10 Strategies to Coach Call Centre Staff

Over the last three months, I’ve been working closely with a major insurance company helping their telephone handlers to upskill themselves in their soft skills. The aim is to improve the experience the customer gets when they make a call to the company.
The type of customer was irrelevant, they could be internal from another department or external from a paying customer or insurance broker and the reason for their call didn’t matter either.

My input was coaching the handlers live on the job and to work with them to make them better at what they did. Being an expert from outside the company really helped me to give everyone some real benefit. Even those who had been on the phones for many years, were receptive and learnt a few things they could do differently to improve their customer experience.

This article will share with you 10 of my strategies and some of the tips that I used during my coaching, that you might want to use yourself when coaching or pass on to your team leaders or in-company coaches.

Ditch Classic Coaching Strategies

I’m sorry to say but classic coaching doesn’t always work in a fast paced call centre environment. By classic coaching I mean mainly the structures quoted in books. Style is different though and still works well so carry on asking questions such as:

"How did it go?”
“What did you do well?”
“How could you do that differently?”

These always work in classic coaching and should be used early on, however don’t keep using them after each observed call as you’ll turn into a parrot, repeating yourself time and again. You see in a typical 45 minutes stint, you’ll get to feedback on about 7 – 9 calls and if you keep asking “how did it go?” after each one, they’ll soon start just ignoring you.

Models such as GROW and PESOS don’t work, it’s the wrong environment. No, instead we need to focus on a feedback model.

Sell the Session

Far too many call handlers had been coached before with the sole intention of having their style observed and compared against a checklist of what good looks like. Now don’t get me wrong this is a vital management tool or indicator and long may it live on. But it’s not coaching and shouldn’t be called it. The first thing I wanted to do with my people was remove this connection that they all had in their mind and do this in the first moments of meeting them. I used words such as:

“Now before we start let me show you how this coaching is going to be different and valuable for you. As an external communications expert I’m able to work with you now by listening in to your calls and giving you expert feedback on what you are doing really well and suggest possible areas that you can do differently to make you even better. I’m not going to checklist you and mark you, that’s so not what this is all about – I’m here to work with you and make you even better than you are right now.”

I like to use the phrase “I want to work with you” it sounds much better than coaching, which I’m afraid, many people still connect with training or watching closely over them.

Build a Rapport Quickly

In any one to one, eye ball to eye ball, belly button to belly button interaction, we simply must build a rapport with people. Some of the unique things I do in this situation really help me to get on their side and lighten them. You want them to be relaxed otherwise the call won’t work; they’ll perform differently because they feel under pressure.

I make sure I’m sitting on their favourite side, out of earshot with other handlers (although this is tricky sometimes). I ask them which side they would like me to sit on. I then ensure my eye level is the same as there’s by lowering and raising the seat. I don’t want to be looking down on them. Eye contact is important so I match the amount of eye contact they give me. Small talk is useful but usually the hectic nature of the call environment limits this.

I think it’s important to model the skills you want them to use such as voice matching. This should be second nature to me, so naturally I voice match them. Finally get them talking freely about themselves and their job – what they enjoy, what challenges they have, maybe just chatting about who they are and what gets them up in the morning. But quickly get down to the first call.

Have a Structure

Structure is imperative to call handlers and the tip I want to give you here is to outline this for them at the outset and continue to signpost it throughout the coaching session. Signposting is a key ingredient for them when dealing with customers on the phone so we need to signpost them during the coaching session. Remember no surprises.

“After out initial chat we’ll listen to two calls without stopping, then I’d like you to break off for a moment whilst we have some feedback. Then we can go back on a call and if you could break off after each one we’ll have a brief feedback before going onto the next call. In about 45 minutes we’ll then wrap up and take your thoughts. Sound OK?”

Are they a “A” Grade Student

I call this a pre-brief. Before the first call comes in, set the scene by asking them what they would want you to specifically listen out for and give them feedback on. This often comes as a surprise to them as previous coaching involves going straight into a call.

So be prepared to probe on this area as you’ll get the “I dunno” answer. Relate it to some training that might have occurred beforehand or maybe to some form of team leader feedback.

Do you remember at school when you turned in your homework and received the results? Did you constantly get A’s or were you more of a B student or C possibly – with the note from teacher saying “room for improvement”.

Kind of brings back a memory doesn’t it but this can be extremely useful when pre-briefing. If you get little information from them after asking the question, it’s worth asking them to grade their ability in handling calls. You could use the B+ format or marks out of ten – it doesn’t matter.

“So if you were to grade your average call from 1 to 10, where would you place yourself”
“Urrr I guess 7 or 8”
“That’s great, out of interest, what would a 10 out of 10 call look like?”
“For you to get a perfect 10, what would you want to do differently?”

This works so worth giving it a go.

Give Dollops of Praise

This morning my car was covered in ice so I popped out 10 minutes early to run the engine and de ice and de-mist it. I ran the engine for about 5 minutes so when I climbed in, the car was lovely and toasty and the engine humming, unlike me!

Just like a car on a very frosty morning, my people needed warming up too and the best way I’ve found to do this, is to listen to one or two calls to start with and point out to them the positive aspects that I noticed. I’ve found the most effective way to do this is to say what you heard them do or say, explain why this is good and the positive impact it had on the customer. For example,

“I really do like the way your voice sounds chirpy and enthusiastic, you’re able to do this because you have a good vocal range and can stretch your voice to maximum effect. The customer feels as though you are very human and genuinely interested in them. Well done”

Rather better than “you have a good voice”

Even the most hardened and experienced call handler will revel in this and it is particularly important for the newer handler who is often a little nervous. The next call you listen to will be far more natural and an indication as to how they normally work.

Look Away

Once I’m hooked up with the phone listening device, I like to look away from the call handler and their computer screen as you can easily get caught up in the detail of the call, and irrelevant observations.

It’s the verbal and vocal aspects we want to pick up on. I want to listen to the voices of both people; I want to sense the customer and how they are feeling. How do they react to what’s being said, their tone of voice, their pace. That way I can look for matching and leading, and emotions rather than the content and subject of the call.

Use “Different” Not “Wrong”

This is so simple yet so powerful. I’ve overheard many coaches giving feedback focussed on what the person is doing wrong. Now this is fine as making the person aware of this is a major purpose of the coaching session. I prefer to be more practical and suggest something they should do differently which overcomes the weak area.

This is much more motivational and practical.

For example if they are talking too fast and the customer can’t understand them I would say something like:

“I noticed the customer asked you to repeat what you were saying a couple of times. Something you could do differently is to add a bit more of a gap between your sentences. If you were to do this, the customer would understand your question first time and this would save you time.”

Rather than, “I noticed the customer asked you to repeat what you were saying, this is because you were speaking too quickly.”

Give Sandwich Feedback

It’s as old as them there hills. Sometimes called burger feedback aka the McDonalds Model or just sandwich feedback. The one that works for me is this:

Tell them what they did well and the impact. Be genuine.
Here’s what you could do differently and the impact it would have. Just one thing and it must be the priority
Your overall impression of the call which needs to be positive and up-beat.

It’s three parts and can be done quickly and efficiently. Don’t get into longwinded discussion, if they don’t agree with you, that’s just fine. Get over it and move on, and next time give some evidence as to why doing it differently next time would make a difference.

Work with Priorities

he longest time you’ll want to work with someone is 1 hour – I normally work for about 45 minutes. This gives you time to listen to plenty of calls and give feedback.

However we can’t cover every aspect and give lots of varying feedback. Not only would this be nigh on impossible in the timeframe but frankly quite de-motivating if there are just too many points discussed.

So instead focus on just one or two main priority points of feedback that you can spot early on. Priority points, once taken care of, have a knock on effect on other areas and it’s this feedback we want to give. Then give them a chance to change on the next call and feel the difference it makes and then to try this new angle a few times during your coaching. Not only is this good training practise i.e. repetition is the mother of all skill, but its very motivating when you’ve given some feedback, they’ve adopted it and are getting better results.

These are my secrets to successfully coaching call handlers in a live company environment shared freely to help us all improve the effectiveness and receptiveness of quality coaching. Good luck and good coaching.

Paul is an international sales speaker, sales trainer, author and coach based in the UK.

He specialises in rapport selling and rapport coaching and can ignite his audiences large or small.

Sign up to my weekly eZine of sales and coaching tips and get a free report on getting the best out of 2009 plus a free hypnotic relaxation MP3 to download. www.archertraining.co.uk

01452 730276

paul@paularcher.com

Blog – www.paularcher.com

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