Radclyffe Consulting, LLC

CSRs Not Open To Feedback or Coaching

Dear Liz,

We have two CSRs on the team that become extremely distraught when they receive the invitation to a coaching session. They go into their manager's office and also go up to the coaches and state "Oh my gosh, what did I do?" and they also discuss it among the team. I have had discussions with both of them stating coaching is a learning environment and is used to help us improve our phone skills. During coaching, I state the positives before moving onto the improvements needed. Do you have any other suggestions regarding handling this situation? Is there a particular personality that responds this way to coaching?

Trying To Create A Positive Coaching Environment in New Jersey

Dear Liz - I am seeking to define the title "Project Leader" so that I can set a standard for my organization's team to follow....Curious in Canada

...I am not looking to write a job description but rather to compose a list of the various personal, managerial traits and actions that make up an ideal project leader.   Best Regards, Curious in Canada.

Dear Curious:

Your request is a common one in that you are looking for attributes, inherent abilities, characteristics and potential actions that define the ideal project leader.  We have done the same in terms of recruiting for our training consultants and have defined exactly what those behaviors look like when effectively demonstrated.

A general rule of thumb, regardless of the specific requirements in any particular company or industry, is that an ideal project leader has to encompass the following characteristics or traits.  Often we call them "competencies":

• Communication
• Openness to Influence
• Openness to Feedback/Acting on Feedback
• Collaboration
• Analytical Skills
• Innovation
• Resourcefulness
• Problem Solving
• Teamwork
• Ownership/Personal Accountability
• Managing Priorities
• Proactivity
• Results-Orientation
• Detail Orientation
• Business Acumen
• Customer Partnership
• Process Improvement
• Team Development
• Professionalism

There are several schools of thought on whether the competencies or attributes listed above are too many, but I have found that within each attribute there are varying levels of proficiency that one individual might have.  We usually use the "Levels of Action" to determine where in the attributes an individual will fall:

5 = Takes Action And Reports Back Regularly

4 = Takes Action And Reports Back Immediately

3 = Suggests Action And Asks For Permission

2 = Asks What To Do

1 = Waits to Be Told What To Do

Any one individual should be able to perform at a consistent "3", but most likely you would want individuals to be performing what we call "Above The Line."

Dear Liz: It seems I have a handful of people in my contact center who are instigators. What do I do if I can't fire them? Getting Scared in New Jersey

Dear Getting Scared in New Jersey:

Over the years I have worked with at least 25 contact center leaders who were also at the point of becoming threatened by a handful of representatives in their organization.  These representatives often made up stories about a particular team leader or manager and complained to human resources on a regular basis.

Since this is an anomaly in corporate America in general, human resources professionals and senior executives are often skeptical of the manager or team leader who is the target of these employees.  After all, they don't hear this about other managers in the company and since it's unusual to have a small group of people from one department constantly going to human resources, they question the manager's ethics and integrity.

You want to know what's going on and how to stop this behavior.  Over the years, we have conducted studies to identify exactly why this happens.  While it's a fascinating aspect of contact center management, it's very threatening when you are the target of these employees.

How do I reduce the turnover in my contact center? Frustrated in Arizona

Dear Frustrated in Arizona:

I am going to discuss part III in today's section of "How do I reduce turnover in my contact center?"

Step 5: Create and Implement Motivation and Incentives

Step 6: Share the Big Picture

Part II: Dear Liz, how do I reduce turnover in my contact center? Frustrated in Arizona

Dear Frustrated in Arizona:

Last week I talked about the first two steps in reducing turnover in your contact center organization which are:

1. Hire the right people and,
2. Intellectually challenge your staff

This week I will focus on the next two steps three and four:

• Create career paths, and
• Push decision-making down to the rep

It should be noted that while I have outlined these actions in steps to make it easier, all activities should be approached as integrated initiatives toward the end-goal.

Creating career pathing in your organization and pushing decision-making down to the representative level should result in cultivating your representatives to demonstrate more sophisticated skills that are transferable to the rest of the organization.

Dear Liz: How do I reduce the turnover in my contact center? Frustrated in Arizona

Ah! This is the most asked question in the contact center industry.  Of course, there is no simple answer, but there are several specific steps you can take to minimize the amount of representative turnover in your organization.  I have outlined below some key findings and actions you can take to address this issue:

Step 1:  Hire the Right People

Step 2:  Intellectually Challenge Your Staff

Step 3:  Create Career Paths

Step 4:  Push Decision-Making Down to the Reps

Step 5: Create and Implement Motivation and Incentives

Step 6: Share the Big Picture

This week I will cover the first two steps:

1. Hire the Right People and,
2. Intellectually Challenge Your Staff.