Coaches “with the right stuff” help to ensure that our centers provide consistently excellent customer experiences. Few new coaches are equipped with all the skills needed to be successful. It’s up to us to hire well and to provide them with the skills and tools for the job. Because if our coaches fail, our contact centers agents are apt to crash and burn.

When I observe a coach in action, I’m looking at a wide range of skills and behaviors they demonstrate before, during, and after their sessions. I’m especially looking at how they engage with the agents being coached.

These are some of the keys I watch for:

Attitude

Agents are quick to pick up on our attitude toward contact center coaching and the follow-up required. How does the coach welcome the agent? What is their attitude towards doing the coaching: last minute rush or clearly prepared and ready. Is the coach positive about working with the agent or see this as an interruption to their day?

Communication Style

Some coaches are too direct, focused on only the bottom line, and need to work on making the session interactive by asking great questions, as well as being more personable and approachable. On the other hand if the coach is mainly “people-oriented” in their communication style, they will have the empathy and positive friendly approach while struggling with delivering the bad skill news when necessary and often sound apologetic when doing so.

Body Language

The coach needs to be relaxed and make eye contact with the agent. Nervous habits like pen tapping, foot shaking or negative facial expressions while listening to calls or discussing the emails are distracting and may result in the agent focusing more on the coach behavior than looking for those customer experience moments As with our customers, everything the agent sees, touches, hears or even smells (eating while coaching?) affects their experience.

Motivation

Some coaches are too matter of fact in their delivery of the good news or improvements. They aren’t very enthusiastic sounding. We expect our agents to have a great tone and show interest, and our coaches need to do the same. Smiles and words of encouragement during and at the end of the session are very important.

Commitment

At the end of the session, does the coach make the agent feel that they are committed to helping? Some end the session by simply telling the agent that they will be available (generically) to help if needed. These coaches aren’t making a commitment to do specific coaching and training with the agent and aren’t pro-active. They reactively wait for an agent to come to them in between coaching times. Instead, great coaches set a timeframe during which they will assist and what will be done and put it in writing for the agent and their own documentation.

Follow-up

Your coaches need to report on what they’ve done since the “formal” coaching session, including the activities and results. Did the coach do the coaching activities they agreed to in the session with the agent? Did the coach observe or spot check calls and give encouraging feedback desk-side to show the agent they are truly interested in the agent’s progress? Some coaches are great in the coaching session itself and fail at the follow-up that makes a big difference to the success of agents.

Then there is something that is out of the coach’s control:

Support from Management

A coach will only be successful if given the time and encouragement to do so by their manager and those in the C-Suite. I’ve seen companies with failing contact center coaching programs that weren’t poor due to the lack of commitment from the coaches or their skills, but a lack of support from upper management. These C-Suite and VP folks say they want the coaching and the results but aren’t willing to commit to what is needed to make the program successful for the coaches.

Observe your coaches in action on a regular basis. Provide them with honest and positive feedback, including ways you can help them improve their skills via coaching, learning programs and by supporting them in all of their efforts.