Training must be connected to follow-up, reinforcement and coaching. Our clients will tell you that our training is world class. Yet, on its own, no support from leadership, it will only have a limited impact. The secret to success with training (besides knowing what to actually train) is the coaching and reinforcement from the front line leaders and team leads. When this takes place effectively, agents start and then continue to use the training they received. It shows up on calls. It makes the impact you wanted. And then, the best part, an effective coaching strategy will give you sustainability for the long-term. The training will not become a “flavor of the month” and then be forgotten.

Although this one can appear to eliminate coaching altogether, there is great news! When we train our Call Center Coaching and Management program, we introduce a style of coaching called, “On-the-Fly Coaching.” These are quick coaching touchpoints, 1-2 minutes in length. A single coaching touchpoint will have very little impact, but combined with many of them, over time, as part of an effective coaching strategy (we tie in QA and one-on-ones, too), this type of coaching is unrivaled for improving agent performance, both sales and service, and maintaining the improvements for the long term. Leaders love it because they can get a lot of them done in a short period of time. Agents love it because they prefer short bursts of specific coaching (usually one skill) to long, meandering conversations between calls. The longer coaching tends to be exhausting and does not have more impact than On-the-Fly Coaching.

Talk is nice, but at some point, agents need to know we are serious. Leaders must follow up and hold agents accountable to the daily behaviors and performance expectations that results in successful metrics. A good start is to celebrate the ones that are already achieving the expectations so others see what we value the most. Consistent call observations and putting time into the agents throughout the day are two of the best investments you can make to send the metrics flying in the right direction. During our Call Center Coaching and Management program, we will help you build the very best Call Listening and Coaching Strategy and Schedule for your center’s unique needs. But isn’t it oppressive to hold agents accountable all the time? Not at all. Call Center Coaching and Management shows leaders how to do this in a specific, direct and yet uplifting way that agents value and appreciate. We see the results of this program pay off in financial gains all the time.

One of the biggest causes of poor meetings is lecture – the leader does all the talking and does not make it interesting or useful. The leader doesn’t get the team involved at all or enough. Our program includes great techniques for running effective meetings that agents will leave excited to get back on the phones. Once in a while, a team needs to get together to talk about new procedures and that’s fine. Pre-shift meetings and huddles, however, should be focused on performance and having a better day as a result of some training, tips or success celebrations that we can share during the meeting.

What is the right balance of “strong” and “patient/loving”? We believe that agents should perform the basics of the job – what we refer to as the “non-negotiables” – right from the start of the role. Agents should show up on time, be coachable, follow basic call expectations and sound great on those calls, much like how they sounded in their job interview. In these areas the leader should be strong and should set high expectations. If they will do these basics, we can love on them and be patient in other ways. Call Center Coaching and Management shows you how to blend the two of these for best results.

By now you have probably seen us talk about this one. Since call listening and coaching are two of the very top priorities for a leader, how is it possible they cannot complete this expectation? In these situations, it is time to overhaul the daily expectations of the leaders to make sure they can carve out about one hour each day for call observations and live coaching. You can use recorded calls from the same day or live listening, but it needs to be a priority. If leaders are allowed to say, “I tried but I could not get it done,” it will never be done. Everything else will seem like a greater priority. Down the road, however, many of the daily problems leaders spend so much time fixing would not have been problems. They would have been prevented by having time with the team, listening, investing in and shaping into great agents!

There are many reasons for this and resistance comes in many forms. Often, leaders put too little time into “selling” the agent on making changes and just say, “Get it done.” Work with your agents to make sure they can tell you why adding a certain technique is useful and valuable for them. Ask them what they might get out of it if they make the change. Work together on exact wording on how to say the new technique. This is why we coach. We uplift agents and they usually respond if we do it effectively, but it takes time and skill from the leader. Doing this right is all part of the Call Center Coaching and Management program.

Often, monthly one-on-ones are sadly repetitive. Leaders and agents talk about the same things over and over. Agents usually update the leader on the latest challenges. Leaders agree to solve them. Does this really require an hour, taken out of each person’s day? A better one-on-one focuses on calls and skills and helping the agent make commitments to higher levels of performance. Through better questions, leaders can help agents visualize what they want to achieve and help them create a pathway to get there. One-on-ones can be quick. The two can discus the latest progress on the agent’s plan to get better on calls or metrics and help the agent figure out the next steps to keep it moving forward, every time, every one-on-one.