Why Coaching Call Center Agents is Critical for your Business

callcenter-coaching

Nobody is perfect. Everyone comes with their fair share of imperfections and downsides. A diamond doesn’t become the most precious stone in a day’s time. Same is the case with your call center agents. As pointed out by Bill McCartney- “All coaching is taking a player where he can’t take himself.”
They require your attention to detail. Your time, your insights, knowledge, etc. Coaching call center agents is one the most important aspects you need to be considering, while setting up a call center.
But, what is coaching? Let us define this vast and rather lucrative term,  and how it is beneficial for you and your call center reps.
Coaching is an interactive process that helps the other person improve, learn something new or take individual performance to the next level. Now, if you further break this definition down, you will see that it is a two-way process. It is an interactive platform, where the coach and the coachee (call center reps in this case) exchange dialogues, information and strive to be excellent. It is not a monologue.
Effective coaches listen to their teams, as much as they talk. Coaching call agents can have multiple purposes. It can be centered around improvement – as a coach helps an individual overcome his professional shortcomings. It can also teach your reps new tools and software, which can help them in building better customer relationships and providing excellent customer service.
Why coaching is important than ever before?
Coaching is often an underrealized tool with which you can get the most out of your employees. It can help you develop the next generation of leaders for your organisation, tap into the vast human resource potential, and retain top-talent. If you still have second thoughts on importance of coaching call center agents, here’s a quick glance for you on key aspects it can help you in overcoming these challenges:
Keeping customers happy
Delivering high quality product and services
Managing continuous change
Retaining top talent
Working in collaborative networked organisations – Teamwork
Achieving top-notch performance
So, Who is a Good Coach?
Managing staff in any form involves tremendous hard work and requires a well-stocked repertoire of people skills, business acumen, and the ability to juggle multiple projects, along with tackling pressure. For a coach, being a people’s person is directly linked to the job description.
The coach will have to deal with different agents and teach them to the best of abilities, so as they can provide amazing customer service to your customers. This is yet another factor why call center agent  training programmes focus greatly on having great trainers or coaches.
The managerial skills can be a deciding factor – whether your call center is performing really well or falling apart. The coach needs to have good managerial skills, which requires a heavy dose of both intuition and technique.

Feedback is the Key

While coaching center agents, there can be a mix of techniques which work really well. These techniques can range from elaborate theory sessions to live-on-call barging exercises. Another very important factor one must keep in mind is – feedback is the key. If your coach is an excellent teacher, but fails to evaluate his students or doesn’t give timely feedback, all his efforts can actually go in vain. The take-home lessons for your agents would eventually determine their skillsets and attributes, while they are on-the-floor, taking live calls.
Explore Industry first Mobile Call Center Solution for Remote agents.
We hope to bring out the best possible solutions for you to engage with customers and have more happy customers.