One year old!

Greatest hits!

In honor of my one-year anniversary, I’d like to share some of my favorite posts with you:

• Why you should hire "hackers" to improve your NPS
• Taking your email advisories from zero to hero
• My most popular entry ever! 5 types of reps you need on your team
• What is "service heart" and why do you need it?
• Discover BranchTrack!

Beyond the phone: helping your front line employees grow

Working in a call center is one of the few jobs that employees with little or no formal secondary education can do, and expect to “rise in the ranks” to an “office job”.

There’s a few career paths your employees could take:

Operations:

The most likely path. From agent to team lead to supervisor, and up the ranks. I’ve seen agents go from answering phones to managing accounts in about 5 years or so. Not bad for those who started with very minimal English language skills and no college degree.

Training:

Another very easy path. Agent to SME to trainer to lead trainer, and up the ranks. For those that would like to expand their skill set, or maybe even travel, this is the way to go. This path could lead all the way up to office jobs such as Instructional Designer or Project Manager.

Specialist:

This is a shorter path, but is a good match for those that might want to leverage years in a certain specialized field into consultation one day.

There are some other paths, but those are the options that I’m most familiar with.

Now, how do you help your employees get there?

Talk to them about their goals

                Where do they see themselves in a year? Do they have any work heroes or people they look up to?

Encourage them to get certified, take classes, and continue their education in and out of work

                Many offices offer professional development classes of some kind or another—these can be valuable when applying for internal jobs.

Coach to their strengths

                Rather than hammering away on a skill set they may leave behind in a year or two, focus on how they can develop long term skills like problem solving, leadership, and innovation.

Develop a good relationship with Human Capital or HR/Recruitment

                Your word will count for something when you want to recommend an employee.

Make your employees aware of these paths

                It’s hard to keep people in your team when they feel the job is a dead end. Make sure they’re aware they have options.

Use these tips and resources to make sure your employees stay with you and stay engaged! 

Unfixable: the most challenging obstacle I ever encountered in my call center days

If you’ve ever called an offshore call center that sounds like a busy street market, ringing with the sounds of a foreign language, you can bet your Tuesday lunch there is a tight lipped ex-pat in the background, making throat-slashing gestures at the offenders in vain.

3 and a half years ago, I landed in the Philippines in a semi-provincial area to work in a call center creating training materials, coaching, and training front line reps on communications, soft skills, and language. The job was extremely challenging, the support pretty nonexistent, and the hours were hell. My desk was in the middle of the production floor, an area we semi-affectionately called “the Dungeon”. All of these challenges paled in comparison to the looming obelisk that blotted out the sun: EOP.

EOP was the acronym for “English Only Policy”. It makes sense to ask and require reps to speak only English at work and on the production floor. What was next to impossible was getting them to do it.

I tried email reminders. I tried bribes. I tried “catching people doing the right thing.” We created slogans and had a contest. We printed tee shirts. I created a campaign of emails with illustrations (beloved, yet completely lacking in impact) called “EOP Stars” which featured people of Filipino extraction or origin who made their careers on English—people like Bruno Mars, Apple d.App, and Josie Natori.

 The communications team as a whole tried meetings -one of which was held with the entire 200 person production team- where I held up ominous bar graphs showing a decline in our customer satisfaction score with an increase in our floor size (meaning our floor walkers couldn’t physically get to all of our agents and remind them to zip it). We tried threats, keeping score, and as a last resort, embarrassing the offenders in front of everyone.  We created reminders called “Background noise K.O.” that explained we would grade any call in which background noise was captured a “0” in Quality. We wrote people up and reported offenders to the powers that be.

Nothing could budge people from their desire to speak in what we (wrongly) called “vernacular” no. matter.what.

I spent a HUGE amount of time trying to understand this. English is the accepted language of worldwide business, most likely closely followed by French, Chinese languages, Hindi, and Arabic. Filipino (and the local dialects) doesn’t even make the top ten! For ambitious young professionals, accent- free or “neutral” English was a marker of success and class. So why were our reps so resistant to speaking in English?

After more than 3 years living with and working with Filipinos, I have only guesses.

 My first guess would be the intense, almost maniacal national pride that Filipinos have for their people and heritage. With few natural resources, a history of occupation and struggles, and widespread poverty, national pride in the people themselves as a kind of living museum is a must. Tee shirts with the slogan “The Filipino is worth dying for”/ “100% Filipino” and other such lines that celebrate the people of the islands (rather than, say amber waves of grain, or purple mountains majesty) were very popular. Language is a part of culture and heritage, which I (humbly) submit was ignored or bulldozed for many years (first by the Spanish, then by the Americans, now by the business world at large).

My second guess is that it’s a combination of a) never really finding the right motivator and b) the transient nature of front line call center work means that the talent pool tends to be young, carefree, and not super serious. Having fun with friends and finding romance were reasons people came to work, rather than “career advancement” or “financial independence.”

My third guess hinges on something that I will most likely never understand fully: culture. The bonds of interdependence and connection between family and friends are so tightly woven that for some, speaking English instead of the local dialect feels like a kind of betrayal, a kind of show of arrogance. And when it came time to choose between a seatmate who loaned them money, showed them sympathy when they were down, hooked them up with a cutie they knew, and was just generally there for them and speaking English: no contest. Speaking English could at best mark you as an upstart, at worst get you a freeze out. The “cool kids” in the account actually put on a heavy accent to speak English, and you can imagine the trickle-down effect this kind of thing had!

I left that town never really knowing what I could have done to make a lasting difference, and wondering if maybe the initiative itself was somehow beside the point. Was EOP just another misguided effort to standardize something that should not be standardized—akin to what happened to the U.S’s indigenous peoples in the 1800’s? Or was it really ‘for their own good’?

I leave it to you to ponder.

 

Woolie Boolie gets a comb: using your own stories in training.

source: wehearit.com

 

As a trainer, one of the top 3 of the most effective tools in my tool kit was the personal story. 

I always got a very positive response to a personal story—about almost anything. They not only enjoyed it, they clamored for more, sometimes to the point of getting downright nosy. (Especially on the topic of my dating life, which was a cabinet of curiosities to them).

How can you use your own stories (sometimes stuffily called “personal disclosure”) to greatest effect?

A few ground rules:

The story should be short, well rehearsed, and punchy.

If you are a natural story teller (few of us are), great.

Otherwise, write it, prune it, rehearse it, and test it. It should be about 30 seconds long, be devoid of any fillers or ‘go backs’ (“Wait, hang on, the thing is, she was my best friend since first grade, that’s really vital to the story. Okay, where was I?”).

 

It needs a punch line—something unexpected or dramatic works best.

There should be one lead- in line, a little “build up” to the punch line, and then the punch line.

“When I was living in Manila I used to work on jigsaw puzzles all the time, and I would always have one out and half complete.” (Lead- in)

“Well, I started noticing that the puzzle was more done than I remembered when I would sit down and work on it. At first I chalked it up to the fact that I was always having a glass or two of wine while working on it” (Build up)

“But then I caught on: the teenage girls that cleaned the room every day were actually working on the puzzle while I was at work!” (Punch line)

The story should show you in a slightly funny or self deprecating light. Failing that, it should highlight one of life’s “universal truths”, such as how we are all silly, puffed up, or wrong- headed on occasion.

The time you found yourself on the verge of tears when you couldn’t find an item called ‘A goodie basket’ in the department store, only to find out that your boss wanted you to buy the goodies and assemble one. (me)

The time you raised holy heck to find out who stole same goodie basket only to find out it was being stored for safe keeping in a coworker’s locker. (still me)

Things like that.

The stories should be treats, not the meat and potatoes of class.

Like many things (snow, whiskey, choral singing) a little goes a long way with personal stories. Always better to leave them wanting more than wishing you would just be done with it.

The story teller should know his or her limits, audience, and self.

Having an extensive grab bag of stories to reach into is helpful—most trainers are natural leaders and story tellers, they wouldn’t have gotten into the biz otherwise—but what’s really key is knowing your strengths. If you can’t do imitations to save your life, don’t stake your story’s life on them. If your class is full of highly technical, highly educated, and rather sharkey tough guys, don’t tell the story about the time you looked for your glasses, only to find them on top of your own head, punctuated with nervous giggles at your own silliness.

Finally….it had better be real. Surreal is even better. But it has to be authentic—don’t “pray at” your audience in the hopes that they “see themselves” in your little morality tale. Use stories for fun, humor, and adding life to your classroom, not making a heavy handed point.

 

 

 

Passion Pit: must you be truly passionate about customer expereince to excel in providing it?

Source: http://weheartit.com/

Passion is what keeps you going when things are hard, unexpected challenges arise, or you get bad news.

 BUT: You don’t really need to live, breathe, and eat “customer experience” day in and out to become very successful in the field. It sounds a bit counterintuitive—how can you succeed at something that you’re not completely involved in? 

·         Competence

When working in collections, there were two types of successful collectors: naturals and grinds.

Naturals were born salesmen with lovely voices and an uncanny sense of what to say when to close a deal. They got jazzed over hitting big payments and putting up huge numbers on the board day after day. They thrilled to the roller coaster ride of it all.

Grinds usually came from academic or other white- collar backgrounds—they were educated in a wide swath of subjects, and were always finding angles to improve their game—jotting down telephone numbers that didn’t ring through on the automated dialer system and then manually calling them later, creating more detailed notes in the accounts, learning more about Accurint in their spare time.

Overall, both groups had competence- they were skilled at their job. Naturals came by it more easily, but both groups were focused, prepared, and knew their market.

·         Work Ethic

Passion is the spark and the fire, but good work habits like application, patience, and perseverance—those are the things that you really need at your job. I’ve seen many a reality show in which a sniffling participant argues that they want the prize more, so they should get it, which is often a cover for their lack of competence or work ethic. Wanting something or loving something to death is not enough to bring it to fruition.

·         Curiosity

My top reps at a Philippines based outsourced call center would surf Wikipedia in their ‘avail’ times. It was one of the few sites not blocked, and it gave them an irresistible look through a window into the outside world.

 In many of my jobs, including retail, I made myself a better salesperson by reading everything I could get my hands on about the company and the products.

Was I “passionate” about denim washes? No, but as a naturally (and insatiably!) curious person, I was willing to direct my curiosity to a area where it would pay off in competence down the line.  

·         Vision

Exceptional “psychic” customer experiences come from knowing what your customers might need down the line. It’s great to be passionate about providing great service in the here and now, but what about extension brands, products, and services that they’ll need and want later down the line?

How can you take your 1-store operation from using all paper processing and tracking to a 3-store chain that’s completely digital and eco-friendly?

You need more than just “passion” to accomplish moves like this.

Passion can take you far-- but without these other traits, you'll be flapping your melting wings as you soar ever closer to the sun, oblivious to the dangers....

Playing with Lego blocks can improve your customer service: find out how!

Customer service tips usually follow the same formula or list format. They generally give well intentioned, but vague and overused advice about being empathetic and going the extra mile. That's all very well and good, but you're an expert! You already know the basics. Ready to kick it up a notch? Let's go play tent forts.

 

Image credit: http://lego.wikia.com/wiki/File:Jungle_explorer.jpg

 

1: Call the 1-800 number on all of your utilities, credit cards, and club cards.

Whatever business you need to take care of that you’ve been dreading, just get it over with. This time, instead of doing dishes with the phone tucked under your chin, or watching Real Housewives on mute while you do yoga breaths trying to keep your temper in check, do something else. Take notes. What worked? What really didn’t work? Most importantly, what could the agent have done differently in a concrete way, to make the call better?

Now take this knowledge to your team. Better yet, have THEM call your Little Dippers Frozen Yoghurt account and ask for a refund because they pulled the flavor you wanted from production before you got to your 9- cones- get- the- 10^th- free!

2: Develop a hobby or interest. Better yet, several!

One of the main ways I built rapport with customers was through shared interests. Sometimes there would be an easy give away, such as a credit card with a vanity picture of a tangle of yarn with knitting needles sticking out of it. Sometimes, they would outright tell me “I make my own jewelry.”  Other times, it was up to me to mention my hobbies and interests, to build rapport or make small talk while we waited for an approval to go through. Hobbies and interests also make you calmer and more grounded, meaning you’ll have patience with all your terrible customers. Smiley.

3: Shop more. Shop deeper.

This is related to number 1. Become an unofficial secret shopper. When things make you frustrated or angry, go deep. Why were you so upset when the coupon didn’t go through? What are you losing or what is being taken away from you? Is it time, money, prestige, comfort, security? This is the way advertisers think: they’re never selling you the product, they’re selling you the things you can get for or with this product.

Security and safety with a Volvo, freedom from conventional ‘good girl’ rules with Hypnotique’s “Don’t just turn heads, break necks” campaign, the rush of defying death itself with Camel “cancer sticks.”

 “Going deep” about your own feelings and motivations will help you understand what goes on in the mind of the average consumer, on a deeper level, and will help you provide better, more holistic solutions.

4: Read more.

News, magazines, books, articles—anything! The best agents and coaches in customer service know a little about a lot of different things. They know where you can get a money order at midnight, they know how to look up zip codes for different neighborhoods, and they know how to wiggle around the rules (legally!) to give the customer that extra mile experience. They know lots of cool stuff you can usually only know through reading.

5: Play.

I am an advocate of more play time for adults. And the treadmill with US Weekly doesn’t count. Physical exercise could be play, that’s true, but I’m talking about using your hands to play with something, for the pure fun of it. Frisbee, mini golf, putting together puzzles, playing with Lego blocks or other building sets….the rules are it has to make you happy, it can’t be “work” or a true strain on you, and it should be a toy, not an electronic game.

 Play not only makes you more relaxed and happy, it puts you into a “flow” state where your mind can wander freely and make serendipitous connections. Working as a day care teacher and a nanny, I got to spend many extra years playing: painting, drawing, putting on puppet shows, building things, coloring, using Play-doh… and I credit those years with my seemingly endless supply of creative ideas and unusual outlook on life.

Playing with toys can bring up emotions and help you access a side of your personality that may have been long buried under a mask of adult professionalism. This playful side, this creative side, this empathetic and emotional side, (in small doses!) is what thousands of books are being written about helping you find. Find your purple frog by bouncing a ball while you're on the phone, by drawing during your lunch hour, by joining a puzzle group. Just play.

6: Talk to your friends.

Really talk. Listen. Refine your conversational skills. One of the biggest errors I would hear on the phones was agents talking over customers or drowning them with spiels and scripts. Another skill to add is listening for emotional context or the feeling behind the words. Living in a country where I didn’t speak the language enabled me to add seven league boot steps’ worth of knowledge about tone and body language to my repertoire, and it’s been very helpful.

7: Let it go.

There is a breeziness, a lightness, and a sense of “work well done” with a light hand that is common to the best service workers. It’s kind of like “Hey, it’s just my job, no big thing.” When you know your product, you feel confident, and you’re relaxed and comfortable, there is a lightness that you can share with your customers. It seems like a halo that touches your shoulders and lights up the room. You can find this grace with time and devotion to your craft.

 Get started.

 

The 5 types of reps EVERY call center should have

The 5 types of reps you need on your phones and working your floor. (And how to get the best from them!)

Who are they? They are....

•  Diamonds
•  Pearls
• Jades 
•  Marcasites
•  Golds

 Diamonds

Who are your Diamonds?

Diamonds are your superstars—they’re expensive, dazzling, sparkling, upbeat, high energy, and can be a little flashy at times. They love to show off, be loud, and get the party started. 

How do you use your Diamonds?

 Diamonds need to be appreciated with thank-you’s, bonus structures, public praise “Wow, everyone, Jeremy just got 1500$ before noon- let’s all give Jeremy a hand!”, and good news when coaching. Diamonds can be a bit moody, fragile, and temperamental, so if you have to give them coaching, use the “poo sandwich” method—praise the good, give the coaching points, end with more praise.

Diamond famous quotes:

"Hey, did you see that last sale I just got? I wam- bam- thank- you- ma'am-ed that customer! Woooo hooo!!" 

 Pearls

Who are your Pearls?

Pearls are your quietly glowing mother/ father figures. They have a gentle aura about them (and this applies to plenty of men too!) that seems to just melt customers that can’t even see them! They float serenely around the stations, dropping off kisses, hugs, and “how are you?’s” to all your staff. Everyone loves them.

How do you use your Pearls?

Pearls are great early warning systems for unhappiness and attrition on your staff. Because other types may enjoy or even thrive on chaos and gossip, you may not really see a problem if you ask them—you may not notice until half your staff has left over the romantic fallout between your Manager on Duty and your Team Manager. Pearls may drive you crazy with their slow pace and need to greet everyone and have (several) coffee and chat breaks a day, but they keep the human side running, and that’s important. “MVP” or “World’s Best Employee” plaques or mugs might be welcome, personal time with you (the boss) such as a coffee or a “reward dinner” might also work. Personal, thoughtful gifts are best.

Pearl famous quotes: 

"Hi, Shelia? How was your husband's knee surgery? And how's the new house working out, Fred?"

Jades

Who are your Jades?

Jades are cool, calm, collected, brainy types. They don’t get emotional, they just fix the problem. Sometimes they can be “clueless” about “people stuff” but they are key for those Tier III tech support queues you’re running. 

How do you use your Jades?

Jades do well as technical trainers because they often naturally command respect due to their technical expertise. Jades also make up good Team Leads and Subject Matter Experts—they seldom let interpersonal “drama” affect their business decisions the way other types can. Jades like challenging work, respect, and to be recognized for their expertise.

Jade famous quotes:

"Guys, if you would have listened to me about the server last month, we wouldn't be in this situation now. But good news is, it can be fixed." 

Marcasites

Who are your Marcasites?

Marcasites are your oddball creative types. They biked to work, they have tattoos, they have a side gig in a band. They tend to do pretty well with customers since they think out of the box and are willing to come up with creative solutions. 

How do you use your Marcasites?

Marcasites shine in creative endeavours. Find their talent (acting? Let them M.C. your next seminar. Flair for media? Let them try out a company twitter feed) and nurture it. Ensure that they are focused (they can be a bit scattered) and that you work with them on a long term growth plan (they hate to feel stuck or trapped). Use them to shake up the team and give everyone fresh ideas and fresh perspectives.

Marcasite famous quotes:

"What if we created a robot IVR that sounded like a cat purring? Wouldn't that be so rad? Customers would love it!"

Golds

Who are your Golds?

Golds are your basic, everyday employees who show up, come to work, do a very solid job, and go home to their families. They don’t give you any issues, but neither do they swing from the rafters with 5000$ checks in their hands after sales. They’re the setting in which your other types shine.

How do you use your Golds?

Treat them well, keep your word, and set a reachable but high standard. Treat them the way you would have wanted to be treated in your work, or the way you were treated by your best boss and you’ll find yourself with a very solid staff.

Gold famous quotes:

"Hi Boss, how was your weekend? What's new?" 

To be successful, you need a mix of people. With the right blend of your "jewels" and the right treatment, you'll be on your way to a very effective team!