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.

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”!

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.

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!

When Sales and Service Meet

Interior Grocery Design | Frozen Foods Design | Interior Decor Design | Freezer Section Design (Photo credit: I-5 Design & Manufacture)

Recently, I went to my favorite Publix to shop.  I love shopping there because of the positive, friendly attitudes of the staff and the great selection of food items.  I enjoy cooking when time permits but also like some quick frozen options when we are busy. I’m also a bargain shopper.  I enjoy looking for specials on some of our favorite brands.

As I approached the frozen food area, I saw one of the department managers busily stocking items next to where I was headed. He greeted me with a big smile and “Good Morning”.

I turned to the glass doors to see the selections and studied them for a few seconds when the manager walked over to me and asked, “Have you ever tried those?”  He pointed to stuffed chicken breasts which had a variety of stuffing choices:  bread stuffing, cheese, cordon bleu, etc.

I replied that I hadn’t tried them.  He said, “They are really good.”  He opened the door for better viewing and then pointed to each variety and briefly told me which his wife liked, which he liked, which his kids enjoyed.  He was enthusiastic about the quality, how easy they were to cook and the time needed to prepare was short. I commented that I liked the quick dinner idea. Then, the manager smiled and simply said, “They’re on sale…Buy 1, Get 1 Free so they’re a great bargain too. Would you like to try them?”

When I entered that aisle, I had no intention of buying the item and had not even given it a thought until he spoke.  No high pressure push, just an honest discussion of the taste and quality and a personal reference to what his family enjoyed.   I said, “Sure” and made my choice out of the varieties available.  He went a step further and pulled those 2 boxes out.  He handed them to me with a smile saying, “Let me know what you think about them after you try them”.  I thanked him and walked away looking forward to trying them soon.

What did the manager do right?

• Probed for interest and experience with the product
• Related the product experience to his own enjoyment of it and enjoyment of others
• He believed in the value of the product: his choice of words and enthusiasm were genuine
• Mentioned some key benefits: save money, easy to use, great quality
• Asked if I was ready to commit
• Ended the sale by personalizing: handing me the product with a smile and request for feedback after trying

With his soft, customer service focused sales approach, he not only increased revenue for his department, but confirmed to me the reason I continue to be a loyal customer of Publix.

Sometimes we over-complicate upselling and cross-selling when our Customer Service teams are asked to take on this role in addition to service. Is our training creating selling “robots” who read an Upsell phrase or question without any genuine interest in the product/service?  That robotic approach will fail because the customer can tell that the Agent/CSR doesn’t believe what they are selling is a really a good thing.

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.