Today’s contact centers are faced with meeting, and ideally surpassing, customer expectations that are arguably being impacted by a tumultuous economy in an uncertain world: where their spending often fails to mask their underlying anxieties.
Adding to this are the promises, challenges, and, yes, fears of AI, for both customers and contact center employees.
In this environment, how do contact centers best coach and train their agents? To find out, I had a virtual conversation with consultant and Advisory Board member Laura Sikorski.
Q. What trends are you seeing in coaching and training? Have these changed/are there new ones that have emerged since last year?
I wish my crystal ball could counteract everything I am seeing. I was shocked to read that AI-enabled software appears to be in the forefront of managements’ time savings and software-generated agent assistance.
According to Delenta, a digital coaching platform, “The best coaching platforms are now AI-enabled, automatic note-taking, personalized content generation, intelligent scheduling. 56% of coaches now use AI tools in some capacity to track progress and provide personalized support.”
“...the best strategy is to hire the right people with the right expertise who understand empathy and who have great listening/communication skills.” —Laura Sikorski
Guess I am “old” school in my thinking that a coach becomes a mentor for each employee’s tenure.
Here’s another connected, related disturbing trend: the amount of hours coaches spent on what used to be actual physical “paperwork” (but done today mostly on computers and smartphones).
International Coaching Federation industry analysts project that the global coaching market will reach $5.8 billion by the end of 2026. Coaches who have adopted dedicated management platforms report reclaiming an average of 10-plus administrative hours per week.
Why are we looking at coaching administrative hours? Don’t we want our agents to feel that their coaches have their needs and wants at the forefront to help them be the best at their jobs, NOT what AI thinks they need?
For me, the best strategy is to hire the right people with the right expertise who understand empathy and who have great listening/communication skills.
It comes down to getting back to basics. A training program should include (and cover):
- A classroom/lab/reference library/work floor
- A schedule/detailed curriculum/role playing/tests
- Manuals/workbooks
- Soft skills
- Customer service
- Telephone etiquette
- Cross-training
- Follow-up training
A formal monitoring/coaching policy should be in place and detail:
- Performance guidelines
- Tools and measurements
- How reviews are scored and will be communicated.
Q. Are you seeing any changes in the skills that contact centers require agents to have and be trained on as compared to what they were hired for?
Fortunately, no. You need to hire staff who are skilled for the job they will do. Here are some interview questions that will help:
1. Teamwork
- Tell me about one of the toughest groups you have had to work with to achieve a task or objective.
- Tell me about a time when you were able to help a team member.
- Tell me about a stressful interaction you had with a team member. How did you handle it?
- Describe a situation when you felt a team member was not contributing enough. What steps did you take?
2. Customer Service
- Describe a situation when you had to deal with demands from an unreasonable customer.
- Tell me about when you went the extra mile for a customer.
- Describe a situation when you had to calm down a very angry customer and how you remained composed.
- Describe a complex problem you recently had to sort out for a customer.
3. Problem-Solving and Judgement
- What would you do if the customer is not happy with your answer or solution?
- How do you deal with a customer’s question that you do not know the answer to?
- Give me an example of a decision you had to make quickly while dealing with a customer recently.
- What steps did you take when you found out a problem was a result of inefficient service by your company or colleagues?
- What will you do when our computer systems shut down and you are speaking with a customer on the phone?
Q. Is AI changing coaching and training, and if so, how? For example, there has been much talk about integrating/having AI agents work with human agents.
Let’s be real about AI and human integration. By this I mean that the two will be interacting live on the same interaction. It is VERY expensive to implement; I do not foresee this happening in centers below 250 agent-seats.
CTI screen pops available in current CCaaS integration software has been around for years to help assist agents on a call and it works quite well.
Q. Have there been any changes in the skills sought from coaches, trainers, and supervisors? In what they are tasked with? how they are selected, trained, and managed?
I have not witnessed any skill changes required for these jobs and hope we never will.
Keep in mind HR must continue to look for management staff who can answer these behavioral competency questions without any hesitation:
- What does customer satisfaction mean to you?
- How would you improve customer satisfaction?
- What are the key attributes of a contact center agent?
- How do you handle work pressure?
- What is the key to a successful contact center?
Q. What are your best practices recommendations for contact centers?
Having 40 years of experience in the industry it is a bit daunting to reply to this question. Between articles, TV appearances, and audits on scores of clients there are so many recommendations that have become industry standards and best practices.
“Let’s be real about AI and human integration...It is VERY expensive to implement; I do not foresee this happening in centers below 250 agent-seats.”
I am most proud of advocating for and seeing the following positive changes in many contact centers:
1. Operational measurement that should be based on forecast accuracy, schedule fit, service level, quality, performance criteria, employee satisfaction, customer satisfaction, and strategic value (efficiency, profitability) to your organization.
Consider these contact center measurements:
- Service level percentage (x% in Y seconds, average speed of answer, abandon rates)
- First contact resolution (FCR), skill levels
- Average handle time (AHT), after-call work (ACW)
- Cost per call, conversion rates
- Employee satisfaction
- Customer satisfaction, e.g., interaction analysis, surveys, focus groups
2. Contact center software technology that should combine the best of human interaction and AI to be sure it is distributing accurate information to your staff on time, at the same time, and in the same format.
“...your employees want to know how they are doing and what they can do to be better at their jobs.”
3. Providing time-off from interaction work for:
- Special projects
- Career enrichment training
- Outside seminar attendance
- In-house seminars by outside professionals
4. Using the “task force” approach for:
- Selecting “complaining agents” to solve an issue.
- Creating a general task force in charge of creating ways to make their jobs less stressful or ways they could be empowered to solve customer complaints.
- Customers love to complain about “phone trees,” so how about a task force to simplify all those “press” options?
5. Enabling employee empowerment to bring out the best in your employees. To make that happen, you must:
- Have faith in their abilities.
- Give them the freedom needed.
- Rely on their integrity to make the right decisions.
- Provide encouragement, job tools, and authority.
To conclude, companies must develop training programs and coaching performance evaluation policies that improve customer service and experiences, staff productivity, and ultimately profitability.
In fact, your employees WANT to know how they are doing and what they can do to be better at their jobs. You are NOT spying on employees!
Finally, hiring practices need to be established so that you hire the appropriate people that have the same custome service values as your company does.