Karin Hurt CEO, Let’s Grow Leaders

443-750-1249 karin.hurt@letsgrowleaders.com

@letsgrowleaders

Copyright © 2015 by Karin Hurt

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means – except in the case of brief quotations embodied in articles or reviews – without written permission from its author.

First Edition, 2015

 

Table of Contents

Prologue: The Challenge 1

Opportunity #1 Turning a Weak Center Director into an All-Star Director

3

Opportunity #2 Managing Metrics versus Managing Results

9

Opportunity #3 Under-Developing Supervisors versus Developing All-Star

Supervisors

14

Opportunity #4 Turning People from Bots into All-Stars

27

Opportunity #5 Working for Social Media Instead of Working Social Media

36

Afterwords: About Karin Hurt @LetsGrowLeaders

43

Appendices Important / Urgent Matrix

Creating Connections

46 47

  1

PROLOGUE:

THE CHALLENGE

There’s nothing so stable as change.

–Bob Dylan

The way the world communicates is changing faster than the call center industry can keep up. Perhaps you’ve even made the shift from “call center” nomenclature to “contact center.” While that’s a start, changing the name won’t change the game.

I see a lot of seasoned call center execs and managers who’ve been in the industry forever. There’s movement within the industry, but not necessarily in and out of it. Call center people tend to stay call center people. That’s good and bad.

  2

The good news: managing a great call center is complex so your expertise is vital. You’ve built the right muscles to make balanced decisions when the calls are backed up, your reps are tired, and the snow starts to fall.

The bad news: when you’ve “been there and done that” for so long, it’s often tough to see that many of the old ways of doing things just won’t work in today’s environment.

This book is designed as a conversation starter for you and your leadership team. I want to challenge you to approach to your contact center as a true leadership challenge, rather than a complex management gig. Use your extensive knowledge as a vital foundation, but also invite alternative perspectives.

I’ve lived the call center world from every angle: Team Leader, HR Consultant, Call Center Director, Service Management Director, Sales Director reliant on call center performance, HR Director, Executive Director leading the turnaround of VZW’s outsourcing channel, and now working internationally to create game-changing results.

My goal is to support your success, by sharing what I’ve learned over 2 decades of working at Verizon Wireless, and now as an external consultant and keynote speaker.

These are some ideas to start the conversation. I’d love to talk with you more about your unique challenges. Please reach out to me to schedule a free consultation.

  3

OPPORTUNITY #1:

TURNING A WEAK CENTER DIRECTOR INTO AN

ALL STAR DIRECTOR

People have a hard time letting go of their suffering. Out of a fear of the unknown, they

prefer suffering that is familiar.

–Thich Nhat Hanh

You cannot have a best-in-class call center without a rock star director.

This may sound extreme, but I assure you it isn’t. I’ve seen centers with solid potential downsized and closed far too often when they could have been salvaged with better leadership. I’ve also seen amazing turnarounds happen in just a few months when the only dynamic that changed was the leader.

  4

If you’re serious about results, invest in finding and developing the very best center leader you can and then have her work tirelessly to build a strong bench of leaders underneath her who could step in at any time.

SIGNS YOUR LEADER IS NOT READY FOR PRIME TIME

Before we get into the definition of “rock star” let’s start with signs of trouble. Perhaps you’ll recognize a few of these characters.

u Cara is deeply invested and extremely stressed. You’re pretty sure she’s sleeping at the center. You see toothpaste and mascara hidden behind the toilet paper in the bathroom. She’s competent, but she’s protecting her weak team rather than coaching them to greatness.

u Jason has “employee engagement” plans out the ying-yang, but absenteeism and attrition in his group are out of control. Today is pajama day. Tomorrow is pancake Friday. Oh wait, now we’re talking like pirates. Cute, and often effective, but you can’t fix deep-seated issue with schmaltz.

  5

u Dennis is all about the numbers. His team knows exactly where they stand at any given minute of the day. Nobody can correlate force to load to sales and quality better than this guy. But when the numbers don’t tell a positive story, the team is longing to know what to do to fix it. That question frustrates and scares him.

u Megan is super nice. She has high-energy. She loves the reps and gets deeply involved in supporting them in their personal and professional goals. All amazing qualities. If call center directors were an elected position, she would win hands down. But the results are in the toilet. As you dig deeper there is little strategy and even less accountability for results.

u Sarah is a high-potential executive, highly recommended, but needing large-team experience— that’s why she’s working in this big center. Sarah is smart–no doubt. But deep down she resents the rotation, and is skeptical about “these people.” She’s convinced they don’t care, and just has to get enough short-term momentum to get out of here.

  6

5 SIGNS YOUR CALL CENTER LEADER IS A ROCK STAR

1. A wildly, passionate commitment to the customer experience The rock star leader helps the team visualize and believe

in great customer service and why it matters.

He holds high-standards and takes any breach of great service as if it had just happened to his mother—no, make that his grandmother. His

energy toward great service serves as a charismatic contagious vortex that inspires daily action.

  7

2. A beacon of calm in the midst of chaos This rock star is not easily rattled. When the systems crash, the calls back up, the customer starts screaming, she takes a deep breath and moves into action. She can diffuse the negative energy in a crisis and channel it into productive action. She’s highly responsive, but has the ability to consider implications before reacting.

3. An “I’m in it with you” attitude Instead of hiding behind closed doors, this rock star leader is on the floor, listening, observing and supporting. He won’t hesitate to hop on a call to deescalate a tough customer situation. He’s an artful coach and works to draw out the best solutions from the team. This rock star’s not a blamer, but consistently works to bring the right people together to resolve the problem.

4. A legacy mindset

  8

This rock star balances day-to-day operations with a longer term view. She is constantly encouraging innovation and new ways to make the work more effective and efficient. She invests deeply in developing her leadership team. She knows that a true sign of success is what happens in the center when she’s not there.

5. A penchant for process Finally, the rock star understands that center leadership is a constant balancing between quality, efficiency, employee experience and financials. He is constantly considering cause and effect and the downstream impact of decisions. He approaches problems in a systematic way and explores alternative solutions before making decisions.

YOUR TURN

  9

What are the characteristics of your most effective center directors?

What are you doing to nurture these competencies in your bench?

  1

OPPORTUNITY #2:

MANAGING METRICS VERSUS MANAGING RESULTS

The single best machine to measure trust is a human being. We haven't figured out a metric

that works better than our own sort of, like, ‘There's something fishy about you.’

–Simon Sinek

Sarah’s face winced as the hourly stack rankings beeped through her smart phone. She didn't have to say a word. I knew that look from the inside out. I’ve been on the frantic receiving end of such beeps. Hourly results coming in 15 times a day–quality, efficiency, sales–all neatly stack ranked and constantly reminding me that I wasn’t doing enough. And just in case the beeps didn’t get my attention, at least one or two of the hourly blasts were typically followed up by a call from my boss, “Have you seen the numbers?”

  1

Sarah interrupted my painful flashback. “I’m sorry, but I’ve got to huddle the team. We’ve got to get to 94 by the end of the day.” “What are you planning as your key message?” I asked. She looked at me as if I was crazy, “94.”

When I met with her team later in the day and asked what success looked like, I got more of the same.

“94, 540, and 56.” Well, at least they were consistent.

5 WAYS FOCUSING ON THE SCORE LOWERS

PERFORMANCE

Metrics matter. A balanced scorecard, with well-selected KPIs, will reinforce your strategy and align actions with goals. But when the metrics are the message, the business suffers. If you’re experiencing any of these symptoms, check your message. Don’t let the urgency of a stack rank distract your team from a long-term win.

  1

1. False Sense of Competition A sure sign the stack rank is holding you back is an inflated sense of internal competition. If, “We’ve got to beat Joe” is a louder rally cry than “Make a genuine connection with every customer,” or ______(insert your most important business behavior here). When you hear unhealthy competition, your smack talk is backfiring and it’s time to regroup.

2. Gaming I’m always astounded by the creativity and lengths some employees will go to game the system. If they would spend as much time improving the quality of their work than working the work around, they’d be knocking results out of the park. Talking only to metrics encourages such gaming, a sure sign that employees are wasting time and on the road to getting fired.

3. Volatile Performance

  1

You can’t truly respond to metrics on an hourly (or even daily) basis. And your reaction is likely more annoying than helpful. If metrics go up when you rant, scream, or dress like a superhero, and then the numbers come right back down, take a step back and plan a consistent approach to reinforce key behaviors, again and again– five times, five different ways.

4. Unintended Consequences If “I fixed this, but broke that” sounds like the sad country music soundtrack of your team’s performance, you’re likely focused on one or two KPIs, rather than the key game-changing behaviors that will lead to lasting performance. In every business there are one or two vital behaviors that will improve your overall scorecard. Be sure you’re focusing on those early and often, and use them as foundation from which to build.

5. Stupid Decisions

  1

This happens at all levels, but can be particularly disastrous when an executive becomes focused on a short-term adrenaline shot to force up results. “Oh sure we can bring on 500 people in 10 weeks to get the contract” is not rational thinking. Focus decisions on

what will lead to consistent upward trends and sustained performance.

The secret to sustained results is identifying the behaviors that matter and executing on them every day. For long-term

results, respond to consistent improvement and celebrate upward trends.

YOUR TURN

How does focusing on the score hinder performance in your centers?

How could you streamline metrics to focus on what’s most important?

  1

If you have to fail and something, which metrics are least important? Does your team know that?

  1

OPPORTUNITY #3:

UNDER-DEVELOPING SUPERVISORS VERSUS

DEVELOPING ALL-STAR SUPERVISORS

Example is leadership.

–Albert Schweitzer

The team leader’s job is arguably the toughest job in most contact centers. Team leaders operate under constant pressure—up-down-and-sideways—and they are coupled with limited control. I’ve found similar consistency with the mistakes team leaders make in corporate and BPO call centers all around the world.

Their mistakes are often understandable since the supervisors have pressure from all sides. Pressures from management. Pressures from the team. And pressures from their personal

  1

baggage—don’t we all wish we could put down our baggage more often.

THE BIGGEST MISTAKES SUPERVISORS MAKE

u Under-Communicating The Big Picture People don’t understand WHY they are being asked to do what they do. Team members yearn for meaning to inspire their work.

u Failure To Identify A Galvanizing Goal Members of the team need to know that THEY can make a difference based on their actions. It’s a mistake to think the company mission will be enough to rally the team at a local level.

u Over-Telling If leaders keep giving away the answers, the employees will keep asking, and you’ll have one brain at work instead of ten. Ask more questions. Leverage each team member’s strengths to cull-out leadership. Encourage

  1

team members to work together and support one another.

u Avoiding The Tough Conversations It’s easy to look the other way, or to let poor performance slide. Not telling people the truth will hurt your results, drag down the team, and stagnate growth.

u Lack Of Connection Too many team leaders get scared off by the HR warnings about not getting too close to their team. They manage them like employees instead of connecting as humans. Always err on the side of getting to know your team and how they roll. Sure you should be careful about hanging out with them as traditional friends, but ensure your conversations are real and heartfelt. When they learn how you connect with the team, they will connect in the same way with the customers. In the words of Albert Schweitzer, “Example is leadership.”

u Succumbing To Gravity Team leaders can’t change everything but they can change many important things. Your job is to remove road blocks. If something feels stupid, it probably is. Do

  1

what you can to manage up and sideways to make your team’s job easier.

u Short-Term Focus When it’s always urgent, there’s never time for the long-term investment in people and processes that will have a long-term impact business. Short-term leading can work for a week or so, but beyond that you’re doing substantial long-term damage to your team. Ensure every day includes real work toward longer-term goals.

u Accepting What Is Leaders see what’s possible. It’s easy to get caught up in the way we’ve always done things, particularly if you have a formula that works. If you’re creating breakthrough results and turning heads, slow down, look around and talk to your team about priorities that are met and those that are not met. You might learn how to focus when you learn what to ignore.

Of all the challenges team call center supervisors face, among the biggest is prioritization. Everything is urgent and it’s hard to find time for the really important work like coaching and process improvement.  

  2

Helping your supervisors understand where they’re getting stuck is a good first step in the prioritization process.

Helping your team to prioritize their focus and work is one of the toughest roles of a manager. It’s hard because you face similar pressures. You’re still required to meet all your targets and objectives, so teaching your team to

place an item on the bottom of the list is scary. What if they really don’t get to it? There are no easy trade-offs in this “Yes and” culture (we need this AND that) we live in. Prioritizing and balancing competing priorities are essential elements of the leadership dance. Knowing what to move to the top of the list when to move it, and how to keep the other plates spinning at the same time is the balancing act of the supervisor. Help your team recognize the common traps that are sabotaging their ability to prioritize well.

COMMON PRIORITIZATION TRAPS

Perhaps you have some of these characters on your team. Here’s how you can help.

  2

u Windshield Watchers Windshield Watchers look deceptively productive. They’re moving fast and getting a lot done. They’re often the first one to respond to any task because they’re taking the Nike “just do it” approach to whatever hits their windshield. The adrenaline brings a familiar rush to their day. Windshield Watchers actually attract more urgent work because people know they’ll drop everything and get on it. The biggest problem with Windshield Watchers is that they have no real basis for prioritization. Urgent always trumps important in such team members, so although they’re getting a lot done, they are not necessarily making progress toward bigger goals. Windshield Watchers often struggle with feedback, because they know they’re busier than everyone else. The resent having to talk about it right now, with all the emails coming in that require attention. Help Windshield Watchers by developing a strong calendar-based system and working backwards from deadlines. They will benefit if you teach them the Urgent / Importance Matrix (see Appendix).

u Wheel Greasers Wheel greasers hate conflict and are particularly sensitive to pressure from above. They prioritize based on whoever’s screaming the loudest (or with the most “important” voice). Which means, the problem may be

  2

hard for you to detect (after all, you appreciate how seriously they take your requests). Wheel Greasers often feel overwhelmed from the stress of trying to please all the people all the time. They feel like they can never do enough, because there’s no objective measure of success. Help Wheel Greasers by working with them to define objective criteria on which to prioritize their work. Recognize if they have a tendency to drop other work to do what you need because you’re the boss. Explain why and how you differentiate noisy requests from urgent issues.

u Whack-A-Molers These well-intentioned folks care deeply about outcomes. They pour their heart and soul into the most important work. It’s hard to argue with their priorities. The challenge is that in their laser focus they often miss the unintended consequences caused in the aftermath. Sure customer service metrics improve, but financials suffer. Or the financials look great, but employees are miserable. Help Whack-A-Molers by encouraging them to see the big picture and brainstorm downstream impacts. Encourage them to pilot their ideas before spending significant energy on large scale implementation.

  2

u Work-Harders Bless their hearts, Work-Harders will do everything they can to get it all done, no matter how many hours it takes, or how little they’ve slept. The problem with these hard workers is that they often are so busy doing the work, they don’t take time to consider the best way to get it done. They overlook possible support from others or more efficient ways because they’re so lost in the doing. Help Work-Harders to step back and consider the best approach to getting work done. Help them build some white space into their day.

CUSTOMIZE YOUR COACHING

Rather than teaching a generic system of time management or prioritization, consider starting with the tendencies that are getting in the way and helping each person find more effective approaches. Ask: Which of the above characters does this person most relate to and how does that work to get them into trouble?

  2

The Biggest Mistakes Managers Make When Developing Their People

Let’s be real. The biggest mistake managers make when developing their people is that they don’t spend enough time doing it. Or, even worse, they aren’t spending any time at all. The fact that you’re reading this indicates that you care, and are trying.

Even imperfect development beats what many employees are telling me they’re getting–nada.

The only way to achieve exponentially greater results is to get every

member of your team to function on more cylinders, as individuals and then as a team.

Good managers spend at least 10-20% of their time developing their people.

Be sure you’re investing your time well by avoiding these common traps.

  2

5 MISTAKES MANAGERS MAKE WHEN DEVELOPING THEIR

PEOPLE

1. They forget they’re still learning too There’s a weird imaginary threshold I see too many managers cross. They creep into I’ve-got-this-and-now-my-job-is-to-teach-it-to-you-land. Almost every manager goes there at some point in their career, and many get stuck in its delusional abyss. The only way to be an effective leader is to scurry back to reality as fast as you can. Leadership is never handled. See also a post I wrote on this topic: 60 Reasons Leaders Stop Learning. I’ve learned the hard way that our teams see our flaws and mistakes better than we do. Even if they love you, there are at least 17 reasons they don’t want to lead like you. Be sure the learning and listening is a two-way street.

  2

2. They invest only in the “high potentials” “I don’t have time to develop everyone, so I’ll really invest in the top 5%, maybe even 10%,” is the cry I’ve heard many times. I’m all for giving extra effort the box 9s. And goodness knows I’m grateful for every ounce of extra effort folks poured into me as I climbed the ladder. But imagine the possibilities when you tap into the majority of your team, building on everyone’s strengths, and helping them see themselves as more than “also-rans”?

3. They focus on individual development but don’t develop the team A team of superstars who don’t know how to work as a team can’t win. Egos get in the way, conflict sucks the life out of productivity, and a focus on self-promotion prohibits real creative breakthroughs that involve integrated thinking. I once worked for an executive who painstaking recruited the very best players in every discipline, and

  2

then got us in a room and announced his plan. Our bonuses (a large percentage of our salary, usually stack ranked) would all be exactly the same, based on our performance in his experimental organization. He’d received permission from HR to try it. If we blew it out of the park, he’d get money added to the pool. If we sucked, he’d give it back. Either way, we’d all be paid the same percentage. We fought like brothers and sisters, but we figured it out. We nailed it. In fact, 20 years later, we’re still amazing friends (I even dated one of the guys a decade later, see also: Never Date the Guy Who Hates HR – just kidding. I haven’t written that book... yet!

4. They ignore the unique gifts and strengths of each individual It’s easy to develop leaders in our own image, but what if they see the world in an entirely different way? What if they never say a word? Go deeper. Get to know them. In every MBA class I teach, I’m blown away by the men and women who I worried about at the beginning. Go deeper. Go there.

  2

5. They underestimate the capability of each person to grow horizontally as well as vertically Everyone wants to move up, and it’s easy to focus on promoting the best and the brightest in your discipline. The truth is, people choose a path early on and it’s often a crap shoot, or a direction that was overly influenced by someone else’s advice. Give people opportunities to draw on new skills, test them in wacky environments, and see how they grow. My career was built on doing things I knew nothing about. I bet there could be more of us high achievers out there if leadership would give them the chance.

By developing each member of your team, they will produce a return on the investment that is beyond measure.

YOUR TURN

What skills are most lacking in your supervisors?

How have you tried to develop your supervisors in the past week, month, year, or over their tenure in the call center?

  2

Where could you use some additional support (feel free to contact me to discuss)?

  3

OPPORTUNITY #4

TURNING PEOPLE FROM BOTS INTO ALL-STARS

Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and

suffering can the soul be strengthened, vision cleared, ambition inspired, and success achieved.

–Helen Keller

“The other day, a customer tweeted at me, ‘are you a bot?’ At first I was really offended and wanted to tweet back “I AM NOT A BOT!” But when I thought about it some more I got kind-of sad. I realized that by following the scripts and all the rules, I sounded very robotic. That’s not what our customers want or need. They come to social media because they want some upbeat and friendly interaction. I could provide better service if they gave us a bit more freedom to do what we know is right.” – Social Media Service Rep

  3

It’s not just social media reps who feel that way, it happens in a lot of roles in many call centers. Reps with scripting and rubrics so tight, they appear to squeeze the common sense out of the interaction, or supervisors so focused on their quality score sheet that they fail to acknowledge it was a damn good call.

3 WAYS CALL CENTERS TAKE THE HUMAN OUT OF

HUMAN RESOURCES

1. Relying on “bots” for hiring Many call centers use expert systems to identify and key competencies and sort candidates into categories of Red, Yellow, and Green. Theoretically the system learns

  3

as it goes. Great in theory, and possibly helpful in practice. The challenge is when companies focus on speed to hire, they can be lured into a false sense of security with such

systems. Instead of being used as an initial screening, it’s viewed as the first phase of the hiring process. If the resume looks great, they pass a typing test, and answer a few questions my 9 year old could nail

(I’ve tried it), they move on to the drug screen, without ever touching a hiring manager. Why? Because they were categorized by some pre-defined system as Green. When it comes to hiring go slow to go fast. If you hire the right people, you don’t have to spend time scripting their words or over-monitoring their actions.

2. One Size Fit All In my experience, I often find there’s typically a direct correlation between the “bot” epidemic and the size of the center. Larger centers can feel unwieldy, and when

  3

results drop, it’s harder to get to root cause and recover quickly. Panicky managers may be more likely to issue decrees of what “every rep must do on every call,” rather than taking the time to explain the bigger picture. The manager often addresses the problems at the lowest common denominator, addressing everyone at the level of those who are lowest in confidence or those who are lowest in competence. For this type of manager, the safe bet is to be overly prescriptive. The percentage of employees who “just don’t care” is actually very low in most organizations. I find that what looks like disengagement is often an employee in one quadrant of the Confidence / Competence cocktail.

The figure below is a representation of what I call the The Confidence / Competence Model.

  3

  3

The Confidence / Competence Model The next time you’re dealing with a performance management problem, try assessing the situation with the Confidence / Competence Model.

u High-Competence/High-Confidence

“Challenge Me” This could be an employee in the perfect sweet spot of positive energy and flow, or may be becoming a bit bored and longing for more. At best, they’re your “A” players, although the high confidence/competence combo can sometimes manifest itself in feelings of superiority, particularly if the rest of the team is weak (read more about that here).

u High-Competence/Low-Confidence

“Encourage Me”

The good news is you’ve got skills to work with. The low confidence may appear as disengagement, but don’t be fooled. Try these to encourage her to reach her full potential.

  3

u Low-Competence/High Confidence

“Coach Me” This employee needs help seeing his strengths and developmental opportunities more clearly. Offering feedback through 360 assessments, specific examples, and coaching will help bring his skills in-line with his self-perceptions.

u Low-Competence/Low Confidence

“Teach Me” This chicken or egg situation is still potentially solvable. Train and teach this employee the skills she needs for success. There may also be a skills mismatch. Have deeper developmental conversations to determine if there is a better fit for her within your organization.

3. Lack of Connection It happens on teams, it happens in training classes, it happens on dates. A rush to achieve without connection will backfire. It’s tempting to rush in, get started and get stuff done. Sure the out-of-the-gate progress feels great

  3

at beginning, but if you don’t take time to create genuine connections and build relationships, somewhere down the line you’re going to derail.

SHELLY’S STORY

Shelly (not her real name) was completely frustrated with her team’s call center results. She brought in extra training, introduced a clever incentive program, stack ranked and managed the outliers, implemented every best practice she could find, and even invited her boss in for a quick motivational talk.

Nothing worked. The team’s results still sucked.

“What can you tell me about the folks on your team?” I asked. Her response was filled with “attitude problems,” “absence issues,” and a smattering of stats.

I tried again, “What can you tell me about the human beings on your team? Are they married? Do they have kids? What do they do for fun? What do they enjoy most on the weekends? What did they do last weekend?”

  3

I got a bit of a blank stare, and then “With results like these, I don’t have time to ask about all that. Plus, this is business. It’s not personal.”

“Which team leader is knocking it out of the park?” I asked. She answered, “Joe” (also not his real name). I looked at her in the eyes and said, “Please go talk to Joe again. But this time, don’t ask him about best practices. Ask him how he connects with his team.”

She came back with a laundry list: meeting each employee at the door as they came in, spending the first 2 hours of his day doing nothing but sitting side by side with his call center reps, starting each one-on-one talking about something personal, hand delivering birthday cards, following up on “no big deal” stuff like how their kid did in the soccer game last week. She tried it. Yup, you guessed the outcome. She connected with members of her team and began hitting numbers out of the park.

BUSINESS IS ALWAYS PERSONAL.

If you could use a starting point for connecting your team, you’re welcome to use the Creating Connections Worksheet (see Appendix) I wouldn’t suggest pulling it out in front of your team members, but use it to remind you what to

  3

ask and how to inspire. My goal in writing this tool is to help you create more meaningful connections. If you give it a try, please drop me a line and let me know how it goes.

  4

YOUR TURN

How well do your team leaders know the human beings on their team? What could you do to encourage deeper connections?

How can you create more opportunities for your reps to show more of their personality when they interact with customers?

  4

OPPORTUNITY #5

WORKING FOR SOCIAL MEDIA INSTEAD OF

WORKING SOCIAL MEDIA

When I hear people debate the ROI of social media? It makes me remember why so many

business fail. Most businesses are not playing the marathon. They’re playing the sprint. They’re not

worried about lifetime value and retention. They’re worried about short-term goals.

–Gary Vaynerchuk

When it comes to social media, most companies experience a phased evolution. The marketing guys and gals own it first, pushing information out to enhance and promote the brand. They’re mostly focused on image and attention.

  4

When customers start tweeting back wanting help, marketing folks realize they’re out of their league and don’t have the information or processes to help at this scale. So they reluctantly reach out to customer service and simultaneously try to maintain as much control as possible.

Of course tweets beget tweets, and soon the few reps you pulled off line to help is not enough. To manage the new social media department, you will need tools, processes, competency models, selection criteria and training.

The contact center is positioned well to operationalize and scale, but there’s often a reluctance to go there. Calculating the ROI can feel overwhelming, not to mention the politics involved with channel deflection.

In my work across both corporate and outsourcer call centers, I’ve found 5 myths hindering the development of a robust social media strategy.

5 MYTHS HURTING YOUR SOCIAL CARE STRATEGY

  4

1. Customers will call us when they need support Oh sure, they may eventually call, or email or chat. But if they’re really ticked off, customers are more likely to have vented and vetted the issue on Facebook and Twitter, where they’re met with the empathetic response of kindred “friends” and strangers who’ve faced similar frustrations. Once they’re sufficiently riled up, they will call your center, where they may or may not be met with the same level of empathy. It is far better for management in your centers to proactively jump into the social media mix master, respond with empathy for all to see, and then have the conversation with the offended individual offline. Not only will the customer feel heard, but the echoes of caring will resonate across the social media community. Plus, after the customer has already felt like the victim of poor treatment, how much better it is for her to be heard, rather than to navigate through an IVR, listen to “on hold” music, being told by a digital voice told how important her call is.

  4

You can’t have a best in class contact center without a strong social media listening post and a team of trained professionals providing offense.

2. The best strategy is high differentiation, saving your very best treatment for your most lucrative customers This is the most controversial statement I will make in this article. Sure there’s value in providing concierge level service to your most loyal customers. I like when my Starwood call gets routed automatically to the Platinum line. But… in a highly connected world, there is a big difference between your loudest customers and your most lucrative. But be careful not to over-differentiate. The guy you kept on hold for 20 minutes and then spent another 20 arguing about 5 bucks, could just as likely be the one with 200K twitter followers. Just saying. Treat every customer with empathy, deep respect, and common sense.

  4

3. Reps need to be motivated to care about customers In overseeing the outsourced channel for Verizon Wireless I spent a lot of time in focus groups with thousands of reps in call centers working for different companies in vastly different geographies. The vast majority of these reps had something very real in common. They cared deeply and passionately about customers. When I took the conversation of pay and scheduling off the table (to be discussed by their managers in a different way at a different time), the number one topic of conversation was how to improve the customer experience. “This policy is annoying customers.” “This part of the website is confusing.” “The last experience they had really ticked them off.” “This tool makes it hard for me to answer the customer’s questions quickly.” Statements like these are not made by reps who don’t care. In fact, these reps see themselves as passionate advocates for the customer experience. Start with the assumption that the majority of your reps really care about your customers and get them involved in improving the customer experience. Treating your frontline team with that level of respect will go much

  4

further than any smaltzy contest with candy bars at the end.

4. If management doesn’t tell them what to say, they’ll say something stupid No one likes scripting. Your reps hate it and so do your customers. It’s tempting to write, “Millennials do not want to be told what to do. They need freedom to express themselves.” Yeah, that’s true. But honestly, no generation ever wanted a script. Help reps improve their listening skills and craft empathy statements. Give them permission to “wow” their customers in meaningful ways. Allow them to be creative and find out what works for their customer. Help them craft their own best approaches. Nothing will impress a customer more than a genuine conversation with a human being who cares.

5. Reps want tools that provide clear direction on what to do There’s an increased move toward decision engines and other expert systems that “take the thinking out of

  4

decisions.” The trouble is, these are seldom nuanced enough for the toughest challenges. Reps will use tools that help them provide better service to the customer, but resent ones that overly script the answer or limit their ability make common sense decisions. Reps will use tools that work quickly, have all the information is in one spot, and help them solve the hardest questions they couldn’t get to on their own. For more technical calls, reps want tools that help them see what the customer is seeing. If your reps aren’t using your tools, resist the urge to manage that problem through clicking compliance, contests, or performance management. Get on the floor, find out why, and invest in improving the tools so they become something the reps feel they can’t live without.

YOUR TURN

Which of these arguments do you most agree with?

Which just tick you off?

  4

What other outdated assumptions are most relevant for your industry?

  4

Afterwords: About Karin Hurt CEO, Let’s Grow Leaders letsgrowleaders.com

As a keynote speaker, leadership consultant, and MBA professor, Karin helps leaders improve business results by building deeper trust and connection with their teams. A former Verizon Wireless executive, she has over two decades of experience in customer service, sales, marketing, and human resources.

A few highlights from Karin’s tenure at Verizon include:

u Transforming customer service outsourcing from a low performing channel to results at parity with internal centers by building strong cultures and trusted strategic partnerships;

  5

u Developing a sales team that led the nation in store sales to the small and medium business space;

u Staffing 2000 jobs in 90 days after a significant event, including complex jobs such as Systems Architects.

Recently, Karin was recognized in Inc’s list of 100 Great Leadership Speakers For Your Next Conference, Trust Across America’s Top Thought Leaders in Trust, and American Management Association’s 50 Leaders to Watch in 2015.

Her award-winning blog, Let’s Grow Leaders, has grown into a highly interactive, international community. Her book, Overcoming An Imperfect Boss is available on Amazon.

Karin has a BA in Communication from Wake Forest University, an MA from Towson University in Organizational Communication, and additional graduate work at the University of Maryland, where she currently teaches in the MBA and Executive Education programs.

Karin lives in Baltimore with her husband and two sons. She knows the stillness of a yogi, the reflective road of a marathoner, and the joy of being a mom raising emerging leaders.

  5

APPENDICES

  5

 

 

IMP

OR

TA

NT

  URGENT

  5