If I told you once . . . I have told you a thousand times - It's all in your head.

Series of Short Articles for Contact Center Trainers, Coaches and Managers

Author: Judy McKee – Founder of the LAMA Technique Training for Call Center Staff and Management

Time: NOW – Yes, we have our training online. 818-945-5141 - CALL US 

Phonedamentals = A Required Course in Kind Communication

 “Thank God, I’m old.” A song from GIGI that expresses what I want to say to Call Center Trainers, Managers, Directors and Supervisors Everywhere.

Judy McKee – The LAMA MAMA was the nick name Discover Card gave to me many years ago. Since then, I have tried to get people to call me that but failed, they still just called me Judy. This will be a series of articles out of my direct experience in the Call Centers of America, and some other countries.

One of my past students called last week and related to me that in the call centers he works with, it is still the SAME OLD PROBLEM…The Questions! So, I decided given I am a senior who has paid her dues and broken enough barriers and has all the wrinkles to prove it, I am holding nothing back. So I decided to call this series of ARTICLES that MOTHER KNOWS BEST will be “If I have told you once, I have told you a thousand times!” Remember when your mother said that. She WAS RIGHT!

Motivation

I am leaning out now and having a wonderful time but that old Trainer Spirit is still there. I do not ever wish to watch soap operas or knit. YIKES! So, I say Thank God I am older now - I have been in the joyous job of training Call Center Agents and their Managers and Supervisors for 40 years. 

I am planning now to play Tennis, Pickleball, and write my ideas down in a new website called: That's a secret.. It is NOT set up yet.

Take it or leave it. Love it or Don’t. This is how to make your call center improve its communication skills “Once and for All.” That’s what I mean by the Mother knows best. I will start with 5 short articles and see where it takes us.  

List of Article Titles and What That Means

1.   ANSWER IS IN THE QUESTIONS, Dead air and customer dissatisfaction is caused not by your giving the wrong answers but by you asking the wrong questions or no questions at all.

• If you ask no questions – you lose control.
• If you don’t’ ask questions – the Call time is longer – many spaces of dead air.
•  No one is satisfied, not the customer…not the company…not the agent. WHAT?

2.   IT’S ALL IN YOUR HEAD!  What you fear will come upon you works in the call center, too. If you want to learn how to think differently in this upside-down world, you will have give up being RIGHT. Learn about the inner talk and how to change it. Once and for all…There she is again.

3.   GOD ONLY KNOWS: You can’t win if you ever heard this from your mother. Who can beat GOD and your mother, too? It’s impossible. If GOD only knows, you will not be able to understand anything at all about how life works, let alone how it works in the training room or in the Contact Center or any place of business or even in your home.

4.   YOU WOULD LOSE YOUR HEAD IF IT WASN’T TIED ON – or Call Center jive: KILL the UMPIRE or Quality  While you’re at it! -The four most expensive words in the world. Learn how to deliver the good news, eliminate the bad news and allow the agent to self-correct. Right now, the reason he/she can’t self-correct is the treatment he/she is getting is repetitive, correctional, un-forgiving, and negative feedback or worse, constructive criticism. No, that really is the worst thing.No one likes it, everybody hates it and everybody lies when they say, "I like it because I learn so much." I could use an explative here but I am not sinking to it at this time.

5.   Mind your own business  

The Answer is NOT in the ANSWER. 

The Answer is in the Questions.

If I have told you once, I have told you a thousand times….

You must control the call and never the caller. 

How do you control the Path of the Call?

Answer: With Questions.

The Art of Asking Questions is the key to Contact Center Customer Engagement…Period! You absolutely have to engage the customer or all you are doing is pitching or answering, and it never works, it never has worked and I can’t help thinking …. Why don’t people notice that?

·      Please calibrate 10 calls. That’s all you need, not a thousand. 

·      Get a piece of paper with these zeros on it 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

·      Listen to and count how often on each call your agents STOP at the end of a STATEMENT - a declarative sentence and leaves the customer to figure out what's next?  AND does not end his/her side of the conversation with a question.

This will change your life for the better forever. You only need about ten calls from different agents to figure this out. EASY - Do not reprimand the Agents. They were never taught this theory or the skill.

The hard question is: “When will you get it?” The AGENT must always end his/her side of the response to the customer with a Question. It’s very interesting to notice that the Incoming call is answered perfectly, usually and then it goes down hill from there. Let’s notice what happens in a customer care environment or a doctor’s office.

 “Good Morning, Dr. Joe’s Office, This is Judy...How may I help you today?” P-E-R-F-E-C-T!

After this first exchange, the Person who answers the call gives up the control and answers questions. Often, those answers do not do what the Customer wants. Why is that?

The world or in your case the customer never calls for you to simply answer their questions. The customer wants you to GET IT…they want Acknowledgment, and the customer wants you to check back with them so they have a sense of accomplishment. They begin to have an improved self image. They want to know that what they did was right to call you. They want to be right and smart. If you can give them that sense….game over. Customer will be happy and so will you.

That’s not hard to understand but that simplicity is difficult for complicated minds. Here are the problems and challenges you have to meet, accept, and then disregard your old story and grab this new one.    Think about this. How does a conversation start? 

It starts with a question. Right? How are you? What is your name? What made you call us today? How may I help you? What is your client number? How long have you had to wait?

Here is my question to you. If you can really see that this way by asking questions. Starts a conversation, what does it take for you to see that every time, your side of the conversation comes around you need to ask the NEXT question and NOT WAIT for the Customer to pick up the slack? GET IT? 

 TEST Quiz question: Do you see that if you say: “That will be $85 today.”  Causes the customer to be upset.

Answer: Jane, the Fee for that service today is $85. Now, you can take care of that easily by one of three ways, Credit card, Check or Cash. What works best for you?

If I have told you once, I have told you a thousand times. 

·      The person who asks the question is the person who is in control

·      The question has to make the customer feel right and smart to have called.

·      The Agent must know what questions to ask and how to phrase them.

·      The Call time will shorten.

·      The Customer will go away happy.

·      The Agent will be more confident.

AND YES, you can use this at home.

Next Lesson: It’s all in your head. Another famous Mother Madeline statement. GET IT? GOT IT? GOOD!