QUALITIES OF SUCCESSFUL AGENTS

Let’s face it: answering the phone all day isn’t always easy.

Not every caller is cooperative, cheerful, and happy. Today’s consumers are very demanding; they complain to agents, blame agents, and yell at them. Sometimes, caller frustration results from a low-quality phone system; callers can’t get through, there are too many prompts, long hold times, reaching the wrong agent, and so on. 

The Customer Contact and IVR systems can easily be improved, making calls smoother for agents. The easier it is for agents to do their jobs, the less frustration there will be for both them and the caller. The Agents who can let the negativity roll can get back in the game and take more calls without the last one upsetting them. When an agent is upset, it can take them off their game for the rest of their shift. Upset agents will sit at their desks and sulk, change their availability status to avoid taking calls, and, depending on how upset they are, leave for the day. 

The best agents avoid taking it personally and bounce back quickly; the most resilient agents win!

Not every caller is prepared when they call in. Good agents can balance the need to release the call quickly with the need to be patient. When agents are too impatient, the caller feels rushed. Sometimes, callers need more explanations, need to find paperwork, or want to talk slowly.

Whatever the reason, the best agents can pace themselves and give callers the necessary time and attention without conveying impatience. The best agents learn to facilitate the customer experience by making the customer feel validated, respected, and heard while maintaining agent control.

Just reading or memorizing the script is insufficient for an agent to express empathy. Genuine empathy comes from the heart, not the head. Empathy is the capacity to respond appropriately to another’s mental state. Agents are taught to “empathize,” but when they are taught to listen to what the other person is feeling, it becomes more natural for them to react. Most agents don’t understand why the caller is upset; they don’t understand the issue and how it impacts the caller.

Too often, agents are quick to launch into their “empathy script,” which does nothing to soothe the caller. If anything, its insincerity makes the caller more upset. The best agents get it; empathy comes from the heart, and the caller hears and feels it.

Everyone loves an agent that “goes the extra mile.”

For example, the agent that takes the initiative to look up one more thing, the agent that gets you one more phone number, or the agent that gives you one more discount. Whatever it is, everyone likes and appreciates the “extra mile” effort.

The best agents know how to balance talk times with customer satisfaction. They also know that doing one small thing that takes little time but is an “extra effort item” will get the biggest bang on the customer satisfaction survey. Those agents are intelligent!

Do you have too many calls in the queue?

Perhaps too many callers call back because they can’t understand the agent. Everybody has called back at least one time in his or her life. Too often, agents can’t be understood by the caller and, after waiting patiently, hang up only to call back.

Does your contact center platform track hang-ups? Do you have agents with a high number of hang-ups? Can you identify these agents? The most basic skill of a contact center agent is speaking English unless the agent is managing a non-English queue. Are your agents articulating every word?

Poor articulation frustrates callers, who are agitated after waiting in the queue twice. When they call back, they hope to speak with an agent who can speak English properly. Agents who talk too fast or use poorly articulated words and phrases are ineffective.

The best agents at the end of their shift make it sound like the beginning of their shift. Their voices are fresh, and they deliver greetings and questions like it was the first time. These agents articulate all day long. They don’t get lazy reading disclosures, they don’t speed up because they are bored of their voice, and they don’t mumble.

The best agents come alive on each call and can be understood on every call. These agents are the most effective because they truly have “first call resolution”.