A training program is most about the lesser skilled agents within a group. Higher skilled agents always need some polish, but the true test of any program is its ability to bring the lesser skilled- those more introverted, less articulate or less motivated- to the top with the rest. Any training/QA program that cannot do this is failing the very purpose of training. Such agents come in two basic categories: those who strongly resist serving others, and then the rest. The g

Monica Lewinsky reading a newspaper in iconic Astor Court. Madonna's heel mark scratched on top of the dining table in the Imperial Suite. The room where Elton John stays when he is in New York. And King Cole Bar, birthplace of the Bloody Mary. These are among my favorite memories of our 1990s training sessions at the historic and beautiful St. Regis, New York. Before entering the healthcare field in 2007, and beginning in 1994, BCI trained luxury hotels including The St.

For anyone who has not watched The Queen's Gambit on Netflix, I highly recommend this drama series with chess as its centerpiece. As I recently binge watched the full season, I began to think about how the game of chess relates to call center agent performance and BCI's approach to training and performance management. Because understanding our pioneering program requires a rethinking of common training methods and expectations, it can be challenging to grasp. The game of ch

I wanted to be a rock star. Or maybe a writer. And while I was in a great band and enjoy writing, I ended up being a devoted student of call center agent behavior having trained thousands of agents worldwide. In what has been a unique career, for several hours each day for the past 27 years my livelihood has required I meticulously analyze recordings of agents with patients. I have analyzed over 120,000 full conversations, including 20 today as is my daily average. What ha

Conversations with patients/customers and their family members are essentially a series of highly predictable moments. Agents ask the same questions, gather the same information, offer the same information, handle the same objections, etc. from call to call. This highly predictable aspect of call content is the most overlooked consideration regarding training. Training agents to handle these moments in the most professional manner requires first recognizing there is a right

If you are old enough to remember the band Foreigner, the story goes that the musicians wanted to be more of a hard rock band but the singer preferred ballads. This is typical of rock bands. The drummer, bass, and guitar players want to max out their instruments while the singer prefers to highlight their singing abilities. Fortunately, I suppose for Foreigner, the singer got his way and became known as one of the best of his generation, the band made tens of millions of do

Tone is truly the most important consideration regarding the service and professionalism performance of agents. And as life would have it, it is the most challenging to manage. A common approach is to assign a score that judges the entirety of the call, for example, from 1-10, how warm was the agent? But such an approach does not address specific moments, so an agent could be nice for most of a call but abrupt or unprofessional in brief moments, get a good score for overal

Perhaps the most requested solution I am asked to provide is how to handle frustrated or angry patients. And because trainees find our strategies highly effective, it has become the most effective way for BCI to earn their buy-in to our training curriculum. The key to handling these delicate situations certainly includes the commonly accepted strategy of conveying empathy with comments such as I understand your frustration. But this only scratches the surface. The comprehe

Claire called the Home Care and Hospice department at her local hospital on behalf of her brother who was sick, and she immediately said to the agent sternly, "...to establish professional credibility, I want you to know I am a registered nurse; a PHD - RN..." The agent, Shanice, who was new and had displayed only average phone skills up to then, could easily have become flustered. Instead, she offered one of the more impressive performances I have recently heard (and it inc

The role of behavior accountability is one of the more misunderstood and overlooked aspects of call center agent training. Rightfully associated with the monitoring process, there is often a disconnect as it relates to training. When most think of training, they think of a trainer who visits the facility and conducts a class. Once the trainer leaves, the training is over. Call center managers are then left to monitor calls and offer coaching scores (not considered actual t