Can Archie Bunker Thrive in Your Environment?

How would Archie Bunker be coached in your environment?  The quick answer is just like everybody else.  The right answer is you need to ask Archie Bunker how he wants to be coached.  And you need to listen.  When I talk about listening I am referring to not just verbal cues but body language, the tone of his voice, the responses he gives.  Lots of different things one needs to take into account.  But a manager also needs to prepare themselves for the Archie Bunker that just can’t be coached. 

Before you can do anything as a manager you need to create an environment for somebody to be motivated.  You can’t directly motivate an individual.  If the culture of your call center is flat or even poisonous it just won’t work.  Any quick fixes you do to “motivate” somebody are just that – quick.  As quick as the fix takes it’s gone just as fast.

We’ve all done that.  Sometimes we roll out a quick recognition program; build it up; do a half crappy job at rolling it out; maybe weren’t clear about the process and made people feel left out.  Or WERE left out.

Maybe the problem of the week has been an abnormally high AHT and you have deduced that “non-work related reading material” is keeping some agents on the call too long.  It never had been an issue until now so you make an immediate decision to ban all of this type of reading material.  Again, maybe your knee-jerk reaction backfired and you have employees complaining to your HR Generalist.

So whether it’s well intentioned like a recognition program or a “shock and awe” reaction to a perceived threat to your metrics beware.  You might be creating that toxic environment. Nothing will grow here.  You’re dividing management and agents.  You’re establishing a lack of trust and confidence which will make it near impossible for you to roll out any action plan for a coaching and feedback process, recognition program, or policy changes. 

Hawaiian shirt day next Friday...

You can’t effectively coach and reward and grow our agents on such a shaky foundation.  Your first plan of action needs to change the culture of your toxic environment.  It’s no fluke that mission statements are a part of a company’s mantra and is included on everything from business cards to employee handbooks.  They establish certain guidelines to the way the company is run.  They have branded themselves in a positive light.  It’s a fantastic foundation to build an empire when it’s right and when it’s followed. 

Obviously it’s not going to address specific pathways for a manager to build on.  Most mission statements promote honesty, fairness, strive to improve and great consistent service just to name a few.  Take that same approach with your call center operation.  Here are a few things off the top I can think of that might be a good blueprint for a proper foundation and some examples:

• Honesty

Even potential bad news still needs to be communicated.  It could be as simple as announcing and apologizing for no overtime hours this week in an email.  It could be as complex as announcing an outsourcing partner to handle additional calls.  You don’t need to divulge every intimate detail or give out any company secrets but you can and should keep your agents in the loop.  They deserve that.

• Fairness

You would never give your one child birthday presents and your other child none.  Yet that’s what may be perceived when we do things like create recognition programs for a select skill set.  Everything is noticed by your agents.  They’re not idiots yet that’s the way they feel you see them when this happens.  And it’s not with just rewards – if you find yourself coaching one agent or group more often than others that’s just as bad.

• Striving to Improve

How do companies improve?  They listen to their customers and their employees.  As an inbound tech support center we are always listening to our customer’s feedback and suggestions.  That’s a no-brainer.  But are you listening to your employees?  Does the suggestion box overflow before you empty it out every 6 months?  On a more micro level are you and your managers listening to your agents when they are being coached?  As a manager are you proactive enough to move on suggestions that will improve your morale and metrics from the floor down to the specific agent?  A body at rest stays at rest.  And goes stagnant.  Create a plan to keep the lines of communication open for all and have a process to ACT on that.

• Consistent Service

If you do it for a while then stop people will notice.  They will become discouraged and at some point apathetic.  You may listen to calls where a customer clearly has had a good and bad phone experience with your call center.  You may have asked your supervisors to walk the floor every hour to make sure your “no non-business related reading material” mandate is enforced.  Your staff does it for a week and then really doesn’t enforce it after some point.  Worse yet is the inconsistency of coaching and feedback with your agents.  This consistency thing and how I approach that is the topic of the rest of this blog.

Everybody’s call center is different but they all live and die by the environment we create.  You can’t motivate Archie Bunker but you can create a motivating environment.  He will either thrive and move forward or choose not to participate.  And you can’t do anything about the latter except – yes—have a plan to weed out the ones who want to add their toxicity to your center.