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Contact Center Hiring

Here’s Where to Find the Best Live Chat Agents

Suzanna Colberg

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For large enterprises and small businesses alike, integrating a successful live chat support program driven by efficient and effective agents can be a complex task.

Where you locate your live chat center can significantly determine the performance of your operations. FurstPerson recently released the first-ever empirical live chat skills benchmarking study, compiled by Dr. Brent Holland using global data gathered from over 20,000 live chat agent applications. 

Live Chat Reserach: Agent Skills Bench Strength in Five Key Markets

With over 5 million assessment tests issued in 40 countries each year, FurstPerson is able to track global trends in the talent marketplace. The present live chat research examines both the live chat agent skills necessary for success on the job and pinpoints the regions where businesses can find the agents with the greatest potential to meet and exceed customers’ expectations through these core skills.

The study focused on five major global applicant pools:

  • The United States
  • Canada
  • The Philippines
  • Colombia
  • India

The study highlights which of these regions yielded agents with the strongest writing skills, computer navigation skills, customer services skills, multitasking skills, and data entry skills. FurstPerson measured these and a variety of other chat representative competencies using CC Audition® Chat, a multimedia live chat simulation, and 1stScribe®, a written skills test.

Computer Skills: Agents Show Promise in a Variety of Regions

In an industry where globalization and outsourcing are more the rule than the exception, organizations need to be able to identify the markets that house live chat agents with both technical knowledge and well-developed service and communication skills to perform the job well.

FurstPerson's research shows that as the popularity and ubiquity of the Internet and personal computers grows internationally, so do the number of regions that house live chat agent candidates with the competencies necessary to excel in a live chat agent role.

For example, this study revealed that applicants in the Philippines demonstrated computer skills statistically equivalent to those found in the United States and Canada. Similarly, applicants in the Philippines placed in the same category as U.S. and Canada applicants on tests that measured accuracy.

Data Entry, Service Skill, Written Ability

While computer navigation skills are strong in most regions, the results of the study showed substantial variability across applicant pools in terms of data entry skills. 

Applicants in Canada, the United States, and the Philippines achieved comparable data entry accuracy scores that were notably different than other major regions examined. 

The data on other test topics, such as service skill and overall written ability, also showed that meaningful discrepancies exist among these regions.

Get the full details of the study – including which regions yielded agents with the strongest writing, multitasking, and customer service skills - in the Global Job Applicants’ Live Chat Skills Benchmarks report.

Read our latest research brief - Global Job Applicants' Live Chat Skills Benchmarks

Topics: Contact Center Hiring

contact us to learn more

Written by Suzanna Colberg

Suzanna writes about contact center skills, using a talent assessment strategy and pre-employment testing to identify critical call center and chat agent skills.

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