What is call center coaching?
Call center coaching is programs for agents to learn new skills, receive constructive feedback, and improve performance. Coaching programs can also be automated to highlight an agent’s weaknesses and customize the 1:1 sessions accordingly.
Call center agents receive ample training before they start as executives on the floor. However, once they are on the floor, it is the managers responsibility to provide real-time and ongoing coaching on mastering the processes and techniques practically.
Why is call center coaching important?
With the various call center coaching tools at their disposal, managers today can provide better results and develop the next generation of leaders within the organization. Here’s why coaching is important:
- Customer satisfaction: A well-coached agent knows how to use empathy statements, on-hold time, quality of interaction and more.
- Agent retention: An organization’s talent can be retained for years if their skills are continuously honed by adept managers. A well designed coaching program is essential in guiding an agent’s performance and career development.
- Improved performance: Proper coaching enables the agent to give their best during real-time customer interactions.
What are some effective call center coaching techniques?
- Data usage:The best way to provide clarity to agents on their performance is by backing it with hard data. This quantifies their weaknesses and strengths, instead of subjective feedback and measure performance improvement.
- Listening: Allowing agents to perform a self-assessment gives managers a platform to openly explore difficulties and successes of the agents more clearly.
- Sandwich the negatives: Constructive criticism and positive reinforcement will keep agent morale high. Even with negative feedback, the agent should find psychological safety and a sense of reassurance on how they have ample scope for improvement.
- Role-play: Managers or top performing agents can role-play as customers and put forth all customer interactions during agent training to test and improve the agents’ skills.
- Collaborate on goals: Coaching sessions should be used for expectation management and goal setting as a collaborative effort between the manager and the agent.
