Devoted to the call center industry, the agents on the phones, and their managers

* This post has been provided by Tom Vander Well, author of the Call Center Guy and is part of the C Wenger Group.  Thanks Tom for being part of Know More Media's Guest Blogger Week

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It was a classic moment. It was my first coaching session with an agent who provided a service/inside sales function for his company. He came in, shut the door and exploded.

"I just want to say right now that this whole thing is a bunch of [expletive]. You don't know my [expletive] job and there's no [expletive] way in [expletive] you can help me."

Great. Have a seat. Let's get started. I was thinking to myself "with that attitude, I might just have to agree with the last statement you made."

These are the coaching sessions we dread and with good reason. Most call coaches are well intentioned people who really want to see their team succeed, their customers satisfied and their charges improve. Then there are people like this guy who can make the job a nightmare.

Yet, there are hard nuts you can crack. With people like the agent I just described, I've been able to succeed by finding out what really motivates them. I listen to them, I make small talk, I try to observe what it is that the person really wants. With some people it's recognition, so I find the slightest improvement and hold them up before thier peers/supervisor for their accomplishment. When I go from critic to fan in their eyes, their attitude changes. Others need to have a stake in the process - they want to lead - so I make them their team's "quality captain" and watch them go from critic to cheerleader. The guy I described above was motivated simply by greed. I found it kind of sad, but after listening to him rant for a while I said something like this,

"Look, I know you don't believe in this whole process but give me a chance here. I know what your customers want (we did the reasearch). I can help you to deliver service that will make your customers love you. If they love you they will want to do more business with you. If they give you more business the you're going to be more successful. You'll exceed your sales goals and you'll make more money." BINGO! He wasn't an instant believer, but I at least had his interest. He's still a pain to coach at times, but it's gotten better. The guy will never become a raving fan and will never admit that the QA process helped him. His pride won't let him. That's okay. We both know it's true.

- Tom Vender Well -