Effective contact centers are the most adaptable of organizations, as they must frequently respond to changes of all kinds quickly and seamlessly. The past year and a half has not been different in that regard, with the massive shift to a more remote workplace. The current situation has, however, changed the way we look at agent coaching, with new challenges surrounding immediacy and visibility.
In the remote workplace, agents don’t really have ongoing, informal face-to-face interactions with their supervisors, nor even breakroom chatter. This lack of direct and personal involvement means less timely feedback, guidance and ad hoc learning for agents.
For the supervisors, it is also harder to accurately identify quality agents and their best practices, hard workers who might improve certain skills, or agents who need to up their game entirely. The move to a remote environment can leave a gap in knowledge regarding who to coach, what to coach on, and how specific coaching sessions are impacting outcomes.
Even when supervisors decide to promote corrective measures - let’s say in response to negative KPI trends - notifying agents working from home is heavily dependent on how often the agent engages with messaging systems or the like. Those remote agents trying to manage their own professional self-improvement are also often limited in the quality of information they have to work with due to things like poor remote access or visibility, dependence on supervisors, or no real-time data.
And all that is in addition to the domestic and environmental distractions for both coaches and agents working remotely.
Challenge and opportunity
The result is that remote agents are likely to perform below their potential, with improvements taking longer and occurring in smaller increments. This creates a negative loop driving down agent motivation and engagement, as well as KPI metrics across teams.
Yet, it is often observed, challenge and opportunity are two sides of the same coin. In fact, a new realm of possibilities has been opened up for how to coach effectively. Of course, it involves consciously melding high-tech and high-touch, placing a premium on nurturing agent connections.
More Information, More Focused Coaching
Evaluating a handful of calls and coaching to those is no longer possible in a remotely distributed workforce, nor is it even desirable now that technology can provide visibility into all their interactions. However, that represents an enormous amount of information from many different sources. Our goal, therefore, is to create a single, common source of truth regarding agent behaviors.
NICE Performance Management does that by bringing the wealth of available metrics – on quality, CSAT, productivity, etc. – together in such a way that the agent, the supervisor and the c-suite executive will all be working with the same data, visualizations and insights (each appropriate to their access level, of course). With centralized and integrated information, supervisors and agents gain a better understanding of the impact of specific behaviors on performance. They do not need to be business analysts to determine what might be improved through coaching, as such an approach creates clear, consumable guidance as to what – and who - needs attention.
Just as important as identifying who needs to be coached on what is understanding how they need to be coached.
Time and resources are scarce, and everybody is different. That’s why there is a growing tendency to segment agents in the contact center industry to make coaching more cost-effective. ‘One size fits all’ just doesn’t resonate any longer.
For example, while it may be clear you don’t need to spend as much time coaching top performers, what about the lowest performers? Studies show that it is very hard to move them significantly up the performance ladder. But the middle-ranked performers, so it seems, can be moved. And their movement generally has a greater impact, making coaching them a better investment of supervisor time. A centralized, intelligent solution such as NICE Performance Management will take a deep dive into agent performance levels, indicating the highest potential yields in terms of overall improvement. This is good for the company, but it’s also good for the agents – the beneficiaries of that coaching.
Demystifying coaching choices
An integrated, data-driven approach is the key. It demystifies targeted coaching, providing feedback and direction based on trends and deviations from expected targets or behaviors.
- Automated notifications of an agent’s anomalous metrics and persistent KPI shortfalls, such as higher-than-usual after-call work (ACW) for a period of time, provide transparency to both agents and supervisors.
- Supervisors can select the type of coaching for the individual agent, including:
- Group or individual coaching.
- “Mini Coaching” (from 5 to 15 minutes), especially for remote workers who have trouble focusing without distraction on lengthy sessions.
- Gamification that creates intrinsic motivation.
Ultimately, the new remote workplace needs a one-stop shop for coaching, gamification, reporting and mentorship. Performance is most effectively improved when all those components are linked harmoniously.
Coaching is a Conversation
Traditionally, supervisors have been responsible for initiating and managing the coaching process. But times have changed, with agents owning their own performance more than ever before.
Due to the physical distance in the work-from-home environment, the agent cannot easily approach the supervisor on the spot. However, with the right management technology, the agent can remotely initiate the process for a coaching session on any topic. This shifts the power to the agent to drive their own performance and improvement, enabled by a supervisor providing guidance along the way.
The trend is inexorably toward such two-way relationships, especially in the remote workplace, with everybody winning in the end.
Self-Coaching
Another aspect of greater agent independence arising in the remote workplace environment is self-improvement. To that end, they need to be able to see how they’re performing on a daily basis and have the tools to take action when needed.
Personalized performance dashboards empower agents with the insights they need to independently adjust course. They should also have the option to receive automated, timely and personalized alerts when their KPI trends indicate an opportunity for improvement (such as AHT rising above a given threshold, etc.). In many cases, these two elements alone allow agents to take corrective action independently, reducing or entirely eliminating the need for supervisor involvement.
When agents need or want to educate themselves on a topic, they should have access to a best practices library. This might include training videos, instructional content and real-world examples of effective methods to bridge gaps in skill and accelerate performance improvement.
The Advantages of Peer Pressure
A lot of informal contact center “coaching” would take place among the agents themselves, with no guiding supervisory hand. Since work from home has become the norm, it is harder for agents to seek assistance and guidance from their peers. You can’t just roll your chair over to the agent next to you and ask them a quick question.
Companies need to encourage such peer-to-peer education, despite the physical distance. One method is gamification that leverages friendly competition to meet group performance goals, fostering the kind of team collaboration that drives interaction. Engaging personalized activities can also be introduced to reward agents who help others, allowing them to earn real-world benefits.
Closing the Loop on Coaching
All change comes with a cost. How can a contact center assess the benefits of behavior changes made by agents after a coaching session?
Coaching effectiveness can be measured with rigor and discipline in NICE Performance Management, linking coaching sessions, strategies, topics and timing to specific before-and-after performance metrics. At the executive level, this provides valuable insight into the cost-effectiveness of investments made in coaching initiatives and technologies.
It also highlights which coaches or coaching strategies are more effective, allowing organizations to leverage best practices across the board. Coaching the coach is undoubtedly a win-win, honing supervisors’ skills so they can improve agent performance and, ultimately, provide the best possible customer service.
To learn more about coaching and performance in today’s hybrid contact center, read this whitepaper or reach out to your NICE account manager.