FEATURE
From there, organizations tend to go one of two directions.
1. Some lean into the efficiency side and reduce headcount as volume drops. That makes everything tighter, including the ability to schedule coaching and training.
2. Others look at the same shift and decide they need to invest more in their agents because the job itself is getting harder.
Where it gets messy is in how we talk about upskilling. It can mean a lot of different things depending on who you ask. Like better soft skills, better sales outcomes, or preparing someone
SCHEDULING TRAINING REMOTELY
In the traditional on-premise contact center, coaching often takes place with the coach or supervisor sitting with the agent, while training will sometimes take place in another room. Moreover, supervisors can see and hear as well as monitor whether the agent is available.
But with remote / hybrid work having become more accepted in the contact center, that“ tap on the shoulder” doesn’ t happen if the agent is not in the office. At the same time, flexibility is one of the hallmarks of this method.
So, we asked Dan Smitley,“ Has the adoption of remote / hybrid working in many contact centers affected their ability to ensure agent availability? To schedule them for coaching / training?”
“ It has, just not always in obvious ways,” says Dan.
“ With remote and hybrid environments, there’ s a lot more flexibility in how schedules are built. You can get much closer alignment between staffing and demand with things like split-shifts or varied start times.
“ That’ s generally a good thing. It smooths things out and makes the operation more efficient.
“ At the same time, when you’ re scheduling that tightly to demand, there’ s less excess capacity sitting in the schedule. And that excess capacity is often where coaching and training used to live.
“ It also makes group training more complicated. When everyone isn’ t working the same general schedule, getting a full team together takes more effort.
“ Having said that, I still think the trade-off with remote / hybrid work is worth it. Flexibility is a win for both the business and the agents. It just means you have to be more deliberate about how and when you create space for development.” for a different role entirely. If that’ s not clearly defined, it’ s hard to build a real case for it, and cost savings usually win out.
WHAT ARE YOUR RECOMMENDATIONS TO CONTACT CENTER LEADERS AND MANAGERS WHO SEEK TO ENSURE THEIR AGENTS ARE WELL-TRAINED, PERFORMING TO THE BEST OF THEIR ABILITIES, AND CONTINUE TO WORK FOR THEIR EMPLOYERS?
A: A lot of this comes down to being honest about what you expect coaching and training to actually do.
If it’ s just something that’ s an option, and that you try to fit in when there’ s extra time, it’ s always going to get squeezed out. There’ s always something more immediate pulling agents back to the queue. And in a lot of organizations, that’ s exactly how coaching and training are treated.
That’ s where coaching and training really splits, and with this your ability to justify the agent and supervisor time and resource allocation to the C-suite.
If they’ re viewed as optional or just a way to use idle time, they’ ll never be consistent and they won’ t drive much impact.
But if they’ re viewed as part of how you build better agents, better customer outcomes, and even future talent for the organization, then they start to look a lot more like a requirement than a nice-to-have.
That also means being clearer about what you’ re developing:
• Upskilling sounds good, but it’ s vague, as I noted earlier. Are you trying to improve how agents handle complex conversations? Increase sales effectiveness?
• Prepare people to move into other roles? Is marketing a real path for your agents? Maybe IT or Accounting?
All of those skills and roles are valid, but they’ re different, and they should drive different types of coaching and training.
Without that clarity, it’ s really hard to connect the investment to an outcome, and when that happens, cost tends to win the conversation.
There’ s also just a reality that the return doesn’ t show up immediately. You’ re investing time now to improve something that plays out over weeks or months. Some organizations are fine with that but others aren’ t.
But if the goal is better performance and people who stick around, coaching and training can’ t just be something you do when you have time. They have to be something you make time for, even when it’ s inconvenient.
Brendan Read is Editor of Contact Center Pipeline. He has been covering and working in customer service and sales and for contact center companies for most of his career. Brendan has edited and written for leading industry publications and has been an industry analyst. He also has authored and co-authored books on contact center design, customer support, and working from home. Brendan can be reached at brendan @ contactcenterpipeline. com.
8 CONTACT CENTER PIPELINE