FirstLineCoach
Dealing with customers' deeper issues
D3 — Supporting1. Diagnosis
Agent does not handle well a complaint about a core process that is not likely to change.
2. Behaviour Observations
What you might see or hear that points to this pattern.
- Agent is only focussed on the immediate customer concern and carefully avoids giving any wider commitment.
- Agent does not believe they have any power to change how the organisation operates.
- Agent does not show interest in what their management is doing to improve things.
3. Session Objective
Often customers are not satisfied with simply a resolution of their immediate issue. They also want to know whether the issue will repeat and that other customers will not have to suffer the same experience.
4. Session Tactics
How to prepare for and structure the 45-minute call review.
Session preparation: Bring a list of changes made in IT and operations as a result of customer issues. Bring a list of issues the senior manager has recently raised. Bring a call where a customer asked about whether the root-cause has been fixed. The initial conversation should be about the organisation's commitment to improvement. Play the call, discuss what else the agent could do to satisfy the customer that change is happening.
5. GROW Experiments
Experiments the coachee might choose to try. These are offers, not prescriptions — the coachee selects what feels right for them.
Articulate to the customer what the department is doing to drive change: illustrate by example of a recent change implemented or a recent senior conversation about a customer-raised issue.
For complaints about company personnel: be specific to the customer about the internal process. They can be specific about the type of conversation managers have with staff on the basis of complaints, without mentioning names.