Coaching Leaders – A Requirement for Contact Center Success

A direct link to providing world-class contact center service is having employees with the right attitude, skills, and motivation to deliver during every moment-of-truth interaction.   Many companies have developed formal coaching programs targeted at getting front-line agents armed with the right information and processes to provide service that meets the customer and company requirements. While these programs can improve customer interactions, they often become more routine than effective and result in a task to be completed, versus an activity that everyone looks forward to. Much of the blame for the short-lived success in most agent coaching programs is the lack of investment in the leaders tasked with execution. Contact centers tend to neglect a critical success factor in coaching agents – the ongoing coaching for the leaders that provide coaching.

The reality is that everyone can use a coach, and in the challenging, labor-intensive call center environment, leaders need to have just as much, if not more, interactions to help them improve themselves and others. During our visits with various contact centers, the word “coaching” is often used in conversations with management. However, it isn’t always clear what coaching actually means –Coaching is  based on the French word that means a vehicle to transport people from one place to another. Within the context of coaching front-line managers, effective coaching brings to light whatever is getting in the manager’s way from taking his or her employees to world-class service delivery on every customer interaction. It’s all about helping the front-line manager identify these barriers, finding creative ways to bust through them, and then holding him accountable for doing so. In this respect, the leadership coach is in a partnership with the front-line manager/coachee and becomes a catalyst for improved results.

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http://www.servicelevelgroup.com/files/LTmay10_FrontLeaders.pdf