How to Better Support your Agents in the COVID New Normal
With Kelly Brickley, Business Development Manager at Pyrios
Show Notes
Kelly Brickley is a Business Development Manager at Pyrios, an AGC Black Box company. She has more than 25 years’ experience in the contact center industry internationally, including 7 years with ICMI as their Director of Educational Services based in Southern California.
She shares her thoughts on how to better support your Agents post-COVID.
Top 3 Tips:
Provide online resources customers can use to resolve their issues themselves (15:19).
With self-service options taking some of the pressure off Agents, they now have an opportunity to be proactive with customers; reaching out, educating them, and doing more for them (15:48).
It’s time to look at how bots can fit into your strategy. They’re becoming very useful in assisting Agents mid-call, serving up answers straight away which saves Agents from trawling though the knowledge base (03:07).
You'll Learn:
A best-practice approach to provide real-time support to remote Agents (03:57).
Why call analytics is the future of Quality Assurance (08:00).
How leading contact centres are changing the way they do coaching (10:03).
Connect with Kelly here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kelly-brickley-2b04692/
If your priorities include boosting employee engagement, lifting customer experience, or increasing your focus on coaching and development, I can help you out with a few ideas that you can steal. Send me an email (at blairs@bravatrak.com) and we can organize a 15-minute call over Zoom or Teams.
Transcript
Blair Stevenson (00:00)
Welcome to the Secrets to Contact Center Success podcast, connecting you with the latest and greatest tips from the best and the brightest minds in the industry.
I am Blair Stevenson, founder BravaTrak, the Coaching System for Contact Centres, that helps you to boost employee engagement and customer experience by measuring and improving your Team Leaders' coaching effectiveness.
Today, I'm joined by Kelly Brickley, who's a Business Development Manager with Pyrios, which is an AGC Black Box company. She has extensive experience in the contact center industry internationally, including seven years with ICMI as their Director of Educational Services based in Southern California.
Today, she's going to share her thoughts on the need to make the most of the change that COVID has enabled.
So Kelly, welcome along great to have you here.
Kelly Brickley (00:53)
Thank you so much. Great to be here.
Blair Stevenson (00:56)
Fantastic. So for those listeners who may not know you, just tell us a bit about yourself and your background.
Kelly Brickley (01:02)
Well like a lot of us, I sort of fell into the contact center world as a 20 year old needing a job. I got a role as an Agent at Telecom (Spark New Zealand) as it was back then. And, like I say, I fell into the industry and I haven't managed to fall out of it yet, but it's been very, very good to me.
I've created a really great career for myself, and as you alluded to, I've spent time living in the United States, and traveling the world educating and learning and working with contact centres. So it's a great thing.
Blair Stevenson (01:37)
Fantastic. I think we're not quite post-COVID yet. But the reality is that COVID has forced a lot of change. It's accelerated a lot of change. And so we're currently transitioning to something of a new normal, which of course includes a greater use of work from home.
And yet, some things haven't changed. Particularly from a people management perspective. And looking across the industry, which you have the opportunity to do, what are noticing that the contact centre industry generally isn't doing well?
Kelly Brickley (02:21)
The Quality Assurance side of things, and providing the right tools for Agents in the moment is really, really important. So one of the comments that came up a lot during COVID was "Hey, I've got my Agents working from home, but it's really hard for them to get assistance real time when they need it. What can we do? How can we go about that?"
And I think you've actually really got to start with, is what are the tools that the Agents have to enable them to self-manage and self-resolve the interaction in the moment, without having to escalate and raise their hand and get some help from a supervisor.
(03:07)
So that's where things like really good knowledge-base tools come in, front-ended by bots. You don't want to get into a situation where the Agent goes, "I'll check on the knowledge base. And I get a list of 20 articles I've got to dip into to try and find the answer." So this is where bots are really useful as an Agent tool. They ask the bot, the bot finds the answer and serves it.
So if we think about those types of tools, in the moment. And then if they do need help from a Supervisor, and if they're remote, what can the Agent do? Can they web chat with a Supervisor? Can they do some kind of alert, or raise a hand? Because they're not physically in the same space anymore. Like I can't just wave my hands and say "Help", you know?
(03:57)
So those are are the types of things we need to think about. What I've seen some contact centres do - usually in a larger center - is they'll actually have Supervisors on a help queue. So the Agents can put a customer on hold, call them, have a conversation. Or they could web-chat to them and say "Can you start monitoring my call, please? And if necessary, barge into the conversation".
So there's lots of different methods and ways to go about assisting Agents that are working from home. Because they will always need help. So if we - one - make sure we've got the right tools in place, and good solid processes so they can do it themselves, and then minimize the need to have to bring in support from the Team Leaders.
But someone has to be watching. So there needs to be a Team Leader or Supervisor taking advantage and making the most of the real-time views that they have. Someone needs to be watching all the time so that they can see like "Kelly needs assistance" or "Blair needs help", or "He wants me to monitor him" or "He's got a question" or whatever it might be.
(05:13)
The other thing too is taking advantage of new AI technologies to provide assistance to the Agents. So there's things like a bot being able to real-time monitor the conversation the Agent's having with the customer, and proactively providing knowledge base content, or information, or information from a website, or whatever it might be.
So if you think of all the different tiers, like let's have the bot help, sourcing the right information from the knowledge base. If the Agent still needs help, then how do we get the Supervisor to assist quickly?
Blair Stevenson (05:50)
So this greater use of work from home, which will continue, has really put some pressure on ensuring that Agents have the right tools to support them to do their job.
Kelly Brickley (06:06)
Support themselves, and then get the right assistance when they need it.
Blair Stevenson (06:10)
You were talking about Team Leaders earlier. I think one of the standouts for me is that right now, what I'm noticing is the majority of contact centre CSRs (Customer Service Representatives) fall into the Millennial generation. Actually Gen Z is coming through now as well. So the Millennial generation are people born between 1980 and 2000.
And Gallup, the employee engagement company, has identified that what Millennials want is a little bit different from older generations. They want coaches rather than bosses. And they want development. They want an opportunity to learn.
So on that coaching and development front, what needs to change to ensure that Agents are fully engaged in their work and are productive, irrespective of whether they're on the same site or whether they work from home?
Kelly Brickley (07:10)
Quality Assurance, and coaching as an outcome of what we observe, has been done the same way for 20, 30 years. And this is a real area of opportunity, I think.
If you think about traditionally, I might listen to five calls and read a couple of the emails for an Agent, that's not giving me a statistically valid sample of their performance. And it just takes a lot of time and energy. And then once we actually do that, then I might only spend an hour a month with the Agent. And it might be "I don't talk to you too much unless you need some help, and I spend one hour a month coaching you".
Is that really going to drive behaviour? Change behaviour?
(08:00)
So from a Quality Assurance perspective, what we're seeing now - and this is what's coming in the future, it's an emerging tool in this area - is utilizing analytics. With analytics, what you can do is you can assess every single interaction, regardless of channel.
If you think about that, we are then going to be able to assess every interaction that comes into our contact center and get some real solid data about things like why customers are contacting us, what's driving interaction types, through to hearing about customers. Are they happy? Are they sad? How do they sound? Are they angry? Do they love us? And then through to individual Agent performance. And also team performance or centre wide performance. So we can see trends. So "Is everyone's struggling with this new process and getting it wrong, or was it just Kelly that's struggling with this process?"
Now, if we can utilize analytics to start doing that kind of work - in tandem with our traditional QA programs - start correlating the data and seeing what we're seeing, I think is a really good, solid way to go.
Blair Stevenson (09:21)
And that technology is available now?
Kelly Brickley (09:24)
Yeah, definitely. There's lots of different tools out there. Some come out of the box in different platforms, some are stand alone tools.
And being able to put that sort of analytics data into a centralized data lake within the organization - you've got data coming from other sources, and other channels, and other teams. You know, it's data, data, data. It's all about the data. So that's definitely available now.
And what I see happening is that the traditional QA program over time will go away as the analytics program gets more mature, and is providing the right information that you need.
(10:03)
And the beautiful thing about that, is then that's going to free up the Team Leaders to do a lot more proactive work with individuals. Because right now, Team Leaders are traditionally busy writing reports, they're running around taking escalated calls, they're doing their hour of coaching a day, they're monitoring, they're grading. All of those things. A huge part of their day is taken up with that. So that's a reactive way to manage and coach and extend people's capabilities.
So if that goes away, what does the Team Leader do then? Well, the Team Leader then has got all this time to, in the moment - every day - coach and teach and train. So what I'm also seeing out there in the call center world - or contact center world - is a movement away from that traditional one hour session.
They may still have the one hour session a month, but that's going to be more a conversation about, "Hey, what's going on with your career? What's your next steps? Do you want to get involved in projects?" And this is what the young people in our contact centres want. They want opportunity. So that can be a really good, positive conversation - "What's next for you? What are we doing?" - so they get that, which they really want.
But we're moving towards in-the-moment coaching. So if we've got Team Leaders that are looking at the results from the analytics data, or their live monitoring calls, they can actually do in-the-moment coaching with staff, and spend the majority of their day doing that.
Now, if you think about if I've had a really great call with a customer, and the customer just thinks I'm wonderful, next minute my Team Leader comes over and goes "Wow, Kelly, that was amazing. What a great job". How good am I going to feel about that? I'm getting that immediate recognition that I'm actually doing a great job.
Blair Stevenson (12:03)
Absolutely.
Kelly Brickley (12:06)
So the reverse of that obviously is if I've done something wrong, then we nip it in the bud, and it gets addressed straight away. So there's a real move away from that "I only coach once a month" to "I'm coaching all day, every day".
Blair Stevenson (12:21)
I agree. I think of it as an emotional bank account. CSRs have a really tough job. They're under pressure. They've got people who are often calling because there's a problem. And throughout their day, their emotional bank account gets drained. And if we're going to maintain a higher level of employee engagement and motivation, then that has to be topped up consistently as well. And the Team Leader is best person to do that.
So I think this technology change creates the opportunity to really help CSRs be the best they can be. And also, to maximize their engagement in the work that they do, with all the knock on effects.
Kelly Brickley (13:21)
Well, with the analytics, you get the macro view, right? And then you can drill down to the micro view with the individual agent and what the plan is for them. And so your one hour coaching session a month is about the plan for you, as opposed to, "I listened to this call and you did this wrong and that wrong". And I come out of there after, thinking "I've got my coaching session coming up. What's she going to talk about this time? What have I done wrong this time?"
And like I say, our young people really want opportunity. They expect it. And they expect to have a good work life balance as well. So this is why this whole work from home thing is really important, because if I'm a Uni student, I can log-in and do a few hours work. I don't have to travel. It's not going to cost me to do that. Massive benefits.
So we can retain people then. We can actually access the best people, because we can get any Agent, anywhere. So I'm not tied to, "I can only hire people". I can actually have the best people. I can retain the best people, regardless of where they live. People's lives change - "I have to move" - or whatever it is. So "You don't lose me, just because I've moved cities".
Blair Stevenson (14:32)
Agreed. The good people don't necessarily live within a 10 kilometer radius of your contact centre.
Kelly Brickley (14:40)
That's right. And particularly in cities like Auckland and Wellington and Christchurch, there's a lot of demand. And we're all competing for the same Agents, you know, "I used to work for this utility company and now I work for that utility company".
Blair Stevenson (14:52)
Yeah. Cool. We're running at a time. So Kelly, just to summarize, as Contact Center Leaders settle into this post-COVID new normal, what would be the top three tips - the top three actions - that you believe they need to take to improve customer experience, and to produce optimal business results?
Kelly Brickley (15:19)
Only three?
Tip #1 (15:19)
I think the first one that comes to mind is enabling customers to self-serve, but also self resolve. It's not just about being able to go onto the website. Actually, "How do I do this myself?". As customers, we want to do things ourselves. Which means that we will reduce the unnecessary workload coming into the center.
Tip #2 (15:48)
The second thing is people want to help people, and we need to utilize people power in the right way. So if we are moving a lot of the sort of stuff that customers can self-serve, then what are our staff going to be doing? So this is an opportunity for us to be much more proactive with our customers, not just wait for stuff to happen, reach out to them and educate them and do more for them. There's a lot there. Take advantage of that.
Tip #3 (16:21)
And the third thing is everything is always underpinned by technology. That is what I do. So we need to look at how do we automate, how do we support Agents? We talk about the people power, but we also need to think about the digital agents as well. So what is their place in our world? What are the digital agents - the bots - going to be doing for us, to enable our human Agents to add the value that they do? We're a long way from a digital agent being just like a human Agent.
Those would be the three key things. Automate self-service and self-resolution, utilizing your human Agents in the right way, and then optimizing your technology in the right way as well.
There's a lot of cool tech out there. But you really need to think about what is the right ecosystem of tools that we need in our center that will all work together and talk to each other, to enable all of this stuff to happen, and to support our customers and provide that great CX.
Blair Stevenson (17:34)
Great tips. I think all of this stuff is on Contact Center Leaders' minds right now, as they search for "How do we make sure that we have the right technology in place? What is the right technology?". So you provided some really useful tips. Thank you very much, Kelly.
Kelly Brickley (17:55)
You're most welcome. Thank you.
Blair Stevenson (17:58)
And for listeners, your find the link to the show notes in the episode description below.
Also, if you'd like to connect with Kelly on LinkedIn, you'll find the link to her LinkedIn profile in the description too (https://www.linkedin.com/in/kelly-brickley-2b04692/).
Now, if your priorities for this year include boosting employee engagement, lifting customer experience, or increasing your focus on coaching and development, I can help you out with a few ideas that you can steal.
Send me an email (at blairs@bravatrak.com), and we can organize a 15-minute call over Zoom or Teams. My contact details are also in the episode description below.
Well, that's it from us today. Thanks again to Kelly. Have a productive week.