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March 15 - We recently had a group of New Hires that transitioned from the training classroom to taking calls.  We found taking 30 minutes at the end of each day during the first week in their new role as a debrief assists in supporting & weaning them from the classroom to taking calls 100% of the time. This practice along with individual Quality sessions weekly was very helpful to the group as they transitioned from training. The Wins: The group gets to touch base and see each other again on the cameras. We can cover any class trends we see on the calls reviewed. It builds strong call flow and service behaviors from the start. We can touch base to see how they are feeling, especially while we are working remotely from home. We can answer any questions they may have. This tip provided by QATC Board Member Michelle Chevalier [...]

March 8 - The future of work is here. Work from home is here to stay. The only question that remains is to what extent. The adoption of chatbots and self-service channels will continue to grow. This leaves the more complex, variable work for your agents. Consumers expect accurate, real-time responses from both virtual and human agents. To address these trends, contact centers might be better served by focusing on delivering a quality experience in the moment, in addition to post-call QA.  Technology can help you proactively address quality. Here are a just a few ways. Keep your knowledge resources up to date by leveraging a community to crowdsource responses from your agents and subject matter experts. As agents encounter unique situations, they can share their experiences in the community for the benefit of others. Leverage robotic process automation to execute the rules-based tasks, eliminating human error. Provide real-time agent assistance [...]

March 1 - Effective coaching has the power to take good performance to great. And, great performance can boost employee morale, customer experience, productivity, innovation, and ultimately the bottom line. So, what exactly is coaching? Coaching is the conversation that managers use to engage and develop willing employees — employees who want to grow and develop. While that’s not everyone, it is most of your team. Coaching is used to develop skills that are critical to the employee’s current (or immediate next) position. Coaching helps people perform better at their current jobs. Why should we spend time and energy on developing performance that is already acceptable or good? Many managers spend 80% of their “people time” dealing with performance problems, which are typically found in less than 20% of their employees. The poor performers in most organizations get most of the attention, with little or no attention devoted to developing one [...]

January 18 - Have you thought (or said) any of these statements in the past 30 days? I thought we had that problem handled. When will I have time to focus on what I need to get done? I should have seen this coming. WOW! That came out of nowhere. I can’t believe we are having to deal with this again. All people ever bring me are problems. If you said yes to at least three of these statements, you might be in danger of becoming a “Fix and Forget” type of leader. Characteristics of such a leader are: Spending all (or most) of their time on maintaining the status quo. Time resources are strained and it’s easier to go from crisis to crisis to fill their day. They fail to carve out time to look toward the future and determine how to best lead their team into it. Viewing the work [...]

 January 11 - Are you struggling to train your employees? It's alright if you are — most employers and trainers struggle to do so. Employee training today is surrounded by a lot of uncertainty. Some believe that memorization works, while others think that fancy e-Training or assessments are the solution. We're here to tell you that the way most trainers and employers are training isn't working. But, with a few changes it can work, and quickly. So why not change the way you train employees? With actionable knowledge bases and progressive training methods, you can train employees up to 75% faster. Further, your employees will be ready to handle the scenarios they'll face on-the-job and they'll have support to back them up if they get stuck. Rather than sitting employees down and forcing them to memorize their fancy e-Training and then pass an exam on it — try an improved method. [...]

December 28 - As a leader you can consistently demonstrate that your teammates are valued and cared for by looking for opportunities to connect with them as individuals.  Great leaders make caring for their team a regular, daily priority; they don’t limit their show of appreciation to a few times a year.  Strong teams also actively demonstrate their support for one another, and actively listen to each other. Recall someone who has believed in you.  Maybe that someone was a teacher, your boss, or a friend.  What was the result of their confidence in you?  When someone believes in you it fuels the belief that you have in yourself and your own abilities.  The feeling becomes contagious and provides you with confidence and the motivation you need to succeed.  It only takes one person to make a difference in your life. Believing in someone is one way to create a positive [...]

December 21 - Practicing leadership skills is like the practice of yoga – it can always be a learning moment, and the more you do it, the stronger you and your endurance become. Practicing good skills can include showing up on time to meetings and turning in work on schedule to offering support and coaching to less experienced employees. Taking the time to work on your own development is just as important as empowering your team to be the best they can be. Below are six ways you can continue to develop your leadership skills. Identify your Leadership Style: While you will use different styles of leadership for different occasions or individuals. Identifying your style of communication can help you refine specific skills that will be effective for your team or project. You might use your team or project’s goals to help identify what leadership styles will be most effective. Find [...]

December 14 - Despite the events of 2020, technology has allowed us to move entire workforces out of the contact center and into work from home environments. Communication has expanded from face-to-face interaction to tools that allow us to continue to collaborate in real time.  Automation has given us the ability to provide a great customer experience, as well as the ability to keep our employees engaged in ways we never dreamed were possible just a few short years ago. In this new remote-working environment, quality management teams can also find ways that transform the way we evaluate and improve employee engagement. Here are a couple of ideas: Involve your employees in the form design – ask them for input on responses and best phrases and terminology to use. Just because agents are not in the office does not mean you can’t keep collaboration and peer-to-peer discussions in the forefront of [...]

November 16 - Pushing knowledge to remote workers is crucial, but so too is garnering feedback from those experts on the front lines. If agents are getting asked questions and the answer doesn’t exist in the knowledge base, or is incorrect, they need a mechanism to correct it in a compliant way. It’s not just a case of taking suggestions, as we may need to engage with them to get clarity. Organizations need to be able to respond and communicate with agents for knowledge curation. Knowledge suggestions (including answers) and knowledge feedback with time-saving predefined tags allow new knowledge and recommendations for improvement flow back in from the remote workforce, into a workflow that can be managed and prioritized by the content owners. This enables that tribal knowledge to be captured permanently and accessed quickly by all. One of our clients has seen 40 agent submissions per day on average, allowing [...]

November 2 - A common problem in training classes is that you have some “advanced learners” who are way ahead of the rest of the class.  There always seems to be one or two people who learn quickly and are ready to move on while the rest of the class is still struggling through the material. You don't want them bored, so it's important to keep them engaged. More… One way is to pair them with some of the folks that are taking a little longer to learn — this works especially well if they're learning the computer system and a more advanced person can help others along by providing some one-on-one assistance. You can also ask them to help out by writing some review questions for the material just covered. You may also want to keep some additional review materials or readings they can do if finished earlier than everyone [...]

October 26 - When your center is not reaching service level goals, often the first thing to be cancelled is training. But in my estimation, if you are cancelling training, this will not necessarily help you reach your service level goal anyway. What may be overlooked here is that scheduled training is usually designed to help your agents be better informed and often more efficient, which could be a factor in getting closer to achieving your service level consistently over the long term. Call center agents are often lectured on the importance of adherence, but this feels a bit like a one way street when the management does not have to adhere to other scheduled activities; and this is not only training, it’s breaks, lunches, shifts etc. The truth is if your service level is in trouble often enough, and chaos causes cancellation of agent training, issues will be much broader [...]

October 19 - Sometimes agents cannot achieve success because of real or perceived roadblocks.  Discussing these roadblocks and determining how to remove them can help both the agent and the business succeed. Just talking about roadblocks can sometimes clear the path to success.  While several roadblocks are real, many are perceived.  Getting them out in the open goes a long way to making them manageable or completely eliminating them.  Asking an agent “why” can start the conversation towards determining what the roadblocks might be. Many things are out of the agent’s control.  Is information not included or hard to find in your Knowledge Base?   Is there a process that needs to be fixed?  One customer experience consulting company study surveyed over 200 large companies and found that only 20-25% issues were agent-based, 15-20% were customer-based, and a whopping 55-65% were company-based (billing errors, products services deficiencies broken processes, etc.). It's amazing how [...]

October 12 - Educate staff early. It’s never too early to inform call center agents of your monitoring process. Include a detailed description of how the quality monitoring process works in your orientation and training process. Inform agents “why” they are being monitored. Agents will buy into the process more if they understand the purpose of the monitoring and how it will be used. Help them understand that monitoring is all about helping them improve and not just a way to catch them doing something wrong. Those centers that use the monitoring system as a way to earn rewards find that agents welcome the monitoring process rather than dreading it. Inform agents about the “when” of quality monitoring. Inform agents when they are to be monitored in accordance with legal guidelines. While you wouldn’t want to announce the specific call that will be monitored, you will want to let them know [...]

October 5 - We all make mistakes. Even the very best coaches make mistakes. However, what distinguishes these coaches is that they readily recognize these mistakes and take immediate corrective action. Additionally, they minimize the impact of any coaching mistakes by having noble intention (i.e., always doing what is best for the person being coached and being their fiercest advocate). Here are the Top 10 Coaching Mistakes: #1. Trying to be a great coach - instead, put your energy into helping the person being coached become great. #2. Working too hard - it’s your job to challenge the person being coached to do the hard work. #3. Not saying what needs to be said - always walk away empty knowing that nothing important was left unsaid. #4. Neglecting to ask the person being coached how you can be most helpful - you do not own the agenda, the person being coached [...]

September 28 - Challenging questions, affirming feedback and fresh insights make coaching an often exhilarating process. But so what? Is it making a real difference in the work or career of the person being coached? There is only one way to measure the effectiveness of coaching and that is by measuring the outcomes…and here are the top 10. Has the person you are coaching: 1. Raised their standards of performance and career ambitions to scary heights. 2. Redesigned how their precious time, attention and energy is invested. 3. Eliminated those once-important practices and habits that no longer serve them well. 4. Challenged and laid bare their most closely-held beliefs and assumptions. 5. Set unbelievably ambitious goals for themselves 6. De-junked their lives of incessant time-wasters, stresses and distractions. 7. Gained a greatly enlarged view of their amazing strengths and capabilities. 8. Confronted and slayed the principal demons that had been blocking [...]

September 21 - "Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."  -  Albert Einstein Do you ever feel that you're struggling to find qualified agents for your center? Or perhaps you've noticed that your new hires are having a difficult time adjusting to their new position.  Or despite your best efforts to coach and guide the individual, they just don't seem to be the right fit.  If this is becoming routine for you, it might be time to re-evaluate your interview process. - Determine the qualities that matter to your team and organization. - Discover the attributes of your top performers. - Interview past employees on the value they received from the position. - Match your goals and objectives with identifiable behaviors. - Educate your recruiters on your expectations. - Have them shadow the position. - Collaborate to identify ideal candidate pools. - Keep open communication [...]

September 14 - Sometimes just a few changes in language can make a big difference when you are coaching agents. To minimize the risk of doing more harm than good when giving constructive criticism, make these vocabulary adjustments: Substitute ineffective for bad. Telling people they’ve made bad decisions or done bad things can make them feel stupid and inferior. Instead, explain why their choices may prove ineffective and what they can do to achieve a better outcome. Substitute often/seldom for always/never. Avoid using extreme terms even when dealing with chronic problems. The most persistently tardy workers occasionally arrive on time and the most reliable employees sometimes mess up. If you accuse people of always or never doing something, they may become defensive and point out exceptions to the rule. Or they may decide the situation is hopeless and stop trying to improve. Soften the blow by suggesting they seldom exhibit the [...]

September 7 - If doing the same thing 50-75 times a day sounds intellectually stimulating, stop reading.  Still there? Since many of you may have begun your career as contact center agents, you probably know how monotonous the job can be. As a manager, there are many things you likely already schedule to break up the agent’s day periodically. Things like training and team meetings along with activities like special projects. (Whether they actually happen or not is a different story.) But what else can agents do in between calls that don’t have to occur at a specific time? Consider putting together a list like the one below to build variety into your agents’ days. Happy agents make happy customers, so read on for ideas to end up with both: Development. How satisfied can you be if the customer knows more than you do by the time they make it through [...]

August 31 - In a training program recently, one of the participants made an interesting analogy. We were talking about the false sense of security we get when we are busy but not really getting to those things that are most important. His comment was, "It's like masked productivity." What a strong visual image! We "mask" our true lack of productivity in many ways. We plow through emails, take care of simple tasks and check lots of items off our list. We say "Yes" to every meeting, rationalizing that we need to be there, instead of attempting to communicate to the meeting planner that we really need to be working on something else and will follow up with them to get the information from the meeting. We also mask productivity in our personal lives. We take way too long on tasks that really aren't all that important, but we tell ourselves they must be done. And we [...]

August 24 - The hard thing about motivational promotions is that no matter how great or exciting the program is, it’s not going to motivate everybody.  Creating a successful motivation program is not a “one size fits all” project. What excites Bob may actually irritate Sally. What makes Rachel want to give that extra effort may push Alex out the door. Everybody is motivated by something and it’s each supervisor’s job to figure out what the motivators are for each person. There are generally six categories of motivators: Social bonds (guidance, support, time, attention, encouragement) Recognition (acknowledgement of desirable behaviors) Rewards (tangible rewards, trophies, cool stuff) Development opportunities (career advancement, training, new skills) Teamwork (feeling part of team, networking, social activities) Fun (pleasurable activities in the workplace) Rachel may just need lots of handholding and supervisor attention and will treasure simple recognition for work well done. Alex may prefer not to [...]

August 17 - If you utilize online learning as part of your Supervisory development training, consider grouping or "chunking" several courses together that have similar behavioral or competency applications. For example, compliance-type courses, such as Ethics, Sexual Harassment, and Diversity can be grouped together for completion in a particular time frame.  Then utilize team meetings or a small workshop to de-brief from those courses and discuss applicable company policies or procedures that you wish to highlight. Additional "groupings" might be Leadership, Team Building, Performance Management, and General Business Tools (Excel, Access, WFM reports). When coupled with a short, follow-up workshop or team discussion, it allows you to maximize the impact of eLearning while still benefitting from group interactions and discussions. Note:  This week’s tip was provided by QATC Board Member Todd Gladden of PlanMen.  He may be reached at todd.gladden@planmen.com.       

August 10 - The cost estimates for replacing an employee vary widely depending upon the nature of the role. Regardless, it is an expensive and time-consuming task to recruit and onboard a new employee. Just as we are concerned with customer acquisition and retention the same thinking can be applied to recruiting and retaining top employee talent. Research shows that engaged employees, compared to their lesser engaged counterparts, are 18% more productive and yield work that is of 60% higher quality. The Harvard Business Review estimates that disengaged employees in the United States cost the economy between $450 and $550 billion each year. It would make financial sense then to invest in employee engagement which can lead to direct impact on the bottom line. The 360 survey is commonplace among companies of varying sizes and across industries. These annual surveys create a momentary snapshot of employee sentiment. They can provide an [...]

August 3 - Whether you are launching a new coaching program or refining an existing one, when it comes time for the coaching to begin, someone gets selected to be the first person coached. You have an entire staff to coach. Where do you start? Here are some tips on whom to choose first along with the benefits of taking that choice:
Ask someone to volunteer. In most instances the employee who volunteers is confident about his or her ability to do the job and receives feedback well. Most confident individuals talk openly and are usually at ease, which also puts the coach at ease.  Approach a staff member who traditionally adopts easily to change. This individual can be a strong ally and ambassador to the rest of the team members that coaching is a motivating experience. Also, this sends a strong message to the team that coaching is for everyone and [...]

July 27 - You’ve just finished a major training effort and a major financial investment to improve the skills of your team. Congratulations! Good decision! You also know that people more easily make behavior changes when they receive positive reinforcement of new ideas, encouragement for their efforts and personal attention. The best tool to provide this support is coaching, and you’re ready to begin.  Sounds simple, right? Consider though where you start … someone is always first to be coached. Who will you pick for the first coaching session? Let’s back up a bit for an important reminder. Coaches must have a fundamental belief that coaching reinforces what a person is doing well and then builds upon that base. This might run contrary to our natural instinct. Many well-intentioned coaches fall into the trap of thinking that the best approach to coaching is to begin with employees who “need” it the [...]

July 20 - Does your quality monitoring team work effectively with your training team in your center on quality scoring issues? Sometimes there is a problem that is coming up on a significant percentage of calls monitored, either for a single agent or for the population as a whole.  When it is a single agent issue, then coaching is the appropriate remedy.  But if it is coming up on multiple agents, then it is probably a training issue that needs to be addressed across the center. Can you tell if you have a systemic problem easily?  How is it communicated from QA to training?  A review of these processes can help to focus the right fix on problems that show up in quality scoring.

July 13 - One thing that is constant in business is change.   We can't avoid it. Customers, products, service, call flows ― everything changes over time. But as much as we don’t like change, if we didn't change in positive ways, we wouldn't stay in business. How we personally approach change in business says a lot about our potential longevity in the business world. We can choose to be "Change Champions" and help others through transitions of change, or we can choose to jump on the "Whine Train" and grumble and moan about why we have to change. Human nature is to resist change, so we have to encourage ourselves and others to embrace change. Those who survive and succeed during times of great challenge are the individuals and organizations who learn to take advantage of opportunities that come from change and cultivate resiliency. Here are four easy B-Attitudes for managing [...]

July 6 - End every training session by asking each person to say something that they don’t want to forget by tomorrow – something new that they learned or a key takeaway that they had. Allow a dedicated amount of time for this closure and be sure to complement their feedback and reiterate key points of their statement. The responses will help you as the trainer identify what stuck and stood out from your session.  In addition, the CSR’s will often build off each other’s comments and engage in beneficial dialogue around the day’s topic. Remember – you want your training to be a sticky as possible, so the more avenues you use to drive your point home – the better!

June 29 - It’s important not just to recognize outstanding performance, but to reward it in a meaningful way to each employee. Rewards fall into the area of social reinforcement (the recognition discussed above) and tangible reinforcement.  In call centers today, this tangible reinforcement takes the form of gift cards, movie tickets, trips, electronics, and many other items. The key to building an effective reward program is to have rewards that are viewed as desirable and valuable by each employee. Reward programs are not “one size fits all” in terms of perceived value. While one person may be thrilled with tickets to a theatre or sporting event, another would much prefer housecleaning services or a catalog certificate.  Some might perceive lunch with the company Vice President a powerful reward, while others may see this as an intimidating negative experience. In selecting the reward options for your team members, careful consideration should [...]

June 22 - It’s important not just to recognize outstanding performance, but to reward it in a meaningful way to each employee. Rewards fall into the area of social reinforcement (the recognition discussed above) and tangible reinforcement.  In call centers today, this tangible reinforcement takes the form of gift cards, movie tickets, trips, electronics, and many other items. The key to building an effective reward program is to have rewards that are viewed as desirable and valuable by each employee. Reward programs are not “one size fits all” in terms of perceived value. While one person may be thrilled with tickets to a theatre or sporting event, another would much prefer housecleaning services or a catalog certificate.  Some might perceive lunch with the company Vice President a powerful reward, while others may see this as an intimidating negative experience. In selecting the reward options for your team members, careful consideration should [...]

June 15 - For more than a decade, the general consensus in the training industry is that games (aka "gamification") are a valuable way to review a certain topic. But where things are still a bit muddled is how far games can go in actually delivering crucial content. I've outlined below some key insights that take the interactive power of a game to another level of training. WHAT ARE YOU AFTER? Make a list of the key teaching points you want to cover and embed them within the game. By using the power of game-based competition - your learners will have a heightened sense of awareness and retention will increase (yes - this is fact). THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX Questions do not specifically have to cover a topic, they can be used simply as a stepping stone to what you want to teach or review. Consider even leaving the game completely [...]

June 8 - Training for the agent shouldn’t stop after the new hire orientation and initial training period is completed. Training is an ongoing evolutionary process. The goal of your call center’s ongoing training program is to provide training for the skills necessary to perform the job, plus training for the skills necessary to enhance ongoing performance. In developing your ongoing training program, it is useful to define what employees need to know and be able to do at defined job anniversaries. Common milestones are at 30 days, 60 days, 90 days, and 120 days. For each of these timeframes, a checklist should be developed that outlines critical knowledge and skills so training gaps and performance issues can be identified. Some typical questions you might ask at each of these stages are: What additional things does the agent need to know? What policies and procedures could affect job performance? What behaviors [...]

June 1 - Engage your QA Team in your new hire training process from the very start.  The call review process should be the right hand of training. Call reviews ensure newly trained staff are retaining the training provided, using resources correctly, and aids in developing skill sets necessary to be successful.  By implementing quality assurance training during the training process you begin to develop authentic relationships between staff, trainers, and quality assurance teams. Make sure employees understand the expectations, importance of call reviews, and how the quality assurance process will ultimately aid their professional development.

May 25 - Over the past weeks, companies around the globe have had to shift their focus to establishing a work-from-home infrastructure for their employees.  Even companies that already had a strong work-from-home culture in the contact center, have had to focus on bringing everyone outside of the contact center into a work-from-home environment.  As companies make the successful transition into this new virtual world, they will need to take advantage of the technology, tools, and solutions available to ensure they are continually driving success. Your Quality Management solution is one of those key solutions that will allow your organization to continue driving success in the new virtual world.  Now more than ever, it is important to understand what your customers are asking of your business.  It is equally as important that your employees are responding appropriately, and your customer needs are being met. With so much change happening at such [...]

May 18 - Hands down the most common complaint made of quality monitoring programs is that the call standards are too subjective. When the frontline staff perceive quality as subjective, they are inclined to use this as an excuse for not taking their quality evaluation results seriously, making it easier for them to reject feedback from their call coaching sessions. In addition, when performance expectations are open to interpretation, this results in inconsistent service to customers. One way to determine whether or not a standard is objective and behavior-based is to test its “coachability.”  In other words, can the quality standard be demonstrated?  Let’s say one of your quality standards is “responds compassionately.”  Some believe agents need to apologize to meet this end.  Others might interpret compassion as being something in the tone of the agent’s voice.  And still others might find it more comfortable to provide solutions to help callers [...]

May 11 - Agents sometimes feel that Quality Assurance (QA) only picks their worst calls to score.  Combat this by allowing agents to submit calls they deem to be “great caller experiences” for scoring by QA specialists once or twice a month. This allows for self-discovery of the agent’s strengths and weaknesses as well as closes the gap between QA and the agent’s perspective on differing aspects of a call. It also promotes greater understanding from the agent of how QA may score a call vs. what the agent thinks is “great

May 4 - There is a lot of talk around replacing contact center agents with bots or some form of self-service options. But according to research conducted by NewVoiceMedia, 75% of customers still prefer a live agent (voice or chat) to help them solve their issues. Successful companies know how to create a culture that allows agents to not only express empathy but express the Right level of empathy for the customer’s situation. Here is an example. A customer who is calling to get roadside assistance because they have a flat tire. Agent#1: “I apologize for your situation. Agent#2: “I’m sure that’s really frustrating for you.” Agent #2 does a better job of expressing empathy that expresses what the customer must be feeling. They recognize what is going on in the customer’s world. This would be perceived as “more authentic” vs. canned and routine. You can teach agents how to use [...]

April 27 - These are difficult times, and our anxious customers need us more than ever. Some of them need help with a simple task, like “How do I add a new driver to my auto insurance policy?” Others need help solving a problem: “Why was I charged twice for inflight WiFi?” All of them need our empathy. They need us to infuse our emails, chats, and social media responses with words that demonstrate we understand what they are feeling, we see things from their point of view, and we care. Empathy isn’t easy. Some frontline customer service agents resist showing empathy. They think it’s optional or even risky because it implies they agree with the customer’s complaint. And even the most empathy-willing agents will struggle to show empathy when they’re overburdened, like they are now. So, to make empathizing easier, I’ve pulled together this list of 20 ways to empathize with stressed [...]

April 20 - One of the most common questions that has been asked during the last few weeks is if agent metrics should change when they are working from home, as opposed to being in the office.  It is a great question, and it falls into that vast category of questions with the most frustrating answer: It depends. Ok, Ok...before you come after me with pitchforks, let me explain.  It really depends on the business, the context, the situation, etc.  So here are some things you can do to evaluate if your metrics need to change: Is the technology comparable to in-office? Working in an office with super-high speed internet, decent computers, wired connections and no VPN can be vastly different than sitting in an apartment with a shared cable line, a laptop from 2008, and WiFi on a router that is 5 years old.  Take some time to look at [...]

April 13 - Contact center quality assurance is the glue to consistent client interactions during times of business continuity. This resource is especially useful during turbulent economic times, which challenges businesses to be more strategic about client retention strategies to sustain clientele during and after the business disruption. Taking care to educate your agents on how to engage with clients during challenging times must be a part of your business continuity strategy, and quality assurance can partner to support.  Here’s how to get started: Educate:Identify and share your retention strategy with your team members and share the importance of building client loyalty during challenging times. For example, if your sales team is offering a 50% off discount or a free month of service during this time, train your agents to be confident, show empathy, and promote these initiatives with your clients. Support:Prepare your quality team to provide targeted feedback on business [...]

April 6 - Communication is the most impactful skill that leaders employ at any time, but it becomes even more critical in times of crisis. By now you have probably heard some best practices on communicating with employees while they are working from home due to the pandemic. Most of these recommendations are technology and process focused – such as using multiple communication vehicles, increasing frequency of team and 1:1 meetings, and employing web-based collaboration tools. While these are all very effective protocols, they need to be supported by people-focused communication practices which are those that consider and influence feelings, engagement and relationships. Following are the top 3 people-focused tips to help support a well-rounded communication strategy: Plan time in team meetings for increased small talk. People are feeling isolated and out of sorts. For some who live alone, connecting with colleagues might be their only opportunity for social interaction on [...]

March 30 - A key element for the success of promising new call center employees is to pair them with a mentor — someone that can serve as a role model and trusted advisor.  As a supervisor or team manager, you may have senior members of your team serve in a mentor role or you as the direct manager can mentor a new employee. Many supervisors and team managers say they can't find enough time in their busy schedules and long to-do lists to take time out to mentor employees one-on-one.  If you find yourself using that excuse, here's one suggested time-management approach that can help you carve out 3-4 hours a week to devote to this important individual support.  It's called the 15-5-10 approach. Track all your weekly activities and how much time spent on each one. Prioritize these activities and also look at what activities could either be avoided [...]

March 23 - An interesting way to review your quality monitoring scores is to compare them against all types of other call center performance measures. One of the most important comparisons is between quality monitoring scores and overall customer satisfaction scores. You should see a high correlation. Higher monitoring scores should happen as customer satisfaction scores go up and vice versa.  If you don’t find this correlation, then you may be measuring the wrong things. Some call centers find that satisfaction scores may be slipping while monitoring scores are staying stable or going up. The reason for this is that the center is failing to monitor the aspects of the call that have the biggest impact on influencing customer satisfaction. Another comparison might be between quality scores and speed of answer. Many centers find that as service level suffers and delays get longer, quality scores go down. This may be due [...]

March 16 -  We hear this question a lot, but the answer is that there is not really an industry standard for anything in call centers.  However, most call centers report that they monitor 5-10 calls per month per agent.  Having said that, let me give you a few other things to think about. First, you should strive to gather a sample that is significantly significant, and 5-10 calls per month may not be the right number for your center. Popular levels of significance are 5%, 1% and 0.1% (of total calls received). To determine your call center's level of significance you may need to take a stroll down statistics memory lane.  Below is a link to this topic:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statistical_significance Next, it is important to pull a random sample of calls.  As you know, there is a lot of quality monitoring buzz these days about selective and targeted call recording which [...]

March 9 - A lot of companies require agents to say the customer name on calls, and QA specialists are listening for that in their reviews.  But maybe we should look at why we listen for agents to say the customer name. Using the customer’s name, like all other quality monitoring criteria, needs to be driven by a business objective. Using the caller’s name X number of times on a call may be a nice thing to do, but if it does not help you in achieving a company and/or call center objectives, then it really should not be on your quality evaluation form. For some call centers where customer relationships are vital to their core business, using the customer’s name may be one of the behaviors that contribute to that end.  For other centers, the primary focus may be one of sales and thus using the customer name may be an [...]

February 17 - One of the keys to time management for call center supervisors is to identify what tasks can be delegated to others to free up more time for the supervisor's most important activity — one-on-one coaching. Here are a few things to consider when deciding what can be delegated to other members on the team. Time.Analyze how you spend your day. Are you doing some things over and over than someone else on your team could do just as easily and perhaps even enjoy the added variety and responsibility? Use delegation to free yourself up so you can concentrate your efforts on activities that take your team members forward. Business processes.You need to establish concrete procedures and processes as your team develops. When you find yourself directing every activity (or trying to and failing), it’s time to start documenting important practices so your workforce doesn’t have to depend on [...]

January 27 - Last week’s tip outlined the qualities of a “Fix and Forget” leader, which included these characteristics: Spending all (or most) of their time on maintaining the status quo. Viewing the work of a leader as being in conflict with their own work. Choosing short-term fixes over long-term solutions. Failing to reflect on past decisions. Only checking in with team members when there is a problem. If, instead of being a “Fix and Forget” type of leader, you want to be known as someone who really wants to grow their team and achieve better results, think and take action like a gardener.  Some tips to make this transition: Talk to your plants.  In my leadership training sessions I like posing the question, “Does it really help to talk to your plants?” I typically get at least one person who offers that it does because you are offering your plants [...]

January 20 - Have you thought (or said) any of these statements in the past 30 days? I thought we had that problem handled. When will I have time to focus on what I need to get done? I should have seen this coming. WOW! That came out of nowhere. I can’t believe we are having to deal with this again. All people ever bring me are problems. If you said yes to at least three of these statements, you might be in danger of becoming a “Fix and Forget” type of leader. Characteristics of such a leader are: Spending all (or most) of their time on maintaining the status quo. Time resources are strained and it’s easier to go from crisis to crisis to fill their day. They fail to carve out time to look toward the future and determine how to best lead their team into it. Viewing the work [...]

January 13 - Are you struggling to train your employees? It's alright if you are — most employers and trainers struggle to do so. Employee training today is surrounded by a lot of uncertainty. Some believe that memorization works, while others think that fancy e-Training or assessments are the solution. We're here to tell you that the way most trainers and employers are training isn't working. But, with a few changes it can work, and quickly. So why not change the way you train employees? With actionable knowledge bases and progressive training methods, you can train employees up to 75% faster. Further, your employees will be ready to handle the scenarios they'll face on-the-job and they'll have support to back them up if they get stuck. Rather than sitting employees down and forcing them to memorize their fancy e-Training and then pass an exam on it — try an improved method. [...]

January 6 - Engage your QA Team in your new hire training process from the very start.  The call review process should be the right hand of training. Call reviews ensure newly trained staff are retaining the training provided, using resources correctly, and aids in developing skill sets necessary to be successful.  By implementing quality assurance training during the training process, you begin to develop authentic relationships between staff, trainers, and quality assurance teams. Make sure employees understand the expectations, importance of call reviews, and how the quality assurance process will ultimately aid their professional development.

December 30 - Two attributes that are very important for agents are confidence and attitude.  Share these examples during training or coaching to help them understand what these attributes can give them! When a new driver goes to take their test, they must be confident that they have the ability to pass it. If the driving instructor senses that the driver is not confident, the instructor will not feel secure in the car. As a result, the driver is likely to fail. Confidence is the first step to driving success. On the phones, we must indicate our confidence to the customer through a comfortable delivery of important information. This will allow us to pass through a successful call, as the contact feels secure in our ability to handle the call. And secondly, your attitude reflects your outlook on the world. It may change with your mood or your surroundings, but it [...]