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\nCustomer experience is more important than ever. As already-high customer expectations continue to evolve, businesses need to pivot rapidly to meet them. <\/strong><\/p>\n And with so much still in flux, that\u2019s not set to change any time soon. That means contact center leaders need to get smart about how they deliver better customer experiences<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 and it begins with looking inward.<\/p>\n Why invest in coaching agents?<\/strong><\/p>\n To improve customer experience, contact center leaders need to first improve agent experience. That\u2019s because happy agents are typically more effective, making customers happier, too.<\/p>\n CSAT\u00a0(customer satisfaction) and\u00a0CLV\u00a0(customer lifetime value) are important metrics for contact centers, and directly correlate to investment in agent coaching. CES (customer effort score) is another: it measures how easy it is for customers to complete tasks. That can often depend on how well agents do\u00a0their<\/em>\u00a0job \u2013\u00a0how much relevant information is easily accessible, how quickly they respond, and how helpful their response is. Coaching agents to perform better therefore has a knock-on effect to reducing\u00a0customer effort, and that improves their overall experience.<\/p>\n But while customers are obviously important, so are employees. Happier, more engaged and more empowered agents aren\u2019t just nice to have: they also cut the cost and resource-drain that comes with undesired attrition. Plus, agents who have\u00a0positive employee experiences\u00a0add value over time. The more\u00a0engaged\u00a0they are, the more inclined they\u2019ll be to deliver an excellent service. And the longer they stay in-role, the more expert they become, feeding a cycle of continuous improvement for themselves, their colleagues, and the customer.<\/p>\n What\u2019s more, those experts are a pre-qualified talent pool for the wider business. They know the product intimately, and can help train others internally, or move into more senior roles themselves. Front line agents are often overlooked and under-valued, but there are few others within the business that know the brand, its customers and their issues better. They add tangible value with every interaction \u2013\u00a0value that can be harnessed and increased with the right coaching,<\/p>\n Why does agent coaching need to change?<\/strong><\/p>\n Contact center leaders have at their disposal a rich pool of diverse skills, backgrounds, and strengths. But it\u2019s not currently being leveraged to its full potential.<\/p>\n That\u2019s because agent coaching methods don\u2019t reflect that nuance. They direct performance against a one-size-fits-all set of metrics, rather than orchestrating different talents to work in unison. The issues with that have become apparent during the pandemic. In a remote setting, information and support is dispersed, in-the-moment conversations are harder to have, and agents are working alone \u2013\u00a0not as part of a unit.<\/p>\n With the rule book out the window, it\u2019s meant they\u2019ve had to rely increasingly on intuition and initiative to solve new problems. That\u2019s no bad thing; ditching the script has forced agents to really listen to customers, and meant contact centers have moved to a more human-led approach. But coaching techniques haven\u2019t yet been updated to match. Now, contact centers need to invest in the skills and tools that will help agents perform at scale.<\/p>\n Understanding agent performance and engagement<\/strong><\/p>\n Effective front line agent coaching starts with understanding their current\u00a0performance\u00a0and engagement. That means looking beyond those one-size-fits-all metrics.<\/p>\n Using the wrong performance criteria can hinder rather than help; instead, leaders should seek to build a broad dataset that includes both the experiential and the operational. An agent scorecard can help here. Based on three dimensions – friendliness, knowledge and understanding – it gives agents clarity and control over how their performance is judged. Each dimension is coachable, providing agents with a clear path to improve, become more effective at solving problems, and keep customers happy.<\/p>\n There are lots of different metrics leaders might choose to include on a scorecard, depending on their particular business needs. Some useful ones to consider are:<\/p>\n Experiential:\u00a0<\/strong>agent knowledge, attitude, listening ability and engagement level<\/p>\n Operational:<\/strong>\u00a0first time resolution, average handle time, and escalation rate.<\/p>\n As well as helping to identify strengths and opportunities, scorecards also mean can leaders catch signs of dissatisfaction \u2013 and therefore potential attrition \u2013\u00a0early.\u00a0Agents value ownership and belonging above all else.\u00a0They should feel pride and accomplishment in their work, and that their feedback is valued and listened to. If they don\u2019t, it\u2019s a sign that contact center leaders need to act.<\/p>\n How to use agent and customer feedback to improve engagement and effectiveness<\/strong><\/p>\n On top of collecting a broad range of data, it\u2019s also important to look for two-way feedback. The customer might always be right \u2013 but it\u2019s useful for leaders to compare their feedback against the agent\u2019s own.\u00a0 It can help close perceptions gaps, and uncover more relevant next steps for coaching and development. Mismatched ideas about how an interaction went might be because the agent missed the customer\u2019s cues, or because the customer expectation was unrealistic. Listening and expectation-setting are two very different skill sets, and they\u2019ll require different coaching plans.<\/p>\n Regular\u00a0pulse surveys\u00a0are a good way to gauge agent sentiment and gather feedback. But information can be gathered more informally, too, via quick contextual questions about team and colleagues. Tools that help agents self-monitor, and make it easy to communicate with managers when needed, mean that vital feedback can be gathered while it\u2019s still fresh. QA reconsideration tools let agents flag accounts and interactions they want reviewed – or not. This might be because the agent did well and wants to surface it, or because it went badly but the customer was hostile and aggressive. Tools such as these help ensure the agent is only judged on what they can control. It is this empowerment that makes for more engaged, effective agents.<\/p>\n Combining their own knowledge and experience, with agent and customer feedback, managers are able to see the full picture and mentor their teams more effectively. In partnership with the agent, they can then create an action plan that motivates the agent to continually strengthen and improve their skills \u2013 and consistently provide a better experience for customers.<\/p>\n About Qualtrics<\/strong><\/p>\n Qualtrics (Nasdaq:\u00a0XM<\/a>) the leader in customer experience and creator of the Experience Management (XM) category, is changing the way organizations manage and improve the four core experiences of business\u2013\u2013customer, employee, product, and brand. Over 13,500 organizations around the world are using Qualtrics to listen, understand, and take action on experience data (X-Data\u2122)\u2013\u2013the beliefs, emotions, and intentions that tell you why things are happening, and what to do about it. The Qualtrics XM PlatformTM is a system of action that helps businesses attract customers who stay longer and buy more, engage employees who build a positive culture, develop breakthrough products people love, and build a brand people are passionate about. To learn more, please visit\u00a0qualtrics.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As already-high customer expectations continue to evolve, businesses need to pivot rapidly to meet them. Contact center leaders need to get smart about how they deliver better customer experiences..<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":550,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[181],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26292"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/550"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26292"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26292\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26303,"href":"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26292\/revisions\/26303"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}