We certainly did not know exactly what to expect with the CMRxchange webinar. Holly Czuba, George Simons and I accepted the offer to present a live session on coaching, communication and collaboration to an online audience of contact center professionals.

George had the idea of taking each topic and asking a lead-in question to promote listener participation. Everyone was on mute, but there was a chat feature on the screen for us to see the answers and comments coming through. For example, we asked everyone to type in their favorite coaching tip and then we asked them to send us a word or phrase they wanted to banish from their workplace. To our pleasant surprise the chat room lit up with streaming suggestions and ideas. Even though we were the only ones to talk for the whole hour, the chat room became a nice learning resource for us, too.

One topic in the coaching section has really stuck with me over the last few days. We defined a coach as someone who leads change in a specific behavior. We compared the language of a coach to that of a fan and how the fan is focused on results while the coach is focused on behaviors. There’s a big difference.

When we supervise, the purpose is to make sure outcomes or results are reached. When we coach, we’re teaching the process, not the results.

For example, supervising could be monitoring conversion rate results while coaching is teaching presentation skills. To paraphrase a parable, supervising is as far from coaching as East is from West, while coaching is as close to teaching as bone is to marrow.

We covered twelve communication topics in the webinar session and received more through the chat session. Our marketing department plans to provide snippets from each category to be used in coaching sessions. In the meantime, if you want to watch the entire broadcast, it should be available on our website. Regardless of your title, if you have people reporting to you, or you are simply helping a new employee on your team, strive to be a coach.

Greg Alcorn, Coaching with Style Webinar during CRMXchange virtual conference.

Presenting at a conference takes a lot of work and planning. Not to mention the travel time.

Fortunately, last week, President and CEO Greg Alcorn got to do it all from the comfort of his office. CRMXchange hosted a virtual contact center conference this week.

Greg hosted a session titled “Coaching, Communicating and Collaborating Your Way to Success.”

People from all over the country listened to and participated in the event. Greg touched on many different topics relating to coaching in the contact center, including:

• Traits of a world class listener
• The three components of tone (rate, pitch and volume)
• Say This, Not That for the contact center
• Coach language versus fan language
• Five methods of audio coaching
• Classic versus creative communication
• Cliches, cursing and the Three Stooges of Grammar
• The advantages of using a mindmap

Greg explained how coaches “lead changes in specific behaviors.” Positive, improved behaviors are what increase results.

Throughout the presentation, Greg asked participants to chat answers to questions he had, including their pet peeve words and terms that described their favorite boss. At the end of the session, Greg fielded several questions by participants about his favorite coaching books, the definition of WII-FM (what’s in it for me) and other things.

Participants could then join a lounge where they engaged him in a further chat session. The marketing team also created a handout for all participants,  available on our GCS website.

It outlines Greg’s presentation and gives helpful tips and additional resources for finding information on coaching and communicating.

The CRMXchange is a frequented destination on the Internet for the exchange of information and ideas on sales, customer relationship management and contact center services issues.

To see a recorded version of the presentation >>>

Image via Wikipedia

In the musical Grease, there is a catchy little piece entitled “Summer Nights” with the chorus sung by the Pink Ladies and the T-Birds. The girls and boys are prodding Sandy and Danny for details of their first date. The chorus to the song implores them to “Tell me more, tell me more.“

We all love a good story and can’t wait to be a part of one in some way. We enjoy being caught up in the excitement and newness. It’s not unlike what we do when we buy something new. We run to our respective peer group and tell them how great it was. Maybe it’s that new car, an out-of-this-world dinner or that “ah” inspiring iPad.

So how do we get our customers to sing our praises with a chorus of “Sell me more, Sell me more” and not come off as a greasy used car salesman?

As the saying goes, we hate to be sold, but we love to buy. In reality, many of those great buying experiences began as a great customer service experience that prepared us to be sold. A good salesperson makes the whole transaction a positive experience.

There is a seminar Thursday afternoon, January, 20th for CCNG Magnet Program members designed to answer some of the questions about how to sell more to your customers by using the many daily touch points that occur while you are caring for your customers. It’s titled, Effective Selling in a Customer Service Environment. If you are a Magnet Program member, I encourage you to hear some of the insight from the panel. Our CEO, Greg Alcorn, will share some of his ideas as part of the discussion.

[PLEASE NOTE ~ THIS WEBINAR HAS ALREADY TAKEN PLACE ~ IF YOU MISSED THE LIVE WEBINAR,  FIND THE RECORDED VERSION HERE.]