Best Practices for Coaching At-Home Agents

Now that work-at-home (WAH) agents are a “thing” for many contact centers, leaders are looking for practices to enable them to achieve their goals. It’s a two-sided opportunity – contact center leaders and supervisors are looking for practices that will empower their agents to deliver an outstanding customer experience (CX). At the same time, management needs practices that will keep their agents up-to-date and engaged, even though they are working from their homes. 

In many contact centers the quality management (QM) and training teams work closely together and, in some cases, these two functions report to the same manager. This approach helps facilitate cooperation and sharing of resources and information about agents. The training team plays an essential role in onboarding new agents and introducing them to the company and contact center. When the initial new-hire training is complete and agents are ready to begin handling interactions, the trainer, supervisor and QM specialist should function as the “welcome committee,” helping to acclimate agents to their role and responsibilities and making them feel supported. These three teams should be checking to make sure every new agent has the skills to do the job, knows where to look up information, and can easily access assistance, when necessary. 

For this to work smoothly, companies need a combination of the right resources (trainers, QM specialists and supervisors), procedures and technology. While the goal is always the same – i.e., to help agents be well-trained, supported and engaged so they are confident and can deliver an outstanding CX – the technology makes a difference. In contact centers with a traditional QM solution, the following best practices help with properly coaching agents, regardless of where they are based, in the office or at home. 

Companies that have invested in analytics-enabled quality management (AQM) solutions will be able to “up their game” and more fully automate the coaching process. Here are some best practices that contact centers with AQM solutions should use to coach their at-home agents. 

Coaching has always been essential for the health of the contact center and agents. Now that employees are working from home, it must be prioritized, as it’s one of the most effective methods for keeping agents engaged and invested in their job so they can deliver an outstanding CX.