FirstLineCoach
Coaching Plans
31 session preparation guides organised by development level and diagnostic cluster.
Tough time at work
Agent is on a performance plan.
Mandatory statements
Agent does not start the call well and leads with regulatory statements before engaging the customer.
Setting scope of call
Agent is not setting the scope of the conversation well at the start of the call.
Deeper customer concerns
Agent is not asking the right questions to get to the customer's underlying concern and is consequently making superficial or inappropriate offers.
Agent denies weaknesses
Agent is unwilling to accept the Reality of the situation and will not admit to the possibility that there are things that are not perfect in some aspect of their call behaviour.
Low agent confidence
Agent demonstrates low confidence on calls and is not inspiring confidence in customers — resulting in customer less satisfied than they should be with the resolution achieved.
Recovering when call plan fails
Agent cannot recover when their call plan fails. Agent gets stuck in a negative cycle and cannot recover or gracefully exit the call to come back later.
Closing call when customer is unhappy
Agent has difficulty in handling a conversation where they cannot give the customer what they want; agent cannot close down the call effectively.
Handling low points in day
Agent has very variable performance across the day.
Over-preparing to call
Agent is going into a call overprepared and is not listening to the customer.
Agent undervaluing themselves to customer
Agent is not platforming well; they are not effectively indicating the scope of their role and their commitment to getting a solution for the customer at the start of the call.
Making suitable offers
Agent is not making suitable offers during a service call (offers trivial or self-serving).
Complex explanations
Agent does not deliver a more complex explanation well; customer not understanding even if the agent is articulate.
Being more succinct
Agent is too longwinded; they could say what they need to say more succinctly.
Making better promises
Agent is not making effective promises to the customer and the customer is continually looking for clarification.
Improve empathy skills
Agent is demonstrating a lack of empathy with the customer, missing key cues about customer's underlying motivation for the call.
Making promises that others will deliver
Agent is not making promises where there is any dependency on another part of the organisation to execute.
Taking sufficient time on the call
Agent is rushing the customer off the call.
Making coaching relevant for agent
Agent has a low interest in coaching or in personal development.
Over-prepared and not listening carefully
Competent agent has problems when their call preparation does not align with the customer's need.
Customers who are harder to understand
Agent is less effective with particular types of customer (ethnicity, gender, age).
Dealing with customers' deeper issues
Agent does not handle well a complaint about a core process that is not likely to change.
Building rapport with customers you dislike
Agent only engages with customers that they build a natural rapport with.
When the customer attacks the company
Agent is defending the institution rather than focussing on helping the customer.
Positioning your value to the customer
Agent underestimates the significance they have to the customer and treats the trust the customer has in them trivially.
Angry customers
Agent has difficulty handling customers with high negative emotion such as angry or upset customers.
Very capable customers
Agent has a fear of competent customers with precise requests.
Using the last 10s well
Agent does not use the last 10s of the call well and does not leave the customer with the best impression possible.
Coaching strong agents
Agent is extremely competent and the coach can't see anywhere they need coaching.
When the coach is much younger than agent
Agent is older/more experienced and does not engage with their younger coach.
Concluding the call well
Agent is concluding the call without clear signposting about the specific steps the customer should take next — customer is leaving the call confused.