I’d never been to an NFL game until a couple of years ago.  CPI installed the phone system in Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.  I was a member of the project team.  As a result, I was awarded tickets to a Colts game.  I also got to attend a game last season.  Wow – what incredible experiences.  The stadium was rocking – loud – enthusiastic – electric.  People were screaming, stamping their feet, and standing for every Colt’s play.  The fans even cheered for the silly little contests that were played by Blue, the Colt’s mascot, during time-outs!  They were truly awesome events to attend!

Yesterday, I attended the Colt’s first preseason game for the 2010-2011 season.  There were 66,000 people in attendance.  People cheered when the team was introduced.  They screamed and applauded when Peyton Manning was presented the trophy for winning last year’s MVP award before the game.  Next, they cheered for the opening kickoff….but it wasn’t the same.  The atmosphere was much quieter, calmer, even sedate at times.  I saw a guy a couple of rows down from me reading the paper during the second quarter!  The stadium screen flashed a message that said “Make some NOISE” and nothing happened.  It was a totally different experience.

About half-way through the first quarter, I leaned over to my husband and commented on the difference in the “feeling in the air.”  He said, “Of course.  This one doesn’t count.”  I thought about that for the next few minutes as Peyton and company left the field after a scoring drive.  They didn’t return to the game…because it didn’t count.  I started thinking about what this means for us as leaders (like I said, it was a different kind of game to attend!).

It’s my job as a leader to let my people know that their work counts.  It’s my job as a leader to show them that they count…that they’re important…that their effort has meaning for our customers and our business.  It’s my job to create the electricity in the air, to be enthusiastic, to scream and clap when they score a touchdown (by satisfying a customer need the first time!).  Here’s three quick things you can do as the coach to help your call center agents know they count:

1. Call Center Agents count when they see a vision and know how their work contributes to the scoring drive.  Clearly define a vision for your organization – make sure everyone knows what it is – and make sure you live it in everything you do.
2. Call Center Agents count when they know you appreciate their work.  Reward them when you catch them doing something good.  Say great things about them to leaders in other departments.  Make sure their work gets featured in your company newsletter.  Put their picture on your department scoreboard (or on the outside of your cube!).  People love to have fans – be your agent’s greatest fan.
3. Call Center Agents count when you create a clear path for them to grow. No one can play football forever.  When players retire, they go into broadcasting…or coaching…or business.  There a variety of paths for them to follow.  In the same way, no one can take calls in a call center forever.  Agents are looking for a path to follow.  Provide a clear one.  Be open about the fact that they’re going to want to move on at some point.  That kind of honesty helps create the “feeling in the air” that says “this game counts!”

Closing question:  what can you do today as a leader to help your agents know that they count?

When was the last time you used a good old #2 pencil? Remember those?  They’re the preferred writing instrument of elementary school students and standardized test takers all over the country.  (I clearly remember filling in those little circles with my #2 pencil.)  It’s back to school season and packs of pencils are popping up in stores everywhere.

I read something recently that amazed me – did you know that a pencil, on average, can produce 50,000 English words?  50,000 words!  That’s the equivalent of a 200-page novel.  There’s an incredible amount of potential in a little pencil.

That got me thinking about the potential in our call center staff.  I see some parallels to our pencils.  Pencils come in all shapes, colors and sizes – so do our people.  However, there are some things that are consistent for all of them.

Here are three that stand out to me:

First – they must be sharpened. A pencil’s 50,000 word potential can’t be unlocked until it’s sharpened.  It’s worthless before that.  Your people are the same way – then need to be sharpened…challenged…developed into something more than they were when they came to you.  Do you train them on new things regularly?   Do you give them regular feedback so they can sharpen their skills as excellent service providers?  You hold the key to unlocking their potential by offering to sharpen them regularly.

Second – sometimes you need to erase. My 9-year old son has a tendency to write his spelling words so fast that you can’t read all of the letters.  He has to erase and make it right.  I don’t yell at him for that – I encourage him to do the right thing with his homework.  In the same way, sometimes our call center agents do something that needs to be erased.  I believe we unlock lots more potential in our staff by creating an environment where admitting and correcting a mistake is an erasable – rather than unforgiveable – event.  People don’t come to work each day thinking about how to mess things up – but they do sometimes because they’re human.  Help them fix it and move on.  They’ll work hard to do it right for you the next time.

Finally, pencils wear out. Although there’s a lot of potential in a pencil, eventually, it wears out.  Great call center agents, eventually, want a new challenge.   Do you offer a clear career-path to your agents?  Can they progress into other areas of your company easily?  I always encouraged my agents to apply for jobs in other areas of our company (after spending awhile with us in the call center of course!).  I told them they were our ambassadors to other departments – letting others know about the challenges of being in the call center and serving our customers.  They carried our philosophy of being great service providers throughout the organization – and that benefitted everyone.

So, here’s my challenge for you: go find a pencil – or a call center agent – and unlock some potential today!

I was leafing through the pages of the latest Harvard Business Review the other day and caught a glimpse of an article by Tony Hsieh, the CEO of Zappos on going to extremes for customers. In case you haven’t heard, Zappos’ remarkable reputation for extreme customer service has been key in taking in from 1.6M in revenue in 2000 to 1.2B in 2009, yes, that’s Billion with a “B”. Oh, and by the way, it’s harder to get a job at Zappos than it is to be accepted into Harvard University!

How has Zappos accomplished this? Well, in the article, Tony shared his 7 Secrets of creating exceptional customer service in their call center:

1. Make customer service a priority for the whole company. It’s not just a department

2. Empower your customer service reps. Rarely should they have to escalate a customer’s issue to a supervisor.

3. Fire customers who are insatiable or abuse your employees.

4. Don’t measure call times, don’t upsell, and don’t use scripts.

5. Don’t hide your phone number. you want to talk to customers.

6. View the cost of handling customer’s calls as an investment in marketing, not an expense.

7. Celebrate great service by telling exceptional stories to the entire company.

“There’s a lot of buzz these days about social media and ‘integration marketing.’ Our belief is that as unsexy and low-tech as it may sound, the telephone is one of the best branding devices out there. You have the customer’s undivided attention for five or 10 minutes, and if you get the interaction right, the customer remembers the experience for a very long time and tells his or her friends about it.” ¹

¹ Tony Hsieh, “Zappos’s CEO on Going to Extremes for Customers,” Harvard Business Review (2010): 41.

We are such a technology focused society today.  (Look at how many IPhone 4’s Apple sold in one week.)  We want it fast.  We want it to be slick.  We want it now!  I had an experience this week that reminded me that the power of “fast,” “slick” and “now!” can be balanced with a simple ballpoint pen.

Two weeks ago, my 9-year old son attended summer camp with the Indianapolis Children’s Choir.  His music teacher recommended him for participation.  He had a great time and the week ended with an amazing concert performed by 800 children from all around central Indiana.

I got home from work last night and in the middle of the stack of sale flyers and bills was a little envelope with a hand-written address for my son.  It was a note from his music teacher telling him how proud she was of him.  She attended the concert and told him she could see and hear what a wonderful job he’d done.  Then, she wished him a “Happy Summer” and her note was finished.  My son, of course, was thrilled to get mail.  I was blown away by the thoughtfulness of a teacher taking a moment to make an impact on my son’s life.

You know, I used to keep a box of note cards in my desk.  I’d send handwritten notes to my call center agents when they got great monitoring scores…or when they got a promotion…or when I caught them doing something good.  I once visited a call center where the company president required his senior management team send him news about employees so he could send them hand-written notes.  You could see them hanging on the walls of cubicles all around the building.

We’ve got all kinds of management training for how to discipline and fire employees.  Here’s a suggestion for motivation that will cost you next-to-nothing.  Try sending a genuine, hand-written note thanking them for doing a good job.  The power of the pen creates incredible loyalty in the lives you impact by taking a moment to show you care.

March Madness is in full swing here in Indianapolis.  We Hoosiers are basketball crazy!  It all leads up to Final Four weekend to be played right here at Lucas Oil Stadium.  It is an exciting time for fans.

You know, some basketball teams are great defensive units…some are great three-point shooting teams…some run an “up-tempo” offense…some depend on one or two stars with a great supporting cast…and some play as a well-rounded unit.  However the teams are constructed – they all share one single goal…they’re here to win.  Every time they come out on the court, the goal is clear – everyone knows the goal and everyone pushes toward that goal in unison.  At the end of the tournament, they want to cut down the nets because they won.

How does this apply to your contact center? Do your agents have one single vision of their purpose every day they come to work?  What does it mean for them to “win”?  Can you walk down any aisle in your center and have people tell you what their purpose is in taking a call?

In one of my call centers, we defined this “win” as being a STAR.  That meant we provided Superior, Timely, Accurate and Reliable service in every call.  We had QA definitions tied to each of those items.  In another center, our “win” was defined as providing Prompt, Premier, Professional, Problem-solving service in every call.  Every agent knew our game plan…and accomplishing those things in each call made us winners (it made our customers happy, too!).

In my next blog post, I’ll talk about how I got my team focused on our game plan.

For today, let me leave you with two questions:

What’s your game plan?

Do your agent’s know it?