Coaching call center agents is a critical part of the customer experience.
It can make or break a call center’s ability to serve customers efficiently and effectively, but it’s not always easy to do. As with any skill, there are many ways to go about coaching agents without being effective.
The goal of this post is to help you learn how to coach your team effectively so that you can boost their performance and increase customer satisfaction!
Show a genuine interest in the agents you are coaching
As a coach, it is important to show a genuine interest in the agents you are coaching. This might seem like a no-brainer, but you’d be surprised how often this gets forgotten. At the end of the day, this will make your team more comfortable with sharing their thoughts and feelings with you.
Be empathetic
A call center agent has been doing this job for many years and may have experienced some negative situations during that time frame. They may feel like they are not being treated fairly by their employer or coworkers, or even just having difficulty making ends meet at home.
Showing empathy can help your agent feel accepted by others who work there as well as give them hope that things will get better soon!
Ask questions
If possible, ask about what happened recently (within the last two weeks). If their performance has dipped or agents aren’t implementing the tactics you’ve asked for, there may be something else going on.
Plan each coaching session ahead of time
You must plan each coaching session ahead of time so that you maximize your effectiveness.
This means that you need to be prepared and know what you want to cover, but also ensure that the session is going in a direction that will help your agent grow professionally and personally.
You should not be afraid of planning for the unexpected: If something comes up during a coaching session, don’t let it stop what could have been an important conversation or moment with an agent!
Provide immediate feedback, both good and bad
The first thing you need to do is give immediate feedback, both good and bad.
It’s important that you don’t rush this part of the coaching process because if your call center agents feel like they’re being judged or criticized by their manager or supervisor, they will shut down and stop listening altogether.
You can use phrases such as “good job” or “that was great!” when giving praise; however, try not to use any words that could be perceived as judgmental (example: “You should’ve done this”).
While some people may think they’re being helpful by pointing out mistakes made during training sessions, it’s important to ask your agents questions on “why” they did something. Their reasoning and thinking could be correct, and they may correct the outcome when they explain it further.
Your agents are part of your team and before you can relate to and coach anyone, you need to ensure there is a relationship established between you two.
Helping Agents Relate to Customers
Now let’s dive into how you can help your agents improve or even how you can improve as a coach.
Genuinely care about customers
It’s important to remember that your customers are people, not numbers. They have feelings and needs just like you do. If you show your team how to have empathy with customers, they will reciprocate your behavior.
This can be difficult to accept at first because it goes against our natural instinct to treat each customer as an individual who is interchangeable with another (a number).
You can read more about understanding your customer here.
Be positive and energetic
Being positive and energetic is the best way to help your agents improve. If an agent makes a mistake, don’t let it get them down—help them learn from it!
They will be more likely to keep improving if they see that you are happy with their work.
Show them how it’s done
It’s important for leaders to get on the ground level and show agents what it’s like to do their job.
Pick up the phone and give them an example to follow. Just as we mentioned above with being empathetic. It makes a bigger difference than you might think.
That way you can also hear from customers and may even learn how to improve your processes.
Commitment to be transparent and consistent
Coaching is a two-way process. It takes place between the manager and the agent, but it’s also an ongoing partnership. The manager (aka the coach) must be willing to invest in this relationship and provide the support that goes beyond just one session, or even several sessions.
Coaching requires consistency from both parties involved, which can be difficult when you’re working with someone who lives far away from you or has limited time available for coaching sessions during the week (or if they don’t want your help at all).
But if done right – and done consistently – coaching can help agents improve their performance by instilling confidence in their abilities and providing support as needed throughout their workday!
Effectively coaching call center agents
As you can see, being a coach is not just about teaching your team how to do their job better.
The best coaches do this by genuinely caring about the people they are coaching and showing that care through actions as well as words.
This can be difficult when dealing with a call center agent who may be having a bad day or week but it’s also important because it helps build trust between customer service reps and their bosses as well.
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