents who remain employed and deliver marginal or poor quality
customer experiences can be more costly to a company than early-life attrition.
The phenomenon in which marginal or poor performers remain employed with
a company is something we call “The Dark Side of Retention” and many call
centers are plagued by it.

Many call center leaders believe mature employees produce a better customer
experience, so the FurstPerson team examined the belief empirically. In this
research, we define the quality of customer experience using Customer
Satisfaction (CSAT) scores collected from post-call surveys.

The results proved to be very interesting. For example, we found:

 No differences between generational groups’ CSAT scores, regardless of

tenure
 A trend suggesting Gen Y may produce better CSAT scores in technical
jobs, but the result was not significant

3
There were no significant differences between Gen X and Gen Y in overall tenure.  

 
4
  

The results suggest that more mature agents will stay longer, but they may not
produce a better customer experience, particularly in more technical jobs.

What it all means

Do more senior generational groups stay longer and deliver a better customer
experience than younger generational groups? Based on FurstPerson’s research,
the answer is mixed. On one hand, Baby Boomers are significantly more likely to
remain employed longer than younger generations. Perhaps one explanation
comes from research by Dilip Jeste that shows older people are less impulsive
and controlled by emotion, which many might call wisdom. And, as anyone who
has worked in the call center industry can attest, being resilient and unaffected
by emotion is critical to success.

The results also reinforce the need for call centers to remain data-focused when
screening and placing talent. Conducting good empirical research before
settling on a pre-hire assessment process and using those data to inform talent
management and process decisions will help improve a center’s ability to
identify the right people for the right job. In fact, using the data from your
company to inform the pre-hire process is the most effective way to improve
the quality of hire, minimize legal exposure, and produce the desired customer
experience.

 
5
  

About FurstPerson
What we do:
 Develop and operate web-based pre-hire, employee
selection assessments that help customer contact
organisations hire and develop the right employees.

Our experience:
   Thirteen years of research and implementation
experience working with all major call types including
customer care, sales, collections, win back, and
technical support.
 Implemented our solutions in over 250 labor markets
in the United States, Canada, UK, the Philippines, and
Latin America.
 Home agent hiring since 2002.
 Average client is a multi-site, multi-call type
organization with complex hiring workflow models
and job profiles.
 Developed award-winning assessments featuring
  interactive simulations.

  Differentiators:
 Predictive assessments with demonstrated bottom
line results ranging from:
o Improved new hire performance (up to 40%)
o Reduced turnover (up to 70%)
o ROI - $1 invested yields $10 to $20 in return
o Lower recruiting expense
  Hiring solutions based on empirical research
supported by ongoing job and validation analysis.
 Customized solutions leveraging our extensive
contact center hiring expertise and industry leading
assessment solutions.

To learn more about FurstPerson, please visit our website

at www.furstperson.com or email us at
info@furstperson.com or call us at 888-626-3412.
 
 

 
6