Workforce attrition can wreak havoc on any business, and this is especially true for call centers where it continues to rise. Keeping agents happy amidst the call center chaos can prove to be challenging for supervisors. Busy schedules mixed with the unpredictable nature of the environment leaves little time to develop, support and ensure agents [...]
One of the most important jobs we have as leaders is to make sure we are coaching successfully with our team members. Unfortunately coaching is sometimes done based solely on process goals rather than looking at the “moments of truth” that we create for our agents during the process. So many things we do and [...]
Chapter One: Detective Holmes had solved many cases and now she had been brought in to a call center to solve one of the most challenging cases she had ever had. "Empathy” was missing and no one knew why or where Empathy had gone!! This may not be a best selling mystery book opening, but [...]
With some of the latest contact center tech talk focused on chatbots and eliminating the need for human agents, it might seem strange to think about automation and employee engagement going hand in hand (and thank goodness because I would much prefer to resolve issues with a friendly human versus a robot). In a recent post, [...]
Welcome to Spring! It’s time to clean the clutter and broken pieces out of our center house and bring in some new ideas. In order to do this we need to avoid getting stuck in the “we’ve always done it this way” mentality. Even large centers that pride themselves on innovation and efficiency often find [...]
Let’s pretend you’re the customer. Like most customers, you’re pretty savvy when it comes to figuring out answers on your own. In fact nowadays, customers are smarter and more complex, because they prefer self-help support within the marketplace and they can access it in various ways, 24/7. But, what happens when you reach a roadblock? [...]
With 2017 in full swing, it’s the perfect time to take control of your frontline and make the necessary changes in your center to ensure success. Reflecting on the past, think about the areas that could be improved to bring your operations to the next level. Is it agent training and development? Meeting service level [...]
Sometimes coaches become a little like Santa Claus. Keeping the list. Checking it twice. Knowing who has been “naughty or nice” with the customers. Checking the coaching off as “done” and waiting for the next coaching time. But, unlike Santa, our coaches need to find ways to not only document skills on a list but [...]
Coaching is so much more than sitting in a room and discussing skills with our agents. If a manager looks at coaching as a boring checklist item to be completed weekly or monthly, the agent will approach it the same way. Your view of coaching affects you, your customers and each member of your team. [...]
Even when our agents are coached and trained to provide the best customer experience, those best efforts can be in vain if our processes aren’t making our customers happy. It may make perfect sense as you read those words, but how many times have we made excuses about a company process being necessary for some [...]
