My Guest Posts on Other Blogs This Month

I’m honored by the requests I’ve received to post on other sites in our Customer Experience and Contact Center community. I hope you will visit their sites to not only read my guest posts but also learn from the excellent advice which their teams and other guest posters share with you.

This month, I have posts on the following blog sites:

Deluxe Knowledge Exchange (Banking and Credit Unions)

HDI Connect (Tech Support and IT)

PACE (Professional Association of Customer Engagement) Midwest

Customer Management IQ

I also want to thank you for stopping by, reading my posts and sharing your thoughts with me here and on social media.

Wishing you and your Customer focused teams much success!

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

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.

Gen Y Agents: Our Future Leaders

In one of my posts last year, I discussed some of the issues to consider when looking for Agents to promote within your Call Center or your Customer Service team. My post today is about one of the challenges many Managers have: Inspiring and developing Gen Y agents for future Leadership roles.

As you have no doubt observed, Millennials have very different skills and work attitudes when compared to the Baby Boomers that may be working in your Centers.

According to a 2009 Report on Trends in Executive Development by EDA (http://www.executivedevelopment.com),  the good news is that many of the Gen Y agents you hire will have the following strengths for Leadership:

• High integrity mind-set
• Ability to deliver results and prioritize
• Technology skills

The bad news is that many lack the following skills:

• Strategic thinking
• Ability to lead change
• Ability to inspire others

Knowing the skill challenges that may lie ahead will help you to not only include questions related to these skills during your initial interviews, but also allow you to find ways to help them develop the needed skills.  You may want to offer training in these areas as part of your development programs or instead, look at outside training resources to assist you.  But not everyone responds well to or learns well in classroom settings.

Another way you might be able to help them is by finding ways to blend the strengths they do have with their weak skill areas and coaching them for the improvements needed before they become Leaders.

Here’s just a few examples for you to consider…

Blend Ability to Deliver Results with Inspiring others:  We know that members of Gen Y love to help others, so placing them in a mentoring situation and guiding them on best practices to learn how to inspire and motivate can be beneficial for you and them.  They need to see how their contribution “makes a difference”.  You need to communicate specifically how their mentoring has made a difference in the way the Agent is performing and enjoying their job more, how it positively affects the attitudes of customers and the team, and how it is benefiting their own skills development for opportunities. Teach them how and why to give encouragement and positive feedback by linking their activity to results.

Blend Technology With Leading Change:  Millennials understand change in terms of the fast paced changes in technology.  Think about those great technical and social media skills they have!  Asking them  to help others to be successful and gain comfort with the changes in technology may be a way for them to demonstrate leadership potential. What part can they play in delivering those results for you?  Can they help older employees learn new technology and dealing with the changes that come with that?

Blend Prioritizing With Strategic Thinking:  If they have good skills in prioritizing, get them involved in helping to develop a new procedure which requires levels of priority to be set.  Give them the goal, reasons for the goal and then ask them to recommend steps to get there.  Work with them to develop the skills they will need as a Leader to understand what part strategic thinking and planning plays in bringing success for the company, customers and the team.

Not all Millennials will want to become Leaders in our centers just as many of our Gen X and Baby Boomers have been content to remain Agents or CSRs.  However, if we don’t find ways now to engage those who have some interest and potential, and help them to develop the missing skills needed, we may lose them to other businesses who are ready, willing and able to help them achieve their goals.