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.

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.

So You Want To Become a Customer Service Leader?

Much has been written about what Contact Center and Customer Service Leadership should do to motivate, mentor and be successful with their teams. But what should an Agent or Customer Service Rep do to be successful in their quest for promotion?

1. Be willing to volunteer for projects

When there are opportunities offered and you make excuses or avoid them altogether, you send a clear signal about your initiative (or lack of it). Ask if there is anything you CAN help with. Even if there isn’t anything extra to do, your Manager will take note of your willingness to help.

2. Mentor others by being positive and encouraging

Are you the Agent the new hires like to sit with because you are knowledgeable and motivate them? Or, are you the Agent the new hires avoid sitting near because you complain about the customers or your work? Be welcoming and motivating and help your teammates succeed.

3. Stay out of the internal conflicts on your team and gossip mill

When people work together in large groups under high pressure as we have when the calls are coming in back to back, there are some who will take out their frustrations on co-workers or talk badly about management. Stay clear of these folks or you may find yourself accused of “stirring the pot” too.

4. Demonstrate the Customer Experience focus needed and Learn more about the Business

Ask for ways to improve your service skills and customer interactions. Don’t just wait for feedback and coaching. Show that you are open and willing to take feedback. Review the company goals, mission and educate yourself on how the business operates.

5. Suggest ways to help the business be successful and increase customer satisfaction

This is not complaining. This is, “I see an opportunity for ________ and I have a suggestion which will help by ______”. Don’t bring complaints. Bring solutions and ideas. When you do have suggestions, make them in a positive, factual manner, not using emotional talk.

6. Show up for work!

Enough said

7. Express your interest in moving into Leadership

Ask your Supervisor to share ways you can reach your goal via classes, book recommendations, advice on skills needed. Improving your skills in Time Management, Coaching, Verbal and Written Communication, Dealing with Difficult People, How to Motivate, Team Building and How to create a great Customer Experience will help you get a jump start on what you’ll use in Leadership.

8. Self Honesty: Why do you want the promotion?

Be honest with yourself. Is it because of the new challenge and opportunity to grow or just the money you feel you “deserve” after working there for a while? There is a big difference between being a co-worker with your Agent friends and overseeing their schedules, quality issues and perhaps delivering “bad news” to them as a Supervisor. Do you feel you have what it takes to be successful?

…If you have some more ideas to help Agents develop the skills needed to join Leadership, I hope you’ll share them here.

A Special Thank you to Impact Learning for first publishing this article in May 2012

Helping Burned Out Agents Improve or Move

It’s easy to Coach and work with our top Agents who are interested in improving, being the best and love opportunities to learn new skills and new information to make them the best.  It’s certainly challenging to work with Agents who are at the “bottom” in terms of performance metrics and quality and it’s clear what we need to do if improvement isn’t made.

The most challenging of all are the Agents suffering from job “burn out”.

We’ve all met them or worked with them. The Agent who shows up for work as scheduled, logs in on time and leaves at the end of their shift.  They aren’t rude or overbearing with customers.  They don’t cause problems.  They show minimal empathy with customers. Their tone is polite but flat and they miss opportunities to provide the Customer with above and beyond Moments of Truth. They have been on your team for several years and have tremendous knowledge about your products and processes.  You don’t want to lose them but it’s becoming obvious that they no longer enjoy their job.

These Agents are often seen by upper management as the experts, the valued employees with the technical knowledge needed. Unfortunately, they sound like robots…going through the motions of Customer Service without any feeling.

We need to answer some tough questions:

How do I justify letting them be flat with customers while my Quality expectation is for them to create a wonderful Customer Experience?

Am I using them to mentor with New Hires?  How are they demonstrating what you need to happen with Customers?

Have I discussed the possibility of “burn-out” with them or just buried my head in the sand?

What have I offered to do to help them regain their enthusiasm for the Customers and their job?

When I discussed this with them, what are they willing and able to do to improve?

How much time will I devote to Coaching them on this and how long will I wait for improvement?

Instead of making excuses for the Agent, this is the time to do see if you are able to turn them around or perhaps help them realize that they need to move on to a different role where they will be happy and productive.  Unfortunately this may mean a role outside of your Center or even outside of your company.  But, sometimes, turnover can be a good thing for everyone involved.

Quality Calibration: You say it’s 80, I say it’s 90…Let’s call the whole thing off!

I love visiting Contact Centers and working with Leadership and Quality teams.  After 30 plus years in the industry, I will say that I’m still happy with my career choice.  I certainly have had a lot of interesting experiences working with all those Centers, but nothing can compare to some of  those knock-down, drag-out Calibration sessions pitting Supervisor against Supervisor, Supervisor(s) against the Quality Analysts, Supervisors against Manager.  You get the picture.

As I’ve sat and observed the interactions, including the eye rolling, the almost name calling and the defense of what some participants described to a Supervisor as “your pet Agent”, I wondered where the Customer Experience was in all of this.

So many Calibration sessions become more about “I’m right and your wrong” finger-pointing when the scores don’t agree, than how this call affected the Customer. I’ve even seen some Managers avoid the whole infighting issue by just scheduling Calibration sessions once a quarter or even less frequently instead of taking steps to improve them.

In order to have productive (and yes professional) Calibration sessions, we need to set some ground rules, for instance:

1.  Opinions are just that…opinions.  Our monitoring should be based on facts, instead of rating the call high because “Mary means well” or “John’s worked here a long time”.

Consistency in how we rate Agent skills is important.

♦

2. Listen for “Moments of Truth” for that Customer:  Accuracy, timeliness, problem resolution, empathy, listening – Did we take care of the reason for the call and if not, was it the Agent’s issue or a policy/procedure that prevented resolution (which needs revision if possible)?

Why did the Customer contact us and did we resolve? Why Not?

♦

3. If you don’t agree on the scores, why not?:  discuss rationally, not emotionally.

Don’t take discussion personally

♦

4. Make sure everyone understands what your Customers expect and need to have a positive Experience:  Customer Feedback, Surveys, comments Customer makes during the call, CSAT (Customer Satisfaction Score, or perhaps related to the Calibration fighting, I found out this also stands for Combatshootingandtactics.com ).  Our monitoring may also include checks for sales skills and revenue generation but if the Customer is satisfied we know we have a greater opportunity to sell more.

 The Customer Experience

♦

5. Repeat number 4…the Customer rules and providing what they need and want decides whether this call was an 80 or 90 or whatever scoring applies.

This is just some food for thought and I know there are more great Calibration ideas.  I hope you’ll share some of your Calibration stories here or on Twitter (I’m @mkcallconsult) or LinkedIn

The Rocky Road from Agent Peer to Supervisor

We spend a lot of time on Agent Skills development in our Contact Centers or in retail Service, with our CSRs.  Sometimes our front-line leaders such as Supervisors end up receiving little to no training in how to transition from an Agent role to that of Leadership.

We can’t expect them to be successful with just a title and procedures to follow.

Corporate classes alone won’t do it.

As Managers, we need to be responsible for helping them be the best.  They may have demonstrated some leadership type skills during their Customer interactions, but now, they’ll need to know how to tweak for their new Agent “customers”.

These are some key areas we can coach them in:

COMMUNICATION:  Help the Supervisor  understand the importance of sharing information with everyone on their team on a timely basis.   Having regular meetings with the team will ensure everyone has an opportunity to hear what is being shared and ask questions. Skills coaching and metrics feedback time with individual Agents is key for them to learn as well.

They can’t rely on a “whisper down the cubicles” communication style.

OPEN FEEDBACK: Make sure the new Supervisor understands that Leadership is not so much about telling as it is listening and being respectful of their Agents’ opinions.  They need to be willing to take constructive criticism from Agents as well as management.

Encourage them to ask Agents for suggestions.

CONSISTENCY: You’ll have major problems if the Supervisor says Yes today, No tomorrow and Maybe the next day.  Having a consistent message about the policies, procedures, the Customer Experience is important.  If something changes rapidly, the Supervisor needs to be prepared to explain why it has changed and keep credibility with the team.

Be credible.

VISIBILITY:  I preach that one a lot but it is one of the most common complaints I hear from Agents who say, “I only see my Supervisor when they arrive, go to lunch or leave for the day”.  Help your new Supervisor understand the importance of being out on the floor, doing side by side motivation and coaching, asking individual Agents how the calls are going…anything that shows they are interested and willing and able to help.  That includes rolling up their sleeves and taking a few calls in queue if wait times are bad.

Get out of the cubicle!

NO FAVORITISM:  This is one that often comes under Agent scrutiny with newly promoted Supervisors.  The danger here is for the Supervisor to appear to be showing favoritism in scheduling, coaching, work opportunities with Agents who may have been “friends” with them in the Center. Letting the new Supervisor know that this Agent attitude might be out there, but you will be supportive of their leadership decisions if  based on business needs facts, not friendship.

Base decisions on facts not feelings.

Your new Supervisor will quickly learn if you provide opportunities for training such as:

• Scheduling shadowing time with “seasoned” successful Supervisors
• Observing Agent coaching sessions you conduct and then conduct ones while you observe
• Meeting daily when they are brand new and then weekly to discuss their progress
• Develop an online or office library for Supervisors: provide Leadership videos, books, articles and discuss
  
• Recommend company classes and outside Webinars on Leadership skills

Provide the same encouraging coaching atmosphere we offer our Agents and CSRs (hopefully!) and your new Supervisor will soon be filling those Leadership shoes.

Promoting Customer Service Agents to Leadership

Choosing the right agents to promote to front line Leadership roles in our contact centers and our customer facing service offices is often a challenge.

Most studies link poor Leadership to not only Employee Satisfaction drops but also declines in Customer Satisfaction.

From a high level view, we need to find a candidate who will provide our business with a positive mix of employee satisfaction, customer satisfaction and business results.

As proactive Managers, we should have a plan in place for both promoting Agents and supporting them by providing the training and coaching needed to be successful.

First, we need to establish expectations and goals for Agents to achieve on the path to Leadership.

We should explain to our Agents what is needed, why, and how to get there.

We also need to determine which skills are “must haves” and which are trainable. Length of employment should not be the prime factor in selection, but sadly this often happens as I see in the “Mary’s been here a long time and we don’t know what else to do with her” syndrome.

It’s important for us to review our job descriptions and update as needed:

• Does the Supervisor or Team Leader job description truly reflect the current job and skills needed? 
• When was the last time you “shadowed” them for a day to see what the work really entails?
• Do you want new front line leaders to do some other work activities that require additional skills beyond current expectations? 

When you are looking at ways to identify some good Agent to Leadership candidates, how do their Agent skills demonstrate these key Supervisor skills?

♦ Follow-through:  Calls back customers on time, completes tasks as requested
♦ Time Management:  Aware of time control on calls & project deadlines
♦ Coaching: Mentors with new hires, offers to help with training
♦ Analytical Thinking: Considers all possible ways to help customers
♦ Motivation: Has positive “can-do” attitude & encourages others
♦ Work Ethic: Good attendance, focused on customers and business results
♦ Decision Making Empathetic but firm with necessary customer decisions

In future posts, I’ll focus on some other areas of Agent development and promotion.

Let me know what you think and what your own experience has been in selecting Agents who became great Leaders.