Speaking at CCSF

I will be presenting the keynote speech at the Shared Insights CCSF Contact Center Conference in Boston next month. The conference runs Tuesday, November 14 and Wednesday, November 15. I speak on Wednesday morning at 8:30am and lead a 2-hour workshop that afternoon at 2:00pm. You can check out the entire agenda at CCSF. Hope to see you there. Email me with any questions...

Time and Coaching

Wow – where does time go? It has been several weeks since my last post but I guess it is a good thing to be busy. Perhaps I need to listen to some of my own speeches about priorities but it has been a busy couple of weeks.

When I last posted, it was International Customer Service Week. Question – what did you do during that week that was really successful? Did you have success in recognizing the most important people in the company – the frontline? Did you spend some time and money on the frontline managers and supervisors? I believe THEY are the key to success with customers. How much time did YOU spend coaching and how much time did they spend coaching in the past five days?

If you need a simplified coaching form, download the YMCA document on my website. Click here touchpointassociates.com look on the right side of the page - and choose Click Here to download Bob's special forms.

Customer Service Week - Management

It is that time of year. The week set-aside to honor and recognize some of the most important people in the company. While I love the idea - and love the positive things that occur during this week, I do have to take issue with the concept that there should be a "customer service week". Aren't all weeks customer service weeks?

In call centers that I have lead in the past we have always celebrated this week with a huge blowout! We have put together some really fun events for the agents. I hope that you have done the same in your company this week! In fact, we share some great ideas in our book "Ideas At Work" - which you can buy at http://www.callcenterideas.com. Yes - it is too late for this year but the ideas are relevant all year long.

But, getting back to my rant about the week - perhaps we should also have a Customer Service Supervisor's Week that focuses on training and equiping frontline managers with the tools they need to be successful. When I became a supervisor in a call center 20 years ago, I was NOT given many tools to allow me to succeed. In many centers that I visit today, the same can be said about their supervisor promotion track.

If you manage call centers, ask yourself this question, "what training is available for your frontline supervisors to help them cope with the issues of managing 15 to 30 customer service reps?" If you trained them on HR policies and call center metrics, did you also train them how to coach their team to greatness?

We have a simple yet effective concept that share in conferences across America - it is called CalibrationCoaching and it provides a simple yet effective acronym to help the supervisor share information with their team members in a way that will create action, not just direction.

I will share the YMCA method tomorrow...

Happy Customer Service Manager Week!

Surprise Your Boss - Frontline Leadership

In this blog you will often read about the importance of relationships. I believe that we are all wired to seek good relationships - with parents, with spouses, with kids - and yes, even at work. There are relationships with your team members and with customers. But, one of the most important relationships - and I believe the one that will define your happiness at work - is the relationship with your boss.

There are three things that I believe you can do to develop the type relationship that will make your work-life easier and mofulfillinging:

1. Try to understand their passion for life - what makes them happy. It may be kids or family. It could be hunting, fishing or a specific sports team. It could be their church or community service. Why should you know this? Because with this knowledge you can begin to build a personal relationship with them. Use the information to start discussions that don't focus on work. If you read something online that relates to their passion, send them the link. If there is an event in the city that ties to their passion, mention it to them. Relationships are built on personal passions. Just think about the people that you are close to - they probably know these things about you.
2. Find out how they are measured in the organization and seek to support their success. If your manager cares about the numbers, you should too. When given the opportunity, ask what you can do to help them reach the goals of the team and the company. Understand how you fit into the success and align your personal goals to their goals.
3. Be sure that they know your personal goals and aspirations. If you want to move into management - tell them. If you want more responsibility - tell them. I would not be where I am today if I had not shared my hopes and dreams with my managers.

The relationship that you have with your manager will define your happiness and success at the office. I believe it is the foundation for your success. In a future entry, we will talk about what to do if you work for someone that you do not like.....

ACCE Surprises

I shared earlier that I had the opportunity to speak at the ACCE (Annual Call Center Expo) conference in Seattle with my friend and co-author Scott Thomas. It was nice to spend some time with people that are the back-bone of customer service in America. Over the course of three days I had several surprising moments:

1. The were more Quality Management vendors at the trade show than any other. In addition to the companies that have been leaders in the market segment – Nice, Witness, e-talk and more – there seems to be ten to twenty other companies that are marketing a way to record calls. I find it interesting in a world where the level of customer service provided on the phone has actually decreased – we are now recording more calls than ever before. Ten years ago it was new technology – now it is a given for most medium to large companies.

2. Microsoft made their presence known on the trade show floor with a large booth. They have a contact management product. I have read about them entering the CRM market with plans to dominate – it was the first time I can remember them being at a call center conference.

3. In our session, we asked the participants how many of them were allowing their agents to listen to their own calls – 80% of the people said they were. I believe this is THE most effective way to improve the performance of the agents – they are often harder on themselves than we are when we monitor and score their performance.

4. I believe there is a shift occurring in American call centers – away from trying to save money and to trying to improve the customer experience (which of course improves the top-line over time). It is excited to hear people in the sessions sharing stories of how they are improving the customer experience. Companies understand that loyalty among their frontline employees is important – and usually leads to more happier and more loyal customers.

If you did not get the chance to attend ACCE this year – I would recommend that you add the plans to your 2007 budget. The conference is moving to San Diego next year! We are hoping to have the chance to take our live radio show (The QUE – Radio for the Call Center Generation) to the next level next year!

Seattle at its best - Management

I was a little behind - so I posted twice today - see the earlier post below....

What a great couple of days! I just returned from the Annual Call Center Expo (ACCE) conference in Seattle sponsored by ICMI (recently purchased by CMP media). I had the privilege of presenting with my good friend and co-writer Scott Thomas. We offered a half-day seminar on how to improve the culture of your call center. It was well-attended and the participants were very interactive (thank-you!).

Our basic message was that people are the key to success in the call center business - and for that matter in any business. We shared our perspective on coaching and communication. If you have not had the opportunity to attend one of our sessions, we hope to see you in the future. If you did attend and have any feedback - we would love to hear from you. You can reach me at bfurniss@touchpointassociates.com.

The most fun we had was producing and participating in the conference "live" radio show each morning. It is a shame that we cannot share with you the great music parodies that we played. Scott and I worked with Greg Levine to write, record and produce the music and clips for the show. Greg is the Creative Projects Coordinator at ICMI and the writer of the call center satire in Call Center Magazine. Scott created most of the music - including a great original blues tune called Automation Blues. We are hoping to meet with an entertainment lawyer in the next several months to find out if we can actually create and sell parodies online.

We also created and shared a great Top 10 list (with apologies to David Letterman):

Top 10 Signs You Work in a Call Center

10. You supply your spouse with a daily quality performance report and analysis.

9. You end your date with the question, "is there anything else I can do for you?"

8. After a romantic evening with your spouse, you send him or her a satisfaction survey.

7. Your kids names are acronyms.

6. You find yourself calculating the average talk time after an argument with your spouse.

5. When you watch your son play soccer you keep yelling that the other team is out of adherence.

4. You keep losing bets by insisting that “Shook Me All Night Long” was sung by the mega-rock group "ACD"

3. At Halloween, you answer the door and say: Press 1 for Snickers, Press 2 for Butterfinger, Press 3 for Almond Joy, Press 4 for Kit-Kat, or press 0 to opt out for an apple.

2. When choosing a line at the grocery store, you run a quick intra-day forecast.

1. Your dates always seem to go downhill because you keep bringing up shrinkage.


I will share some of the surprises at the conference in future blogs.

Passion Produces Results – Management

I was talking this week with a friend about a company that is experiencing high turn-over in their customer service call center. We talked about his opinion that the company has a “culture” problem and how hard it is for a large organization to deal with culture issues. He said that in his opinion the root of the problem usually starts way up of the chain of command. We both agreed that the pay-scale for most customer service groups is dismal but not likely to change. So, we begin to talk about why one company struggles with turnover and low morale while another company flourishes? The answer – leadership! As we continued to talk, this story unfolded about his company.

He is a CEO of a very successful company. He told the story of recently talking to a group of his customer service folks about how important they were to the success of the company. After the meeting, one of the frontline people came up to him afterwards and was just “beaming.” She told him that he made her want to run out into the meeting and solve all of the customer problems. I asked him what he had said that would have that kind of impact on an employee. He said it was very basic – in fact, he thought he had said much of it before in other management meetings – but that somehow the message was not getting through to the frontline. He said that he discussed how important every customer interaction was to the success of the company. He thanked them for their attitude of service and challenged them to do even better - as the company moves through change.
The employee said that she had “no idea how passionate he was about customers” and that she just felt so special now.

Wow – he did not give her a raise, he did not change any policies, he did not adjust her work schedule – he just spent some time talking about his vision and his thoughts about how important customer service is to the company. Ask yourself this, how long has it been since you told your people how important they are? How long has it been since you found a way to show your passion for the customer first-hand? It does not matter if your are CEO or a frontline supervisor – your vision – your passion - for excellence is a motivator like no other. It is important that your people feel the passion – that they WANT to follow you… that they trust their leader… More about that in future weeks.

For now, pull out that calendar and plan that meeting by the end of September. Schedule some time to share your vision with your people and don’t be afraid to show your passion for excellence!

Coaching in Private - (Management)

It amazes me just how quick I have experienced situations that are perfect for sharing in a blog. Just like many of you, I am addicted to Starbucks and visit there often. Less than a mile from my home is my hangout. I come here to write and to work. I guess the noise and the caffeine inspire me to think. Here I set in the lobby five feet away from the local manager. Right here, out in the open, with people everywhere, he is conducting a one-on-one appraisal with an employee. He is discussing the “score,” telling her where she had done wrong and how to improve. He is actually doing a pretty good job of delivering a less than perfect appraisal but HE IS DOING IT IN THE LOBBY!

Here is a rule to live by if you manage other people – do NOT conduct appraisals in public. I can only imagine what must be going through the employees mind…. here she is, being reprimanded and evaluated….right out in the open for everyone to hear…

Actually she seems to be taking it well. But it is a great opportunity to say – please don’t do this to your team – find a place that is private when it is time to coach or evaluate.

Did I mention that I love Starbucks?

People are Valuable

About 10 years ago, I had a manager tell me that I would never go anywhere because I cared too much about the people that worked for me. He said that I needed to pay more attention to the numbers and less attention to whether people were happy. Well, here I am 10 years later still espousing the concepts of "loving people." In a recent speech at a call center conference I said, "If you don't love people, then you are in the wrong business!"

After the session someone came up to me and said that out of all of the things that I had said in the past 60 minutes, that he found that statement the most profound. He said that he was struggling with the concept because he was working with people that had been promoted into management but that at their core, they really did not even like people. He said it was good to hear someone say the words.

If you are new to the customer service or call center industry, ask yourself this question - do you love people? Do you love watching them succeed? Do you love the feeling that comes with a successful coaching session? Do you love the people part of your job? If not, it is not too late to find another profession, because I believe managing people requires a knowledge that it really is about the people!

We will discuss more about how to be successful over the next couple of weeks. If you have a passion for people, feel free to tell me your story.

As a buddy of mine likes to say, no one walked to the front of the room in 2nd grade holding a headset and telling the class, "when I grow-up I want to work in a call center." But if you find yourself there now, I believe you are in one of the most rewarding jobs in America. I don't care what Ravi the director told me 10 years ago - you cannot love your people too much!

Welcome to the first edition of my blog. I guess it is time to join the 50 millions of other blogs that are already on the internet. Technorati, a company that tracks internet usage, says the blogosphere is more than 100 times bigger than it was just 3 years ago. So my little blog will be just one more addition to a very big world. Time will tell if I have anything to say that is worthy of the addition :-)

I expect to focus in several directions – frontline management - customer service experiences - and personal observations about life and leadership. The goal will be to learn from both good and bad experiences.

I am not actually sure whether I will post daily – although that is the goal. There may be some days where life and work get in the way of sharing an idea. I also hope to have some guest writers from time to time.

I hope it will be funny and serious, happy and sad, normal and twisted – but most of all thought-provoking. I have been in the customer service industry for over 25 years – and sometimes that experience transforms me into “Attila the Customer” when people seem to miss the reason it is called customer service.

Hope you enjoy, and if you have a comment or an idea to share, please feel free to post your comments. I will let you know that the comments are monitored before they are posted - primarily to keep them sane and safe for consumption. But, if you disagree with me, please post that too – I promise to post just about anything you want to share.

So, here we go – hope you enjoy it.