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It’s undeniable – the battle for consumer attention rages on across industries. And yet, so many businesses will fall at this first hurdle. So, you ask, where is it all going wrong?
According to research, 58% of agents don’t feel they get the training and support they need to do their job well. But the solution is easy. When you build a five-star customer service coaching framework that provides comprehensive training, tailored support, and continuous development, you’ll be on the road to victory.
The good news is, we’ve created a downloadable customer service coaching framework Cheat Sheet. It’s full of tips and tricks that will set you and your contact center agents up for success.
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In this blog, we’ll dive deeper into building five-star customer service coaching frameworks, to give you everything you need to nail the customer experience.
1. Track the right metrics
How many calls do your agents handle every day? Are customers waiting too long to be helped? How many of these calls are resolved on first contact?
If you want to build a robust customer service coaching framework, you need to track the right metrics that will give you a baseline for improvements. With your customer service benchmarks in place, you’re in the perfect position to start improving agent performance – and your coaching frameworks – by tracking and comparing metrics over time.
The contact center metrics we’d strongly recommend keeping an eye on are:
First call resolution (FCR)
First call resolution (FCR) is one of the best ways to understand how good the customer experience really is. If you’re resolving queries without escalating, transferring or handling call backs, you’ll know your agents are doing a great job. If you’re not quite there yet, don’t worry! Research has shown that for every 1% improvement in FCR, businesses also see a 1% improvement in customer satisfaction.
Average handle time (AHT)
Average handle time (AHT) tracks the amount of team your agents are spending on each call. It begins the second your agents pick up the call and ends when they disconnect. This metric is a pretty good indicator of agent performance. But remember it includes any automated greetings, call routing, holding times, and time that an agent spends on after-call work (ACW).
Abandonment rate
Abandonment rate is a strong indicator of whether your customers are satisfied. If they’re hanging up before speaking to anybody, they’re likely frustrated with the wait times and it’ll lead to a negative customer experience. All in all, the higher the abandonment rate, the more negative the customer experience.
Conversion rate
If your business relies on phone calls to convert leads into customers, monitoring conversion rate is key to understanding how effective your agents are at revenue-driven actions such as upselling and increasing average order value.
Call tracking enables you to take a closer look at where your calls are coming from and spot opportunities to enhance your call center operations, your sales strategy, and the overall customer service you deliver.
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Through tracking metrics and setting benchmarks, you’ll understand where the roadblocks are in the customer service journey, improve retention and loyalty across your customers and your agents, and make data-driven decisions that will improve coaching.
2. Align training with business objectives
It’s easy to forget our teams aren’t as deeply embedded in the North Star metric as we are. If you want to deliver five-star agent coaching, it helps when agents have visibility into the wider company goals.
Why? Because if your agents understand why they’re doing things in a particular way, they’re better able to draw clear links between their actions and overarching goals. In turn, this means they’ll be more focused on activities – and calls – that move the dial. It‘ll also give them more purpose, rather than getting caught in the day-to-day of answering phones and dealing with customers.
One-size-fits-all training filled with generic tips and advice isn't going to produce a team of top performers. To create a team that fires off all cylinders, you need to take an individual approach. This might feel like an impossible mountain to climb, but with the right tools, it’s actually pretty straightforward.
Conversation Analytics helps you align training with business objectives by automatically scoring and logging calls that lead to desired business-aligned outcomes. This means you can do more of the good stuff that makes customers happy and develop one-on-one coaching for agents who aren’t quite hitting the mark as part of your wider framework.
3. Use top performers to raise the bar
In a perfect world, every new agent that steps foot in your contact center will hit the ground running. Any contact center leader wants to see agents immediately catapult themselves into the top one per cent of call handlers nationwide. But we all know life isn’t perfect and, unfortunately, high-flying agents don’t grow on trees. It’s up to you to nurture them with top-quality coaching frameworks.
Effective coaching has been shown to improve win rates by almost 30%, yet 58% of agents don’t feel they get the coaching and support they need to succeed in their roles. So, how can we address that with our coaching? It’s all about listening. Really listening.
Conversation Analytics is a non-negotiable part of every five-star customer service coaching framework. It enables you to see the full picture by automating and analyzing call recordings for all calls your agents handle. Then, you’ll be able to extract insights that will help you make real, impactful change to your agent training programs.
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With this kind of intel to hand, you can look at what your top performers get right, and use their star qualities to create winning scripts and training programs that will help you replicate that magic across your team
Even better, with Agent Scorecards, you can assess individual agent performance across a variety of factors. For instance, this might include compliance, conversion rates, greetings, upsells, and even qualifying questions. Add your own customizations – based on your coaching goals – then monitor what matters most to you on every call. These insights will then mean you can create targeted training to help your teams deliver smooth and effective customer experiences.
Looking for more tips to build a five-star customer service coaching framework?
Our new customer service coaching framework cheat sheet is full of tips to help you build a framework that will set your contact center up for success. Get your copy below ⏬
Customer service coaching framework cheat sheet
Ace your agent training
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Want to skip the extra reading and get started?
If you want to create a better coaching framework in your contact center, you need to hear the full story from every call, inbound and outbound.
Automotive brand Pendragon were able to drive some seriously impressive results doing just that. We’re talking things like:
- 8% reduction in CPA
- 30% decrease in the rate of unanswered calls
- 6% reduction in common friction points in major branches
Want to learn how to do the same? Book a demo to start a conversation with us today.
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