Call Center Training Solutions Blog

This is the second post in our five-part series that answers the single most important question,  What should you be doing right now to improve the overall sales performance of your agents and your center?

Tip # 2: Killer Pre-Shifts

It is 8:00am and Your Team is About to Hit the Phones.

What should you be doing right now to improve your sales?  Deliver a killer pre-shift meeting. 

A Pre-Shift Meeting.  Really?  But–.

When we watch pre-shifts, we are often left with that feeling,  If this had never occurred, would anyone have missed it?

At the beginning of a shift, the pre-shift meeting is a great way to get your agents focused for the day, even if you have a group of veterans who have heard you deliver them for years.  You can involve the agents in an endless number of ways, including asking one or two to offer the rest of the team some of the best practices they use on the phones to net their results. 

When it comes to pre-shifts, however, there are only two kinds, a) highly useful and effective, or b) don­t bother.  Preshifts need to be fun and motivational.  Agents must be glad they are participating.  The supervisor must do these at least three times each week to keep agents­ attention and continue to drive performance.

What­s the best thing you can be doing at the beginning of your shift? A killer pre-shift meeting.  We recommend setting skill goals for the team or individuals, teaching easy ways to get better on the phones, celebrating yesterday­s or last week­s successes, handing out corny-but-useful little trinkets as praises and thanks to key contributors, playing a 10-minute motivational or instructional DVD and anything else that will focus the team for the  next few hours.  If you have to cover new policies and procedures, choose only the most important ± send the rest out as a chair-drop.  These types of mundane informational blasts can take the wind out of the most animated supervisor­s pre-shift.

If it­s 8am and your team is about to hit the phones, the best thing you can be doing right now is a killer pre-shift meeting.  Set great goals.  Get agents on the phones.  Watch the results get better and better.

Tags: agent goal-setting, better pre-shift meetings, coaching agents, improve sales, improved supervisor coaching

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 6th, 2011 at 8:30 am and is filed under Floor Management and Coaching. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.