What Should We Call Frontline Call Centre Staff?

A recent Call Centre Helper poll found that 31% of companies call their frontline staff something other than agent, advisor, representative or executive.

Alternative job titles include:

• Customer Service Representative (CSR)
• Associate
• Officer
• Communications Professional
• Customer Care Representative
• Customer Service Agent
• Customer Support Specialist
• Team Member
• Customer Account Manager
• Ambassador
• Partner
• “The Team”
• Ninja
• Detective
• Telephone Sales Representative (TSR)
• Sales Consultant
• Sales Advisor
• Customer Experience Advisor
• Customer Champion

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So, with all of these options, which job title should be implemented in your call centre?

“Agent” used to be the generally accepted term for such workers, but now, according to our poll, only 26% of businesses still refer to their frontline staff by this name.

So, why are people moving on from the term “agent”?
Richard Kenny, Head of Global Customer Experience Marketing at Plantronics, suggests that the “the term is a little bit generic and it does not reflect the increasing difficulty of the jobs people are doing.”

In this sense, you could interpret the “Call Centre Agent” tag as dismissive of the duties that the role entails, whilst it also undermines the importance of the job.

Martin Hill Wilson, founder of Brainfood Consulting, seemingly agrees with this sentiment, stating that “I believe titles are most powerful when they describe the essence of the job undertaken.”