What this episode is about
This one is back to basics on coaching, which is where QA either pays off or doesn't. First rule: never embarrass anybody. If someone forgot a disclosure or missed a closing signal, that's a private conversation. If someone gets a perfect QA score or a customer asks for a supervisor to praise them, blast that out to the whole center.
Be specific. If you're general, experienced agents will take you down a rabbit hole. Say: when the customer asked about the product, that was a closing signal, so explain it and go right into the sale. Specific feedback earns more respect from agents and actually helps them.
Coach tone. We do a good job training agents where to click and a poor job teaching how to speak. The best agents can follow every policy, tell a customer no repeatedly, and the customer still feels good about it. Then tie the coaching to goals: if you'd read this part of the disclosure and verified this one item, your score jumps, and here's what that means for your incentive.
Role play both ways, supervisor as agent and agent as customer. It's the closest thing to a scrimmage. And the piece everyone forgets: re-monitor. Go back and listen for that specific behavior and celebrate the heck out of it when they do it right. Sentiment scores and agent assist can help you decide who to focus on.
Key takeaways
- Correct in private, celebrate in public.
- Name the exact moment and the exact behavior. General feedback gets argued away.
- Coach tone as deliberately as you train systems.
- Tie each coaching point to the agent's goals and incentives.
- Re-monitor the specific behavior afterwards and celebrate improvement.
In Tom's words
“I'd rather you be way more specific”Tom Laird · 04:59
“understanding that the tone is the message”Tom Laird · 27:37
“make sure that you re-monitor”Tom Laird · 30:15
Transcript excerpt
These excerpts come from an automatic transcript and are lightly edited for readability (filler and obvious transcription errors removed). For exact wording, listen at the timestamp.
[04:14]They know the ins and outs, and if there's any wiggle room for getting out of something, that can take your agent and you down a rabbit hole. So I'd rather you be way more specific: hey Bill, listen, when that customer asked about the product, instead of just explaining it and moving on, that was a closing signal for you to explain it and then go right into the sale.
[27:23]Tie them to the actions you want them to change. Don't be general or the call center agent will take you down the rabbit hole. And understand that the tone is the message. Tone should be one of the most important things you're looking at, because it's now a differentiator for us versus the robots.
[30:10]The last piece, and we forget it all the time, is to make sure that you re-monitor. Re-monitor that agent and focus on those specific things. When they do it right, celebrate the heck out of that. If they do it wrong again, then maybe we've got to tweak a little bit.