Optimizing Agent Performance
As an enthusiast of nature and intelligence for the majority of my life, I was fortunate to be introduced to artificial intelligence (AI) when it wasn’t still a buzzword, even in dusty computer labs...
Top 5 Posts in March
Hybrid, remote, or fully in-person? This month, our top blog posts are all about how to move forward in the new normal. Our authors offer insights on hiring and training remotely, the best ways...
The Tone of Voice is Everything
At my first call center job, I learned the ropes and learned the most that I could from my trainers, team leaders, mentors, and neighbors.
I recall listening to my colleague who sat in front...
Working on Workforce Issues
It is a good news/troubling news story for contact centers. How they and their supplier partners plan and respond will help determine how well the industry succeeds in the post-COVID-19 pandemic “new normal” era.
On...
Top 5 Posts in February
I just wrapped up my 13th anniversary message for the March issue of Contact Center Pipeline. In doing so, I was reflecting on our very first issues of the magazine back in 2008. Just...
Use Storytelling to Provide Impactful Learning in the Contact Center
Can you recall a story that took you on an emotional roller coaster ride and ended with an essential motto or lesson? Over the past decade of providing call center coaching and training, my...
Refine Your Coaching Technique with Listening and Observation
I’ve always known that I must listen more than I speak when coaching an agent. However, when I first became a team lead, I was always thinking about my response while the other person...
Coaching During Covid-19: Six Remote-Coaching Tips For Contact Centers
Now that call centers have transitioned to working from home, many managers and supervisors are finding coaching remotely to have its challenges.
Managers often go into “survival mode” and put coaching on the back...
The InsideOut Approach: Three Ways Managers Can Improve a Contact Center Culture
Virtually every contact center understands the unique challenges its employees face: Agents often struggle with low pay, high stress, few chances for advancement, not enough training and poor leadership. All of these lead to...
Tips and Techniques for Coaching Success
Coaching agents is arguably the most critical responsibility for frontline contact center management. Effective coaching is known to foster agent engagement, reinforce and expand critical skillsets, boost productivity and deliver higher performance for the...
A 3-Step Guide for Integrating Coaching into the Call Center
There is no question that managers wield a powerful sword. In fact, 75% of voluntary turnover is attributed to poor employee-manager relationships. (You read that right: Three out of every four people who voluntarily...
12 Tips to Find Time for Coaching
Customer experience, employee engagement and sales results are driven by effective coaching. Coaching helps develop your agents’ skills. Done right, it also improves morale and employee retention. However, coaching needs to be done on...
Coaching? Don’t Make Your Agents Defend Stupidity
I knew I was in trouble! I was driving down the highway with my lovely wife, Jana, when we spotted a traffic jam up ahead. I suggested we stay on the highway, since it...
Coaching: The Radical Next Steps
Remember when “coaching” was represented by reports shoved in front of agents with lots of red circles accompanied by motivating messages like, “Good quality, but you need to get that adherence rate up to...
Coaching the Coach
Our coaches occupy the most critical blocks on our organizational charts. Wedged between those who set the policies for handling customers and those who carry out those policies, it is our coaches—supervisors mostly, but...
Quick Tip: Engage Supervisors with Targeted QM Goals
In centers that suffer from high absenteeism, you'll typically find disengaged supervisors. Like agents, supervisors who are performing the same coaching tasks day in and day out can get into a rut. Disengaged supervisors...
Frontline Coaches: Ask Don’t Tell
Despite the critical role that they play in employee satisfaction and retention, frontline supervisors often are not provided with the training on how to drive engagement through coaching. New supervisors tend to approach agent coaching...