Most call center supervisors struggle with how to coach their agents effectively to help them improve their FCR and Csat performance.

VERNON, B.C, CANADA, September 7, 2022 /EINPresswire.com/ -- 5 Steps of Supervisor Coaching Effectiveness

Most call center supervisors struggle with how to coach their agents effectively to help them improve their first call resolution (FCR) and customer satisfaction (Csat) performance. Furthermore, the success of your call center customer service depends on your supervisor's agent coaching effectiveness for improving and sustaining high FCR and Csat performance. Unfortunately, one of the biggest complaints we hear from agents is their supervisor has not been able to help them improve Csat. Therefore, this blog will focus on the Five Steps for Improving Call Center Supervisor Coaching Effectiveness for Helping Agents Deliver Great Csat.

- Coaching System

SMART Goal
Many call centers that want to improve supervisor coaching effectiveness for helping agents deliver great Csat start with SMART goals. Goal setting allows agents to understand expectations and progress towards the goals clearly and ensures that coaching is more productive. The SMART Goal acronym stands for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-Based.

Six Coaching Techniques

SQM experience shows that 1:1 agent coaching is one of the most reliable ways for an agent to understand their strengths that they can build upon and weaknesses that need to be addressed to improve their Csat ratings. The following are six techniques a supervisor can use to coach agents effectively:

1. Survey and Call Compliance Data
2. Positive Tone and Feedback
3. Goal Setting
4. Role Playing
5. Actively Listening
6. Recognition Reinforcement

Technology

Since 1996, SQM Group has connected customer feedback and QA to agent performance, coaching, and recognition to improve CX using a call center. Our mySQM™ Customer Service QA software empowers, recognizes, and engages agents by providing them with real-time dashboard reporting for customer feedback, quality assurance, coaching, and recognition to deliver great CX. In addition, real-time actionable notifications (e.g., great CX delivery and service recovery opportunities) are pushed out to agents and supervisors. Our software captures data from multiple sources (e.g., post-call survey, QA, call data) and stores it in one fully integrated software platform for managing CX data to deliver great customer satisfaction.

- Training of the Coach

In many cases, managers promote their best agents to be supervisors without equipping them with the necessary training to be effective coaches for helping agents improve Csat. Yet, a good coach plays a big role in assisting an agent to become a long-term high Csat performer. Therefore, we have provided five training tips to keep in mind for supervisors to become better at coaching agents to improve Csat.

1. Agents Receive Csat Coaching at Least Once Every Month

One of the most common complaints we hear from agents is that their monthly coaching sessions always get cancelled. It is SQM's view that agents must get coached at least once every month, and the coaching session is approximately one hour long, so they can keep improving their knowledge and skills.

2. Use an Agent Coaching Workflow

Other common complaints we hear from agents are that their supervisor is ineffective at coaching them to improve Csat or the supervisors are inconsistent on how they coach agents to improve Csat. As previously mentioned, a way to remedy those agent complaints is to use an agent coaching workflow.

3. Coach all Agents

Traditional thinking is that when call center overall Csat improves, it comes from improving agents in the 3rd and 4th quartile Csat performance levels. As a result, supervisors have allocated more agent coaching time to improve agent Csat performance with the lowest Csat agent performers. At SQM, we recommend that supervisors invest approximately 50 to 75% of their coaching time with 1st and 2nd quartile Csat performing agents and 25 to 50% of their time with 3rd and 4th quartile Csat performing agents.

4. One-on-One Coaching Sessions

Team coaching sessions are practical for sharing opportunities for Csat improvement that impact all agents but are inappropriate for coaching an agent's specific needs in a team meeting. One-on-one coaching allows a supervisor to discuss performance privately, which is more conducive to a productive coaching session.

5. Discuss Progress for Achieving Csat Goal

After mutually developing an action plan with an agent, the supervisor should discuss the agent's progress in achieving Csat Goal at the next coaching session. If the agent is on track to meeting or exceeding their Csat goals, recognize their success. However, if an agent is not meeting their Csat goal, identify what is hindering them from not achieving it.

3. Interpersonal Skills

SQM research shows that in 2021 the agent turnover rate of 35% is the highest turnover percentage we have ever measured in over 25 years of benchmarking this metric. Furthermore, the number one reason agents leave a call center is the lack of recognition. In addition, in many call centers, one of the main reason reasons why Csat has decreased or has not improved is the high agent turnover.

4. Coaching Activity Reporting

Few call centers have coaching activity reporting to provide insights into supervisor coaching activities, such as who got coached, when they got coached, how often they got coached, who coached, and what metrics and behaviors they were coaching. Most importantly, as a result of the supervisor's coaching, did the agents improve their Csat performance?

Supervisor coaching activity (e.g., agents are being coached) is not good enough; you need to understand whether coaching is effective. Ideally, you want your quality assurance program and agent coaching to improve your Csat and FCR performance.

5. Coaching Effectiveness

Most call centers do not measure supervisor Csat coaching effectiveness as defined by the % of their agents who improved Csat based on coaching activities. Therefore, it's tricky to improve Csat from SQM's perspective if you do not measure supervisor Csat coaching activity and corresponding Csat results.

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SQM Marketing
SQM Group Inc.
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