| If you work as an organizational consultant, you are | | | | would place people on hold and walk around the |
| sure to hear all types of request from clients. Instead | | | | center looking for assistance. Though they would try to |
| of consulting with you the client actually brings you a | | | | repeat what was told to them much was lost in |
| solution that he or she wants implemented. You know | | | | translation. They did not know the job, the processes, |
| that following that line is the wrong thing to do and | | | | the terminology, or the needs of the clients. |
| more importantly it will not provide your clients with the | | | | THE RECOMMENDATION |
| results that they are look for. | | | | I immediately refused to deliver Phone Doctor or any |
| So, what do you do? | | | | other type of verbal communication training. I |
| This is the story of one of my favorite client | | | | suggested people be removed from the phones. The |
| engagements. I call it "Disconnecting the Phone Doctor." | | | | manager agreed with the first part but said it would |
| Take a look at the client's request and you'll | | | | take time to reassign people. |
| understand why. | | | | THE PLAN |
| THE TRAINING REQUEST | | | | 1. I grabbed two more team members from my group |
| The manager said that he had 125 people in the | | | | and asked the manager if we could have eight hours |
| technical center and that they had recently | | | | to gather information from the people. He agreed. |
| experienced an 8% drop in our customer satisfaction | | | | 2. In about six hours we conducted face to face |
| and responsiveness ratings. Customers reported that | | | | meetings with the five top people in the group. We |
| the phone rang too many times before being | | | | learned that there are five common technical problems |
| answered, the hold times were too long, and | | | | and reasons why customers call into the center. |
| sometimes there was no answer at all. The | | | | 3. We spent time with five new people to understand |
| customers said that they had to call back to get an | | | | their challenges and what they absolutely needed to |
| issue resolved. | | | | know. |
| Could you please deliver "Phone Doctor" training? | | | | 4. We created job aids for each of the five call types. |
| The "Phone Doctor" is a training class to teach people | | | | We developed the 5 questions that are usually asked |
| better phone etiquette. This was a sophisticated | | | | by the customers and prepared the answers. We |
| telecommunications network center staff with telecom | | | | included directions as to when the "newbie" should go |
| specialist, engineers, and systems professionals. The | | | | for help and how to position that with the customer. |
| center was responsible for building client networks, | | | | THE CLASS |
| monitoring the networks, and troubleshooting network | | | | Two days later I returned and taught a full-day class |
| failures. | | | | on the 5 primary calls and how to handle them. I made |
| MY IMMEDIATE THOUGHT | | | | sure that the new techs had the right tools to answer |
| If performance was good what caused the 8% drop. I | | | | the questions and also knew what to do when they |
| don't seriously think that it is because people don't | | | | were stuck. I allowed 1-hour for them to interact with |
| know how to answer a ringing phone or speak when | | | | existing techs to ask questions. |
| they answer it. After all they all had telecommunication | | | | THE RESULT |
| or information technology degrees and they had | | | | 1 day of assessment, 2 days of development, 1 day |
| communicated well enough to get the job. | | | | for delivery. |
| THE FINDINGS | | | | - On hold times went down. |
| This manager had hired 15 new people within a 45-day | | | | - Calls were answered in fewer rings. |
| period. Someone had the bright idea that the best way | | | | - Customers were more satisfied with the answers. |
| to get the new people up to speed was to | | | | - Customer made fewer calls back. |
| immediately expose them to the types of issues that | | | | - Employee confidence went up. |
| they would be handling. Management decided to assign | | | | - Employees were more engaged. |
| the new people to phone detail. They were to answer | | | | - Employees learned a great deal in a short time. |
| very technical telecommunication network calls from | | | | - Employee increased their own learning with every |
| experienced technicians at their client locations. | | | | call. |
| Without knowing what to say, the new technicians | | | | |