Introduction to Coaching

What is Coaching?

Coaching is the process of improving agent performance through honest discussion and pinpointed feedback. Through Observe.AI, coaching can provide opportunities to improve your contact center and help individual agents become more effective.

Why do we coach?

• Coaching to CORRECT: Focusing on the behavior (rather than the agent), these are coaching sessions built around explaining what could have been done better or differently. This is how agents build competence.
• Coaching to CLARIFY: Built around content and knowledge, these are coaching programs that educate agents on changes in process, compliance norms, new product lines, and new promotions. This helps agents find ways to navigate complex customer encounters and arm them with tools to build better rapport.
• Coaching to CELEBRATE: While ‘correct’ and ‘clarify’ focus on behaviors and improvement, ‘celebrate’ focuses on the agent’s success, praising the things that went well, which boosts agent morale, and in turn, building confidence.

Navigating the Coaching Tab

Within the Coaching tab are the Agent Report and Coaching functions. Consolidated performance data for each agent can be utilized in the coaching tab to address improvement areas specific to each agent. 

Agent Report Summary Page

Filters

Agent - Specify an agent or group of agents to look into. Evaluation Form - Select 1 or multiple evaluation forms that were used to evaluate the agent calls.  Coaching Session - Determine if there is a coaching session (“Present” vs. “Not Present”) for the agent.  Supervisor Evaluation - Filter the data to see whether a supervisor form had been completed (“Present” vs. “Not Present”) for the agent. Coaching Area - Filter the data for a specific coaching area listed in the coaching session. Average Score - Specify a score range on a  sliding score bar that will narrow down the agents that have that average score.  Evaluation Result - Able to select any combination of evaluation results

Agent Report Summary Display

Evaluations Done - How many evaluations have been done for the agent

Average Score - The average score of the evaluations completed for the agent

Total Fails - Number of evaluations that failed (the percentage of what is considered a pass/fail is configured initially with your onboarding manager)

Recent Evaluations - A color-coded heat map that shows the last 10 evaluations done on an agent. Hovering over the individual boxes will pop up details about the specific evaluation.

Last Coaching Date - The last date that a coaching session happened for the agent

Coaching Sessions - Number of coaching sessions that have occurred for the agent

Action - Clicking on the “view” hyperlink will direct you to the Agent Report Overview Page.

Agent Overview Report

Agent Overview

Date Range and Top Metrics

Within the Agent Overview, a date range can be specified for the agent. Once the date range has been specified, the top metrics and all of the data on the screen will change along with it. These top metrics are the same as can be seen in the Evaluation Dashboard above.

QA Evaluation Calendar View

With the QA Evaluation Calendar view, each evaluation form is split out by the total evaluations done and the average score. For each form, there is a calendar heatmap showing a color coding (e.g., Green - Pass, Purple - Satisfactory, Red - Fail) of the evaluations done and the days they were completed. The supervisor forms and coaching sessions will also note the dates when they were completed.

Preparing for a coaching session

To create the most effective coaching session, some preparation must be done beforehand. A few good practices are below:

Areas of Opportunity

• Areas of opportunity include questions where an agent has been given a negative response in an evaluation:
• Major missed opportunities: Will provide the questions that have had negative responses.
• Occurrence Rate: How many times this particular question has had a negative response.
• Review ‘Areas of Opportunity’ that are highlighted in the agent performance dashboard. ‘Areas of Opportunity’ show the number of times an agent has missed the same question on an evaluation, highlighting an issue that the agent needs to work on.  

Last coaching Note

Within the Last Coaching Note segment of the page, you can see the notes of the last coaching session that this agent received. 

Coaching Date: The date of this specific coaching session

Coaching Area: The subject of this coaching session. This is a free-form data entry field that the coach can decide.

Feedback: Any specific talking points from the coach

Action Plan: What are the necessary steps for the coach/agent

Follow-Up Date: When will the coach reach out to the agent again. 

View all Coaching Notes: Hyperlink that will take you to the Coaching Notes Tab

Evaluations

The “Evaluations'' tab provides data for evaluation forms submitted on the agent within a specific date range. The main display lists each question within the evaluation and how the agent performed against them. There is also an option to identify only those questions that were “Missed Opportunities” which will show any questions that the agent missed at least once.

Using this evaluations tab, questions that the agent missed consistently can be identified as areas of improvement. Conversely, areas of strength can be identified by finding questions where the agent predominantly got high marks. Combining both the areas of improvement and areas of strength in the coaching session can ensure that feedback is balanced.

• For more information on the evaluations tab go to the document ‘Observe.AI Dashboard <> How To QA Evaluate and Leverage the Evaluations Tab [Step 7].

Create Coaching Session

Utilizing the information on the agent performance dashboard and in the leaderboard, a coaching session can be created with coaching areas to discuss. You also can add completed evaluations to the session to help reinforce the coaching effort in those areas.

Coaching Area: Areas that the agent will be coached to. Specific moments will start auto-populating as text is input. These moments can be added as coaching areas, or custom areas can be manually inputted in the coaching area field. 

*Note: Please note that you can only add up to five coaching areas per coaching session.

Calls marked for coaching: Evaluations from specific calls or calls marked for coaching can be added to the coaching session to be reviewed together with the agent. 

Note: Because coaching sessions can be about any area of an agent’s work, QA forms are optional.

Feedback: A free form field to include any input to be provided to the agent

Action Plan: A free form field to include what actions the agent should take following the coaching session.

Follow-up Date and submission: Specify a date to follow back on the feedback and action plan discussed. After the coaching session has been conducted, submitting the session saves it to the agent’s coaching log.

Follow-up Reminder:

A notification email will be sent to the individual who created the coaching session one day prior to chosen follow up date

Tracking Agent Progress

Coaching is not a “One and Done” approach. Coaching sessions must be reviewed and tracked against to drive continuous improvement.

Coaching Notes

After a coaching session is created, a repository of all the coaching sessions conducted for that agent is kept in the coaching notes section of the agent performance dashboard. The Coaching sessions that were filled out initially can be seen at a glance on this page.

To see a repository of coaching sessions for all agents, go to Coaching > Coaching Sessions.

Coaching Date: The date of this specific coaching session.

Coach: Who conducted the coaching

Agent: Who received the coaching

Coaching Area: The subject of this coaching session. This is a free-form data entry field that the coach can decide.

Follow-up Date: When will the coach reach out to the agent again. 

View: Directs back to the coaching session with detailed information.

By evaluating agents and providing regular feedback through coaching, agents will better understand areas they can strengthen or areas they need to change. This will help to empower agents with constructive feedback along with improving the overall customer experience.