Contact centers today are highly focused on driving the optimal customer experience.  An often repeated question concerns whether certain generational groups, such as baby boomers, “gen x” or “gen y”, deliver a higher quality customer experience.  Brent Holland, Vice President, Research and Consulting at FurstPerson, conducts industry-leading research on contact center hiring practices and has recently explored generational differences and their impact on call center attrition and performance.

Based on data from more than 156,000 call center applicants, this article defines generational groups, examines age-based candidate profiles in terms of tenure, turnover and job performance, and looks at recruiting and sourcing different generational groups.  Research results suggest that many commonly-held beliefs about age groups and job performance in the call center space are based more on myth than reality.