How Managers Can Mitigate Conflict
It would be nice if we could wave a magic wand and have all workplace disagreements disappear. In the close confines of a call center or an inside sales organization, conflicts will happen. As the manager, you may be asked to assume the role of a mediator. It is...
Leading a Remote Team
In the old days, managers saw their direct reports daily. They may even have eaten lunch with them or been on the same company bowling team. However, today, managers often oversee people around the globe, in places as far away as India, Kuwait or Korea. The days of...
Your Job Includes Being a Coach
Managers of phone reps all want to see their reps exceed customer expectations each day. But, today’s worker isn’t automatically committed to excellence. John Naisbitt in Re-Inventing the Corporation said: 88% of today’s workers want to work hard and do their best on...
How to Mold Outstanding Reps
Nobody is born as a peak performer. Just ask Serena Williams or Simone Biles. They achieve excellence by being coached and by practicing. They never accept that they are “good enough.” They strive to get better. To coach peak performance in a call center environment,...
What’s Important When Training Phone Representatives
Most companies spend their training dollars on improving What Phone Reps say to their customers. While this type of training is an important piece to the puzzle, especially for new hires or when the company has changed directions, it still leaves many Reps feeling...
When the Going Gets Tough with the Customer
Picture that you have answered the phone and the caller begins with a raised voice. Without any seeming provocation, the person on the other end of the line starts making threatening statements and even swearing. How do you defend yourself against this mad, out of...
Tips for Motivating Your Team
Success in today’s pressure-cooker workplace depends on high functioning teams. The question that befuddles many managers and supervisors today is how to motivate their inside sales or customer service teams to exceed customer expectations. Three key elements seem to...
From Conflict to Cooperation
It would be nice if we could wave a magic wand and have all workplace disagreements disappear. In the close confines of a call center or an inside sales organization, conflict will happen. As the manager, you may be asked to assume the role of a mediator. It is...
The Scoop to Building Relationships on the Phone
A lot of us speak quickly when we are on the phone with our customers or clients. Sometimes it is because we have so many calls in cue or because we feel pressured to get on to the next call. Whatever the case, it is a habit that can cost us business. Why? When we...
How to Coach for Results
People always wonder about the best way to coach phone reps so that their organization can deliver world-class customer service. If you want your reps to improve, you must understand the performance issues, know how to break down any problems into manageable steps and...
Key Vocal Issues – Rx
Susan works as a technical support person for a large corporation. Her days are spent answering up to forty or fifty phone calls each day. In her annual review, Susan’s new supervisor told her, after listening to some of her calls, her voice doesn’t sound warm or...
The ABC’s of Coaching Peak Performers
Nobody is born a peak performer. Just ask any professional athlete. They achieve excellence by being coached and by practicing. They never accept that they are “good enough.” They strive to get better. To coach peak performance in a call center environment, the...
Feedback—What Are the Problems
George Bernard Shaw said the problem with communication is the illusion that what has been said has been understood and accepted. People are often given “suggestions” on how to do their jobs faster, better, or cheaper. Yet, many of those suggestions fall on deaf ears....- How Managers Can Mitigate Conflict
It would be nice if we could wave a magic wand and have all workplace disagreements disappear. In the close confines of a call center or an inside sales organization, conflicts will happen. As the manager, you may be asked to assume the role of a mediator. It is important that you understand what your […]
- Valuing the Customer—it’s All in the Notes
Larry King, the famous television interviewer, once said, “I remind myself every morning that nothing I say this day will teach me anything. If I am going to learn anything, I must do it by listening.” The advantage for Larry King, of course, is that he sits across the table when interviewing his guests for […]
- Globe Smarts for Virtual Presentations
Do you communicate with people located elsewhere in the world? If you do, it is important to have “Globe Smarts.” You cannot communicate over the phone as if the audience is exactly like your home audience. You have to be savvy about speaking multi-culturally and make adjustments in what you say and in what you show on your slides. Here are a ten quick tips.
- What Kind of a Listener Are You — It Matters!
Approximately, eighty percent of our waking hours are spent listening. You would think,
by the sheer fact that so much of our time is devoted to listening, we would be fantastic at it, real superstars. The reality is not very many of us are good at listening because of the way we listen. There are three levels of listening: passive, judgmental and active. The one that takes the most work is active listening, and, often, it is least used. Consider the following levels of listening and assess which modality you routinely use and whether it gets the results you want.
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