The key to contact center success is having a highly qualified, motivated, committed, and well-trained and coached workforce. But that is not always and is an ongoing challenge to achieve, with those challenges ever-changing.
For insights and recommendations we had a virtual conversation recently with Mike Aoki. A member of our Advisory Board, Mike is president of Reflective Keynotes, which provides customer service, sales, and coaching training.
Q. Are you seeing any changes in coaching and training and if so, what are they and what factors are driving them?
Generation Z (under-27 year olds) is now entering the workforce and becoming the mainstream. And they deserve more voice queue training.
Imagine being asked to learn Morse code and communicate with customers by telegraph. In other words, being asked to use an “outdated” technology you would never use in your personal life.
Some Gen Zs might feel that way when asked to deliver telephone customer service.
“Ultimately, you want every agent to excel in voice, chat, and email customer service...[so] assist your youngest agents with phone skills and your veteran agents with friendly writing skills.” —Mike Aoki
If you are over 40, it is easy to assume people know how to talk on the phone. However, Gen Z grew up texting friends, not calling. They may not even know HOW to talk on the phone with an upset customer.
Just as you would not expect a new hire to know your return policy without training, you should not expect them to be proficient on the phone without guidance.
So, support your youngest employees with EXTRA phone skills training if you are assigning them to the voice queue. Train them on foundational phone skills such as the following.
- Using basic pleasantries. For example, “Please,” “Thank you” (not “No problem”), “Yes” (not “Yeah”), etc.
- Effectively modulating their own voice to show energy and support.
- Leveraging emotional intelligence to recognize and respond to subtle vocal cues from the customer.
- Active listening skills, such as paraphrasing and asking clarifying follow up questions.
- Using pauses and polite stalling tactics so they can retrieve information without placing the customer on hold.
- Critical thinking skills. So, they can respond in real time to the customers’ issue.
Finally, add plenty of practice time. So, they can practice their new “phone voice” and active listening skills in a safe training environment before they take phone calls from customers!
Q. Are there coaching and training challenges with other demographics and if so, which ones? Please discuss.
Ironically, Generation X (born 1965-1980) and older Millennials (born 1981-1996) tend to have the opposite challenge: customers can perceive their chat and email writing styles as “too formal.”
This is because when we, and I am a Generation Xer, wrote something, it was for teachers and professors at school. There was no text messaging when I was a teenager. We called our friends on the phone. So when we wrote, it was for school essays and book reports, which meant using a formal writing style.
However, customers see that style as “too corporate” or “unfriendly.” Since a customer’s emotional impression of an email or chat comes from the words you type, those words need to sound friendly, empathetic, and supportive.
“...it [AI] failed at handling complicated requests. On the other hand, using AI for agent assistance appears much more promising!”
I have trained people who are friendly and warm in person, yet they come across as “cold” based on their writing. I typically observe this with veteran voice agents. Their warm vocal tone and use of “small talk” over the phone does not show in their writing style. Instead, their chats read like a book report.
To make a better impression, I train agents to “write in the warmth” in their emails and chats. This includes typing in words of empathy and using shorter, friendly-sounding phrases to make the chat or email warmer in tone.
Ultimately, you want every agent to excel in voice, chat, and email customer service. To achieve this, assist your youngest agents with phone skills and your veteran agents with friendly writing skills. This ensures your contact center makes the best impression on all of your customers.
Q. Do you see a role for artificial intelligence (AI) in enabling coaching and training? If so, where and how can AI help?
As a customer, I have had mixed experiences with AI-driven live chat and AI voice agents. It worked well for basic, factual inquiries such as product details.
However, it failed at handling complicated requests. On the other hand, using AI for agent assistance appears much more promising! It can help agents find information faster within the knowledge base.
AI can help agents write the first draft of an email response to a customer. It can also suggest upselling opportunities based on the customer’s history.
So, build those ideas into new hire training. Help agents learn and practice using AI as an agent enablement tool.
Q. Today’s customers appear to be more anxious, impatient, and irritable, with higher expectations and feel bigger disappointments when these are not met. What are your thoughts and recommendations to help contact centers?
Train agents on how to handle irate clients. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, people have a short fuse and often direct their frustrations at the agents. It is unfair to place agents in this situation. There is also an elevated risk of agent burnout and disengagement.
So, provide agents with the skills to de-escalate irate customers and recover from these difficult interactions. They deserve support!
“Train agents on how to handle irate clients... people have a short fuse and often direct their frustrations at the agents.”
Q. Work-from-home has become normalized for much of the contact center workforce it appears, since the end of the COVID-19 pandemic. Has it changed how agents are coached and trained?
Yes, there is now a much greater emphasis on creating an engaging onboarding experience, particularly for remote or hybrid agents.
New hire training has evolved beyond merely imparting product, process, and customer service knowledge. It now focuses on giving new hires a positive first impression of your company, fostering interactivity, and making new hires feel they have joined—and should remain with—a great organization.
In a remote or hybrid setting, it is too easy for new hires to leave a company that fails in these areas. An agent working from home only needs to change their logins to switch employers, making the barrier to quitting lower than it used to be. Consequently, new hire trainers play a crucial role in employee retention.
“The key is making new hires feel they joined - and want to stay with - the right company!”
Here are three tips for trainers to improve new hire employee retention:
- Make new hires feel heard. Show them how they can actively participate in training. Inform them about how to use virtual tools such as chat, email, and discussion boards. Encourage them to unmute their microphone to communicate with you. Make your training interactive. Incorporate time for open discussions. Encourage questions and ideas during training.
- Leverage multimedia content such as videos, animations, and interactive exercises. People learn best when they are having fun. So, make your training lively and engaging.
- Organize virtual (and onsite, if applicable) team-building exercises and social events. Ensure future team leaders are invited. So, agents and team leaders can get to know each other before new hire graduation. For virtual teams, provide a small food delivery gift card so they can enjoy a virtual lunch party via Zoom or Teams.
The key is making new hires feel they joined – and want to stay with – the right company!