How In-Line Training and Coaching are the Ultimate Customer Experience Management Tools

You’re at your desk with a few minutes of downtime during a rare lull in your typically-hectic day. You have a meeting in five minutes, but you see a window of time cracked open juussst enough to peek at interactions that need your review. Pair that window of time with in-line training and coaching, and you can deliver contextual interaction feedback to your agents’ queues with time to spare.

An interaction from your agent, Tim, is waiting in your coaching queue. You listen in on Tim’s call, and you skim the transcription to see that Tim spent nearly 10 minutes scouring his computer files for a specific document. All while leaving your customer hanging on the line and driving up his daily Average Handle Time KPI.

Whew, you fast-forward past the long-winded document hunt, and by the end of the call, it’s clear the 10-minute delay stressed Tim out. His tone shifted, and he hurried the interaction along despite your customer’s lengthy list of unanswered questions.

Your window of time is shrinking, but you still comment on Tim’s interaction with quick links to the documents he needed. Plus, you give him actionable tips in-line with the transcription, so he knows where to handle the situation differently next time. To top it off, you send a pre-crafted, mindfulness lesson to his queue and pause his interactions. Now, Tim can take a breather and press reset before his next conversation.

Turns out, with predetermined criteria and bots to send developmental opportunities your way, the few spare minutes between meetings isn’t time lost. It’s the perfect time to dig in on your customer experience management strategy with the help of in-line training tools.

The quick, relevant feedback you can deliver with in-line training and coaching make them the ultimate tools for a better CX. Here’s why.

In-the-moment feedback reduces the risk of repeated poor experiences.

Without in-line training, you’d be in a bit of a pickle. You know you need to step in to help Tim get his day back on track, but you have that meeting in five minutes (now, more like two minutes). How are you going to help Tim AND make it to your meeting on time?

Leaving Tim hanging ensures a slew of negative experiences for the customers next up in Tim’s queue. But in-line training lets you leave comments and feedback alongside interactions. You don’t have to tack on time to take notes, fill out a spreadsheet with time stamps and comments, then email the feedback to your agent.

Instead, you can review an interaction. Then leave feedback and deliver it to your agent, all in a single interface. Your agent gets in-the-moment feedback that’s backed by context, so he knows where he needs to improve next time around. And it saves him from turning a bad behavior to a bad habit.  Plus, Tim doesn’t have to sit and marinate on his missed KPI and frantic conversation.

Learn how the agent experience drives the customer experience, and get your guide to feedback.

In-line coaching and training teaches your agents to build conversational customer relationships.

Using small training moments to kick off larger conversations about development creates a culture of feedback on your team. Your agents live out that culture of feedback by forming conversational relationships with leaders, peers, and customers.

One out of every five employees feel like their manager isn’t transparent with them. And 83 percent of employees appreciate receiving feedback, whether negative or positive. The quick bits of feedback you leave in line with your agents’ interactions are conversation starters. When you serve up coaching moments in your agents’ queues, they can reply back to you for clarity or further explanation.

Then, your agents get more comfortable sparking conversation. They learn the importance of being vulnerable enough to turn seemingly transactional moments into an opportunity for connection.

Training works around your peak traffic times.

In-line training and coaching makes learning a part of your agents’ omni-channel workflow. You shape your coaching moments and feedback around your busy periods. You can deliver lessons to your agents’ queues when WFM predicts low traffic, so they can catch up on learning without missing a beat. Not to mention, your agents don’t have to leave their workstations to get the feedback they need.

You can deliver actionable and relevant training to your agents without shutting down your contact center. And you can do it frequently.

In-line training coupled with automation makes coaching happen at scale, on a personalized level. So, you can expand the 7% of time you have available to coach each person on your team each week.

Slice the time you spend coaching with Sharpen’s coaching and in-line training tools.

With in-line training and coaching, you don’t have to choose between prioritizing your agents or making it to your meeting on time. You give your agents the direction they need to be knowledgeable resources for your customers. And, you still catch your meeting from start to finish.