Are You Setting Your Quality Team Up For Conflict? Part II

In Part I of my post, I addressed conflict coming from Report Structure Issues.  Conflicts can also arise from the design of the quality program and poor training or the communication skills used.

QUALITY DESIGN FLAWS WILL BRING CONFLICT

When you are designing the tools used by quality analysts, you may be setting expectations based on a checklist rating skills using a “did it happen or didn’t it happen” method.  There are times when the customer interaction requires an agent skill to change or not be used at all.

A manager shared this story of checklist focused quality monitoring:

The agent had a flawless customer experience demonstrating great skills and the customer sounded very happy with the service provided by the agent.  She even complimented the agent during the call.

 At the end of the call, the customer said, “Thanks…you’ve answered all my questions. That’s all I needed.  I’m going to call my husband right now and let him know”.  The agent thanked the caller appropriately and ended the call nicely.

Despite this wonderful customer interaction, the quality analyst scored him negatively for one skill.  According to the quality rating form, the agent did not ask, “Is there anything else?” 

The customer clearly stated that she was satisfied and added that she had all the information needed.

Instead of hearing what the customer said to the agent about having “all I need”, the quality analyst was focused on the quality checklist box for “anything else?”  that needed to have a yes or no.

• Is your quality monitor format rigid without opportunities for the analyst to make exception for certain call types?
• Have you asked your analysts what think their job is?   It’s amazing how many managers expect their analysts to state what’s on their job description, when in reality, the analysts doesn’t see their role the same way.

• Do your analysts just see their role as a check-off of skills or are they listening to what the customer says to judge quality?

• Does your quality program rate technical skills separately from soft skills so you can see if agents excel in both or one of these?

• How often do you review your quality monitoring tools to insure that they are providing you with the information needed for coaching skills?

POOR TRAINING AND COMMUNICATION SKILLS WILL BRING CONFLICT

An agent shared this story with me recently and showed me the emails related to an interaction with a quality analyst who had given him major quality error, which he said was incorrect.  These are the emails exchanged:

Insurance Quality Analyst email sent to Agent:  “You’ve made an error in the data entered for this call.  I listened to the call and you did not speak with the actual customer.  You spoke with his wife.  If you disagree with this error, please respond.

Agent email response: “Yes, I disagree.  I did not make an error.  Please check the customer profile to confirm.

Analyst reply:  “No. You did make error.”

 Agent reply:  “OK”

If you just looked at the dialog in the emails, it appears that the analyst and the agent disagree on the error, the analyst rechecked and confirmed the error, and that the agent finally accepted the error.

However, this wasn’t the end of the story.  After further investigation, the error was finally removed.  So, what actually occurred?

The quality analyst said that she had listened to the call, heard that the agent was speaking with a woman instead of speaking with a customer named Michael Smith directly. This would definitely be a violation of their insurance procedures and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).

After the agent’s supervisor listened to the same call, he heard the agent correctly and thoroughly verified the customer’s identification and had shared information with the Michael Smith on file.  Michael was the woman caller’s name.

The analyst admitted that she had not listened to the call a second time or even looked at the customer’s account information.  She said she had missed hearing the woman identify herself as “Michael” at the start of the call.

Then, why did the agent just respond with “OK” to accepting the error when he knew he had not done so?

The agent told me that others on his team were experiencing similar situations with other quality analysts.  When they reported these issues to their supervisor, they were told it had been sent to the quality manager for review, and the agents would later receive a canned “Your error has been removed” email from the original analyst.

The agent added that these false errors still continue and that he and his teammates have decided to stop interacting with the quality analysts who email and just forward these issues to their contact center supervisor with their reason for not accepting the error.

If these issues with communication and poor quality observation skills are continuing, it is obvious that the quality manager is not coaching with his team.

• Is the Quality Manager monitoring and rating calls together with each analyst to coach them on their observation skills?

• Is the Quality Manager pulling some random emails to check on their written communication skills and direct interactions with agents?

• If the analysts are also doing coaching with agents, have you sat in and observed them coach and then coached while they observed you?

Do your supervisors and the quality analysts have similar coaching activities and goals, and discuss with each other so that they are working towards the same results?

……….

This article originally appeared in the Contact Center Pipeline January 2013 issue

Are You Setting Your Quality Team Up For Conflict? Part I

Unfortunately, conflict between Quality teams and Contact Center teams happens more often than it should.  Managers on both sides will say that it is probably due to personality conflicts or simple miscommunication.

While those factors do play a part at times, we need to dig deeper to find out what is really going on.  From my own observations and feedback from center employees, I’ve found that some companies actually set conflict in motion through their reporting structure, the design of the quality program and tools being used, or even poor QA training and coaching.

REPORTING STRUCTURE ISSUES WILL BRING CONFLICT

The Quality Manager and the analysts most often report to an operations executive who may not be actively involved in the day-to-day front line management of the center. The Contact Center Director or Manager and the Quality Manager are usually peers in this scenario.

Although companies design this structure of separation to have what they feel is an unbiased look at quality, they may also unwittingly be setting an “us versus them” conflict in motion.  The responsibility for fostering a cooperative relationship between quality and center operations lies with the executive level manager they both report to.

If the quality manager and center director have an adversarial relationship, their teams will pick up on this and the conflict will happen during their interactions as well.

One activity where conflict between individual analysts and supervisors or between both teams can be seen is during calibration meetings.  In these sessions, everyone listens to agent calls and observes system entries, rates skills together and discusses opportunities to improve.

Many calibration sessions become more about “I’m right and your wrong” finger-pointing with voices raised in argument over the tiniest details.  Of course the customer’s experience is often lost in this type of scenario.  Worse yet, I’ve seen quality and center managers sit back and allow this to happen and then privately talk with their team afterwards about how ridiculous the other team was acting.

Our quality and the contact center operations teams need to come together and agree on goals and missions for the best customer experience and business efficiencies and results.

Quality monitoring must be based on facts, not emotions.  Analysts, supervisors and their leadership must also be willing to admit when one of them erred in scoring or when an agent reporting to them failed the customer.  The ability to admit mistakes and learn from them is more important than grandstanding in front of the group.

Regardless of the reporting structure used, we need to insure that we are committed to the common goals and avoid the blame game or taking things personally.  We expect our agents to take feedback and coaching with an open attitude so the same expectation should be there for our quality and leadership teams in the center.

….PART 2 WILL FOLLOW SOON!

This article originally appeared in the Contact Center Pipeline January 2013 issue

Guest Post: Crawl, Walk, Then Run: 3 Training Tips to Boost Agent Performance

I’m honored to have Matt McConnell’s wonderful article on training tips appearing on my blog today.  Matt is the chairman, president and CEO of Intradiem. You can read more about Matt and Intradiem at the end of the article.

 

The cat is out of the bag. Sixty-nine percent of contact center leaders say agent training positively impacts customer satisfaction. Yet, despite its effectiveness on quality and performance results, 46 percent of the same respondents don’t train their agents frequently. Notice a disconnect?

Most of the traditional methods used to manage agent performance just aren’t working anymore for contact centers. The ongoing operational demands, combined with the budget restraints and resource limitations have left many coming up short when it comes to developing and effectively training their front line. And many contact centers find themselves delivering the same cookie-cutter training for their entire workforce. The result is uninspiring training sessions for agents and lackluster results for your dashboard. Instead, consider a “crawl, walk, run” approach to maximize performance results using personalized agent training.

A contact center’s journey to achieving a high-performance culture isn’t an easy feat – it’s marked by milestones. Take your agent performance from its first wobbly steps to running at full speed using the “crawl, walk, then run” method below.

Crawl back to the basics.

By its nature, training should be targeted, but it’s difficult for managers to create digestible content that doesn’t require half-day sessions due to scheduling limitations. After all, you want to be sure your agents are able to take in as much as possible. However, adult learning theory affirms that short lessons have the best chance at retention. This concept is clearly important in a fast-paced environment like the contact center where the unplanned nature of calls gives agents less control over their day than most. So, remember to focus on first things first. A 15-minute learning break allows a short break for targeted information that is used on the next call for maximum reinforcement.

Walk the walk with personalized training.

Even if training is provided frequently, a one-size-fits-all approach doesn’t provide maximum value. If the center and the agent invest time in training, it should meet the needs of both. An agent does not want to be trained on something that isn’t relevant to their needs, and the center doesn’t want to train an agent on an area at which he or she excels if there is another area that needs improving.

Basing individualized training on performance meets the targeted criteria and provides the highest value.

According to recent data, we retain 5 percent of what we see/hear, 10 percent of what we read, 20 percent with a visual and 30 percent with a demonstration. Create quick quizzes at the end of training sessions to help agents retain more information and “walk the walk” by giving them ample opportunity to apply their new skill set.

Run circles around your performance goals by finding time for training.

Too often training is an infrequent occasion as opposed to a consistent, systemic part of the contact center operation. Many centers provide agents with access to a learning management system or knowledge base with the hopes that agents will go get the information and knowledge they need. Considering the enormous pressures to meet service levels, it isn’t hard to figure out why so much of what is scheduled doesn’t occur and why agents don’t often take the initiative to get the information they need when they need it. Yet dips in call volume occur when agents have little to do. The underutilized asset in this equation is this down time between calls. Pushing training to your agents during these small pockets of down time is the only way to ensure training happens frequently.

A Last Word

Performance-based training gives you the ability to deliver the right training to the right agent at the right time. By embedding a measurement system that shows how much, who is getting training as well as its link to performance, constant improvement through training becomes systemic.

About Matt McConnell
Matt McConnell is chairman, president and CEO of Intradiem. Matt co-founded Intradiem in 1995 with a vision of helping companies increase the level of customer service they deliver by improving the performance of their agents. Today, Intradiem is a leader in its market with more than 450,000 call center agents around the world using Intradiem every day. Matt is the author of the book Customer Service at a Crossroads and holds 11 software patents.

Intradiem, formerly Knowlagent, is the leader in intraday management solutions for contact centers. Its patented software increases agent performance and productivity by making idle time useful, enabling agents to work on personalized and prioritized activity queues consisting of training, coaching, communication and other off-phone activities. Intradiem’s call center solutions are on-demand, easy to use and require no capital expenditures. For more information, call 888-566-9457 or visit us online at http://www.intradiem.com.

Guest Post: The Little Things Really Do Matter to Customers

I’m pleased to have Stefanie Amini Guest Post on my Blog today.  I hope you enjoy her post as much as I did.

Stefanie Amini is the Marketing Director and Specialist in Customer Success at WalkMe, the world’s first interactive online guidance system.  She is chief writer and editor of I Want It Now, a blog for Customer Service Experts. Follow her @StefWalkMe

The Little Things Really Do Matter to Customers

Empathy is a social drive in all of humanity. It is the ability to feel what our brethren feel, and to care deeply about making them feel better, or to make them feel good with no obvious reward to ourselves. This empathic drive in our species is what has allowed us to persevere over the obstacles of our history, which were many, and has given us a very important element that lets civilization work – ethics.

But, there’s more to it than that. When we think about making someone happy, do we think about making them smile, or do we think about some grand gesture to ensure extreme elation in people? Usually, whether we want to admit it or not, we think far too grandiose when we talk about “making people happy”. We greatly devalue the power of simply making someone smile or laugh, or the pure goodness of showing just a brief nod of courtesy or respect to others. We underestimate how far these little things really go.

Businesses make this mistake too, and that’s a very unfortunate thing. Obviously businesses have a less than selfless motivation for making their customers happy, but a good business cares about their customers and their happiness above and beyond profitability too. Either way, the same paradigm exists and the same problems arise from it. Companies try too hard to make their customers happy by trying to unabashedly impress them with grand gestures that often either don’t work, turn out to be impossible, or are too general and absurd.

It’s time to think about this with a smaller metric. Consider the last time someone went out of their way to make some grand gesture to make you happy. Did you feel a little guilty accepting such hospitality? Probably. Now, compare this to someone who was just, with no prerequisite, was respectful, or just made you smile or laugh. They stand out in your memory, do they not? And was there any guilt in enjoying the laugh, smile or edification they bestowed upon you by this little, selfless and cost-free gesture? That’s highly unlikely!

Now, draw a parallel in business, with making your customers happy in the long run. One can divide this into smaller things, in the way of just showing extra courtesy to your customers, and bringing a humble but lasting smile to their faces. What are some ways to do this? Well, from one industry, demographic and scenario to the next, there are a ton that can’t really apply across the board, but there are some generalities in business where it does.

For one, in CRM, individuals who deal with distressed customers, but are willing to laugh with them, to empathize with them and speak to them on their level are an excellent step. Making a customer smile through empathy isn’t hard. If they complement your great customer service, thank them deeply and sincerely, because they will get a smile out of having made you smile in turn. See, it goes both ways with that.

Small incentives and shows of gratitude also work well. You don’t have to offer some grand free prize to a millionth customer, or as a reward for years of loyalty. Simply offer small discounts, or tokens of appreciation that may not even be worth a lot, but show that you care. This will get a smile out of the customer, and they will remember that you care. This will stay with them.

Finally, you probably don’t have to spend a fortune on CRM software or high technology to wow your customers. You need only to keep it simple, and make it very direct and easy for a customer to contact you. The ease of procedures and the simplicity of handling things will bring a smile to their faces, when they’ve been through the wringer with other companies in the past on this.

It’s the little things like this that make people smile, and while a smile is a little thing itself, everyone remembers someone or something that just brings a pure and simple smile to their face. Something that wows them is subject to novelty wearing off given time.

Coaching Numbers or What They Really Mean?

As Contact Center managers, you have a lot of power.  OK…some days it sure doesn’t seem that way, but you really do.  Your supervisors and quality team are listening to you and are observing what you are focused on.

When you talk about metrics, what are you saying to them? If you talk purely “number” goals all the time, your quality coaches will be talking just “numbers” too.  They’ll often repeat what you are saying word for word during their coaching sessions with agents.

When  metrics are discussed during individual agent coaching sessions, you need to make sure that your “coach” knows how to explain them in terms of Customer Experience.

One of the metrics numbers that seems to get a bad rap these days is the length of the call. Some coaches aren’t bringing it up at all in coaching sessions.  There were some managers who actually tracked and rewarded based on the length of call “metric” set. Some don’t reward but are seemingly obsessed with setting a number for call length average based on studying this metric if reported by any other call center in the universe.

I’m a proponent of monitoring and coaching all types of calls.  Long, short and in between.  I don’t advocate setting an exact length of call goal for every call and then holding agents’ feet to the fire.  I do advocate learning if the call was handled appropriately in a likewise appropriate amount of time.

Long Calls:  When I hear lengthy agent calls, I think about my Dad’s famous driving “shortcuts” whenever he took our family somewhere. When he mentioned that he knew quicker route, my Mom would roll her eyes and we knew what was coming.  We could always plan on adding 20 plus minutes to the original length of the trip.  Hopefully the shortcut would involve a stop for ice cream. My father seemed to find ice cream regardless of the route. His passenger “customers” at least were given a treat for their troubles and perhaps that was his true goal.

Some of our agents don’t see the service or sales target straight ahead, but instead, go in circles on their way to closure.  they are not taking the simplest and shortest route to reach the customer goal.

Unfortunately we don’t have virtual ice cream to offer our customers who are stuck in lengthy calls that seem to be going nowhere.

Short Calls: When calls are too short, I worry too because the agent may have missed an opportunity to be proactive, add some additional tips, or listen better for clues for upselling and cross-selling clues.  Worse still are the agents who blend speed with talking over customers. Sally may have taken twice as many calls as the other agents, but what is happening during those calls?  Are they brusque and disinterested sounding, even though she took care of “business”?

Metrics should always be a part of coaching as long as they mean something to the customer and our business needs.

I love to see quality monitoring forms for calls that incorporate metrics as well as the soft skills and other skills needed for best quality.

We just need to make sure that our coaches aren’t just reading metrics numbers to agents, but are instead preparing for their coaching sessions by reviewing those numbers and how they relate to skills demonstrated and the overall customer experience.

Coaching: Plan Your Work and Work Your Plan!

“Plan your work and work your plan.”

Never have truer words been spoken for the effectiveness of your supervisors or others doing Agent skills coaching. If there isn’t a good plan for coaching, your Coaches will be just going through the motions, missing needed sessions with agents or looking at coaching as just an interruption in their busy day.

Many supervisors have every intention of working with their agents on skills, but find that the week or even a month has gone by with just minimal Coaching done. Feeling rushed, their weak Coaching substitute of “telling the agent what to work on” happens instead of an interactive and focused coaching that brings results.

Effective coaching isn’t a once and done effort. Your Coaches need to plan for skills activities time with their agents and the motivation needed to encourage continuous improvement.

Many supervisors tell me that they are buried under reports and meetings scheduled by their manager. In order to help them be successful, we need to be clear on our expectations for coaching and remove any obstacles that our Coaches have.  We can demonstrate our interest in helping them succeed by our own planning and review of theirs.

Here are some questions to help in your process:

NOT PLANNING WASTES TIME

What are my Coaching mission and goals?  Are they based on a number of coaching sessions completed or focused on results?

Many supervisors are doing a lot of coaching but with minimal results. We must make sure that our supervisors aren’t just going through a coaching checklist to meet coaching “metrics”, but instead are doing what brings results in terms of agent skills development and increased customer satisfaction.

Some Coaches tell me that they see their goal as the completion of X number of sessions.  They make sure that they do the minimum required in order to stay in the manager’s good graces. Others say that they often feel that they are spinning their wheels and making no progress. They work with the same poor performing Agents each month, telling them the same things that are needed for improvement. These coaches are frustrated by the lack of results. Their manager just repeats the mantra “more coaching” without giving direction and working hands on with them to assist in developing a good coaching plan for each agent.

The goals for Customer Experience and development of agents must be clear for your Coaches and you must also provide them with the tools to reach those goals in terms of training and working side by side with them for success.

COOKIE CUTTER COACHING WASTES TIME:

 Am I holding my Coaches responsible for completion of certain results-based activities related to successful Coaching? Are they personalizing the coaching method based on the agent’s skills, experience and learning type?

Responsibility for results, not just actions is a big key to their success. Agent skills differ, length of time on the job varies and so the time that must be spent with each agent varies as well as the type of coaching done.

Instead, many newer Coaches make the mistake of coaching everyone just once a month, using the same coaching method with every agent.  They miss the opportunity to see results from those average or struggling agents who need a boost from increased coaching or approaching the skill needs using more personalized approaches. They will tell me they don’t have the time to Coach more.  Often it isn’t more coaching that’s needed but the right kind of coaching to help the agent change skill behaviors.

Managers need to make sure that the Coaches are not just “tellers” but coaching “doers”, rolling up their sleeves and working with their agents.  Initially more intensive coaching such as role-play, side-by-side call handling while the agent observes them handling calls may be needed.  Once results are seen, the Coach will be able to work on more of a “maintenance” coaching schedule requiring less time with agents who have improved.

NOT SCHEDULING COACHING WASTES TIME

Are they scheduling Coaching activities on their Calendar?

If we are working with our supervisor Coaches on how they communicate with the agent about skills, we may not realize the importance of working with them on their time management for coaching.  I find that if it isn’t on the Coach’s calendar or schedule, it isn’t going to have priority. If your supervisor is a Myers-Briggs type “P” (http://www.myersbriggs.org/) who may like to keep plans to a minimum, keeping a calendar with Coaching and alert reminders for it may not come naturally for them.

Recently, I walked a Coach through his calendar to demonstrate how the amount of coaching needed for effectiveness could be possible.  We discussed the need to be flexible in case an urgent situation conflicts with the time and how to deal with that.

It was interesting to watch his expression when he realized that scheduling blocks of time for his formal and side-by-side coaching sessions for the month made it seem less daunting a task.

NON-ESSENTIAL TASKS WASTE TIME

Do I help them find the time to Coach?

Holding a supervisor or quality coach responsible for results but not giving them the time to do it is a recipe for disaster. I’ve had Coaches tell me that they have the desire to do more Coaching but their manager always assigns them other activities.

Your goal should be to review how they spend their time, then find ways to free them from non-essential activities so they can spend 50 to 60% of their time Coaching.

We attend a great deal of meetings and often pull the supervisors in to tell them what happened or even have them attend some meetings with us.  While communication of information is a key to the success of our business, we should decide which meetings are crucial for the Coach to attend, and which can be summarized in an email you or another attendee sends out to share key information.

Reports are another time eater for many front line supervisors who coach.  Once again, prioritizing with your help is key. Can reports be handled by an agent who has potential for moving into a lead or supervisor’s role in the future?

MOTIVATE COACHES TO SPEND TIME WISELY

What am I doing to motivate my coaches to spend the time needed and get results?

Much as our Agents need motivation, our Coaches need to be rewarded for their efforts and results.  You get the behavior you reward so you need to make sure that you are aware of their daily coaching activities and observe them in action.  If you hear an agent showing improvement when you monitor or if customers give kudos to an agent, it’s a great opportunity to not only praise the agent, but the coach who has been working with them.

Verbal and written praise goes a long way to encourage your Coaches to keep working towards the goals for improved Customer Experience.  Monetary incentives if tied to actual improvements and not just activities can be great motivators as well.

You cannot wait to notice and give positive feedback a month or two later when you review quality reports.  Take an active role in observing and rewarding good efforts and results on a daily basis.

REPEAT COACHING WITHOUT IMPROVEMENT WASTES TIME

Are any Coaches wasting time Coaching the unwilling or unable? Have I given the Coach the tools needed to be successful?

If your supervisor is coaching the same agent without results, is it because the Agent is unable or unwilling, or does your Coach need coaching themselves to learn some new techniques?

Observe the coaching sessions and coaching activities each supervisor does and then meet with them to discuss.  Do they need some coaching skills training?

If your coach is doing all the right things to drive skills improvement and motivating the agent, you need to assess whether that agent really wants to improve or is unable to show further improvement.  Your coach needs to know that you will support them and make a decision to change a coaching situation into a disciplinary one if warranted.

Originally published in Contact Center Pipeline in October 2012

Creating A Great Experience With “Non-Customers”

Contact (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Based on some of the recent call experiences that friends have shared with me, it’s apparent that many companies aren’t spending training time on teaching ways for their agents to gracefully bow out of a call to a wrong contact or when the contact they reach says they aren’t right for the product due to (insert here an objection that can’t be overcome).

These fall into the category of “Prospect Experience” or “Possible Future Customer Experience”.

Here’s a recent example:

Agent using nice Smile and Tone: “Hi is this _____? This is ___ from ____ Insurance providers. We provide Health Insurance benefits for small businesses and individuals.”

Person called responds in friendly tone: “Hi (Agent’s name)…I’m only a one person business and I’m already covered by my spouse’s insurance policy through work so I’m not a good prospect for your company.”

Agent sounding irritated: “well OK… (click)”

This call was reminiscent of the bad telemarketing calls made from “boiler room” type operations years ago (and unfortunately still some in operation today) that trained agents to have a “hit and run” philosophy: 

Call as many people as you can as fast as you can and if they are the wrong party or an insurmountable objection is given,  just hang up on them and dial again.

(NOTE: Do not try this in your center! )

Given the way that the Agent opened the conversation and identified herself, it was evident that she understood how to create a nice first impression.  Perhaps she received training and coaching on this or maybe it is her natural style of communication when greeting someone.

Once the Agent experienced rejection, her tone changed completely.  If there was to be no lead or sale made, the Agent was finished with you and saw no need to end the call positively.  Her focus was clearly on the here and now immediate results regardless of the impression she left with that prospect.  And as we know, today our prospects and customers won’t tell only ten people about the bad experience they had with our agent, they will broadcast it on Social Media to hundreds, even thousands of people.

Another example of poor “non-customer” experience is when an Agent calls and the person they are trying to contact isn’t available. It usually goes something like this:

Agent: “Hi..Is Mr. (name) available.  This is (Agent name) from (company)?”

Person answering phone: “No he isn’t. Can I take a message?”

Agent using flat tone: “I’ll call back” (hang up click)

It adds little time to the calls to use  polite phrases such as “Thank you but I’ll just call him/her back later. Is there a good time to reach him/her?”

If your training program doesn’t include discussion and role-play related to creating a great “Prospect Experience” with those who don’t buy or aren’t the right contact, I hope you’ll start covering this during training and coaching these skills too.  We should be creating a positive experience, showing appreciation to and interest in every person we are in contact with.

A wonderful mentor who coached with me many years ago always said and rightly so …”Today’s no may be tomorrow’s yes”!

Are You Coaching Empathy First, Process Second?

As a consumer, I receive my own fair share of agent calls and make calls to companies for customer service assistance too.  I also monitor calls when I work with clients since this gives me a great view into not only the skills of the agents but also what their customers are saying.

PROCESS FIRST AND LISTENING ISSUES

Many of the Agents I interact with or monitor on calls are so focused on the process and procedure of what must be done that they aren’t really listening to the Customer or Prospect. These Agents are more concerned about pulling up screens and navigating, often making the customer feel uncomfortable during the process. Dead air, pauses, talking to themselves while searching for information or missing questions the customer asks or commenting on what they said.

One recent call I listened to demonstrates this perfectly. I heard a customer telling the Agent that she had to cancel an appointment due to a death in her family. The Agent was “flipping” system screens distractedly and simply said, “Uhuh…. We have an appointment open next Tuesday at 9 a.m., OK?”

Did the Agent satisfy the Customer’s need for a new appointment?  Yes.

Was the Customer problem was resolved?   Yes

Did the Agent show interest in that Customer during that “moment of truth”? Absolutely not!

“EMPATHY CAN’T BE LEARNED” – WRONG!

Not all Agents demonstrate poor empathy due to a listening skill problem.  Others just have no idea HOW to give empathy to anyone, whether a team member, customer or friend.

A University of Michigan study, presented at the annual meeting of the Association for Psychological Science, analyzed data on empathy among almost 14,000 college students over the last 30 years. “We found the biggest drop in empathy after the year 2000,” said Sara Konrath, a researcher at the U-M Institute for Social Research. “College kids today are about 40 percent lower in empathy than their counterparts of 20 or 30 years ago, as measured by standard tests of this personality trait.”

We can’t assume that everyone understands or has experienced empathy personally enough to know how to express it.

To add to the problem, some Managers and Supervisors are also responsible for the lack of empathy shown by their agents. Training may focus heavily on the technical part of the call such as processes and product knowledge.  Metrics that drive “speedy” handling without regard to the “warm fuzzies”, as I like to call them, are pushed. Supervisors may tell Agents to be friendly and nice but don’t offer specific examples or demonstrate empathy on calls they handle themselves while the Agent observes.

WHAT CAN BE DONE TO HELP IMPROVE EMPATHY SKILLS

The most important thing Managers, Supervisors and Quality Coaches can do is to coach including role play, taking calls while demonstrating and offering phrases that can be used.  Helping the Agent put themselves in the Customer’s place to understand how they are feeling at the time of the call is important.

When you hold your next team meeting, discuss phrases and words that you can use to show empathy, concern and interest in the Customer.

“Mrs ____, I’m so sorry for your loss”

“My sympathy to you and your family”

“I don’t blame you for being upset”

“We really appreciate your business”

“Thank you for telling us about that problem so we could take care of it”>

“I’ll be glad to help you with that”

Remind your team that the customer is making a decision about them and about your company in the first 30 seconds of the call.  Taking time to acknowledge and show interest in Customers truly is as important as solving their problems.

You’re Training But Are They Retaining?

Think of the times you’ve gone to a conference and learned some new ideas. You are all fired up on the way back home but a week later you get caught up in the day-to-day work and the new ideas are put aside or forgotten. Studies have shown that this is not a unique problem.

Lack of follow-up is a contributor to poor retention of knowledge.  People quickly forget many things learned unless they can implement and practice, and even more will be remembered if they have someone mentoring, coaching and encouraging their success.

Our Agents may experience the same problem retaining newly learned skills and knowledge. It’s easier to fall back into the old skill habits they’ve known and loved then to start using new techniques unless we are there to support them in changing skill habits.

Some Agents may receive out-of-the-box type trainings without a hint of personalization for their service or sales missions, goals, types of customers they interact with,  and their skill level.  It makes it harder for them to “identify” with the skills learned and effectively apply them to their calls and customer interactions.

For more success with our training programs, we need to make sure that we’ve done our preparation, planning and follow-through.

Skill Needs Analysis: Observe skills desk-side, listen to customer and employee feedback, ask individuals what they feel they need help with. Customize and lose the canned materials.

Determine best training format: Small specific classes divided by skill needs, Same class for common skill problem, On-line e-learning, Side by side training, Lunch and learn, self-study?

Who trains:  Internal trainer, Supervisor, Best Skilled Agents present “how to”, Outside resources?

Post-training Coaching: Give everyone some time to practice skills for a few days after training and ask for feedback from those who received the training.  Observe, listen and coach to provide assistance and encouragement in trying new skills or skills “polishing”.

More Training Follow-up Coaching: Within 2 weeks of your post-training coaching be sure to follow-up monitor and coach again specific to the training points. Reward improvements heard specific to what they learned in training.

With a combination of customized training, timely coaching follow-up and encouragement, you should see greater retention of skills learned and along with that, employees who are more engaged in learning.

Turning “Whining” Into Winning

“…that won’t work…”

I’m sure you’ve had one of these employees work for you at one time or another.  I certainly have.  They seem to love to complain. Or whine about things.  Others just throw their hands up in frustration and say nothing to you….directly that is.

Our contact centers are communities so the comments, complaints and rumors spread like wildfire. Before you know it, others pick up the negatives and are repeating them.

At one center I heard the Supervisor complain:  “I’ve told her about this (skill) multiple times but she still does it”.  The Quality Manager replied: “Yes, she doesn’t listen”.  Both shook their heads and went about their business.

At another center I heard an Agent say:  “This (process) is ridiculous”.  I asked, “Have you discussed with your Supervisor?”  The Agent laughed and replied,  “Why bother…no one listens”.

When we hear these type of comments directly or through the center grapevine, we need to determine if what is being said is justified, just whining or just having a bad day.

In both examples, the employees used the word “listen”.  Is it really about listening or is there more involved?

Questions are conversation controllers and conversation openers.  They help us to clarify comments made so we don’t assume what we are hearing is the complete information needed.  We use questions during our problem solving with customers but forget at times how effective they are during our conversations with our employees too.

In the Supervisor situation above we should ask

• Why do you think Mary isn’t improving? Skill lacking or attitude?
• What does Mary say about these skills?
• Does Mary seem interested in improving?  What has she said or done to indicate this?
• What have you done to help her?
• What do you recommend doing now?
• Is Mary in the right job here?
• Have you discussed with the Quality team?  What do they think?

When we gather this type of information, we can determine whether the Supervisor has approached the issue clearly and logically or whether he or she is responding emotionally out of frustration.

For the Agent complaining about a process, some helpful questions would be

• Why do you think the process is a problem?
• What can be done differently?
• Is this a problem for our team internally or for our customers or both?
• If we made changes as you suggest, how would this affect the customers, your team, our business goals?

Of course, questions aren’t the complete solution.

If our employees are giving us useful feedback and suggestions from our probing questions, we must demonstrate interest and take action whenever possible to show support for their suggestions. If we are unable to implement or change something, we need to share that and the reasons why.

In the Supervisor example, if they are doing all the right things to coach and Mary is unwilling or unable to improve, we need to support the Supervisor if moving the agent to disciplinary action would be best.  Our actions will certainly speak louder than words.

In the case of the Agent, some are so frustrated that their suggestions aren’t acted upon or given feedback why they may not be implemented, that their positive suggestions now turn into whining and complaining mode.

Creating an open dialog with our agents and front-line leaders where feedback is welcome, utilized when possible or told why if not implemented, is key to turning the complaints and whining into productive wins for our customers, our business and the engagement of our agents and leaders.