Customer-Driven Coaching: Using the Voice of the Customer to Maximize your ROI

What do winners of the Super Bowl, the World Series and NCAA Final Four have in common? While they are all champions, not one of these groups, or individual players, was successful without a coach on the sidelines. Just because you win a championship does not mean you stop – practicing, coaching, or learning. So, if the very best athletes need continuous coaching, think about how important it is to each and every representative in your contact center.In order to ensure that your coaching program is not scrutinized and sacrificed when cost-cutting occurs, you must be able to defend, measure and promote its value and calculate its ROI.

Unfortunately, contact center leaders are not taught how to quantify the benefits of coaching and are therefore often unable to communicate its positive impacts on employee and customer retention. Inevitably, all contact centers will experience cost-cutting so you must make certain that when the time arises, the eyes of the CFO are not drawn to your contact center. Because if they are, and you are not prepared, your training and coaching efforts will most likely be at the top of his or her list.

So that you can anticipate the CFOs, or any other management member’s questions, here are three ways to validate the ROI of a coaching program:
1. Customer value, or revenue generated by retaining customers vs. cost of marketing and sales to obtain a new customer
2. Savings as a result of minimizing attrition; many representatives leave a position for lack of development or communication with their supervisor
3. Savings accrued as a result of performance efficiency

A good coaching program will have positive impacts on all of the above. Engage your CFO to determine the value assigned to each area, the current baseline, and then measure the differences as coaching is implemented.To be your sideline coach, Customer Relationship Metrics (Metrics) and Call Center Coach have come together to provide the necessary techniques to take customer insights and turn them into action. Almost all contact centers have some type of coaching program, but nearly all are missing the most important element in the game plan – the Voice of the Customer (VOC). Including the VOC element in your coaching process will provide the opportunity to be recognized as champions.
Autor: Dr.Jodie Monger, President & Anne Nickerson