I have not been very clear about the direction of this blog and wasn’t sure on how to proceed. Guess that’s why it’s been a while since the last entry. But I figure since the actual coaching system I have put in place is now finally working at full capacity it’s time to explain GOPHER.

The previous blog entries were to give you an idea of where I came from and how certain experiences of my life helped me develop the system. I’m going to try to describe this at the 10,000 foot view and then in subsequent entries will drill down and discuss certain areas.

The precursor to this is that every person that is coached, trained or mentored is treated with kind, meaningful and relevant praise and appreciation. I’m pretty big on solid foundations as you may have read in an earlier blog entry. Appreciation and recognition are the caissons of the system. Sometimes the bedrock of an agent’s foundation is just beneath the earth but other times you may need to dig much deeper before you hit bedrock to build on.

I follow Sir Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin Group and numerous other successful ventures on earth (and in space) on LinkedIn. This quote from him struck me as very relevant:

“If it doesn’t fit on the back of an envelope it’s rubbish”

I realized this applied to anything whether it was a household budget or a plan for world domination. I decided to see if my GOPHER coaching idea fit on an envelope.

It fits. It’s wordy and I would definitely have an elevator pitch that would be just as compelling at a high level (I think…).

The GOPHER system has a very dynamic structure. It’s easily modified. It’s not rocket science to understand but it does require consistent involvement and buy in and understanding from everybody involved. This doesn’t just include the managers and agents but your systems analysts, web developers, I.T. department, quality and training department, HR department and above all upper management.

Absolutely none of this will work if you don’t have the technical support (to adopt GOPHER into your system) or the buy in of upper management. There are work force management platforms that have coaching systems in place similar to GOPHER but they are not as modifiable. If you do have a system you can still incorporate many of the benefits of GOPHER as needed.

GOPHER starts with an introduction to your agent. If it’s a new hire at some point after the quality expectations are given to them they will be informed of the coaching content and frequency from their assigned Supervisor. Making your agents feel comfortable at the onset is paramount to your success and their tenure with your organization. However you decide to roll out the welcome wagon is up to you and your call center culture but roll it out. At the very least there should be a welcome packet with more than direct deposit forms and insurance information. If your agents don’t know who their Supervisor will be after they have hit the floor that’s not a good start.

There’s a learning curve associated with all jobs. I know that in my case it takes anywhere between 6-9 weeks before a new hire is working at 100% of expectations therefore I do not hold them accountable on my “scorecard” for a 3 month period. It does NOT mean they don’t receive any GOPHER coaching. This time frame is the formative time to help them develop good habits and generally correct and guide them down the right path.

After this period we start the accountability portion of the GOPHER. What follows is basically what was on the back of that envelope. Again, everything starts with praise and ends with buy in and praise:

The GOPHER System

AGENT

METRIC EXAMPLE (ATT, AHT, Quality, Adherence, Girl Scout cookie sales, etc)

TRENDING INFORMATION

CURRENT COACHING SESSION NEXT COACHING SESSION (NEXT SESSIONS)

Before the initial coaching session begins:

1. Listen and observe. 2. Document everything positive.3. Formulate and document root causes and valid specific actions for areas of improvement.

+ IMPROVEMENT NO IMPROVEMENT

During the coaching session:1. Talk about something other than work. Relax. 2. Praise and thank them for what they have accomplished.3. Listen and observe.4. Refine your root cause and specific actions if needed based on what you hear and see. 5. Ask them for their suggestions. Add or amend.6. Get their buy in.7. Set their goal.8. Praise their efforts.

Before the next coaching session begins:

1. Listen and observe (now you might have Quality department grades and observations as well as your own monitoring). 2. Determine if there was improvement in the metric(s)3. If so document and refine areas of improvement. If there are new metrics that need addressed…4. Formulate and document root causes and valid specific actions for areas of improvement for the new metrics.

Before the next coaching session begins:

1. Listen and observe (now you might have Quality department grades and observations as well as your own monitoring). 2. Document any and all improvements from previous session.3. Refine your root causes and specific actions based on what you hear and see.4. Formulate and document root causes and valid specific actions for areas of improvement for any new metrics not met.5. Ask your supervisor for suggestions on your root cause analysis and specific action tasks.

It may be easy to look at this and say it’s a lot of basic knowledge and common sense. But look at the GOPHER system like you would look at a patent for an invention. The outline is there but it’s a lot of the little parts of the invention that you can’t see that make it work as a unit.

This is a rinse and repeat plan. You will obviously need to set your own parameters for developmental action plans, how often a coaching session is given, how it will incorporate with your WFM platform or quality software, how it will apply to different skillsets with different metrics, etc.

In future blog postings I will share with you all of the little parts that I use to make it all come together with real life examples. Some of the things I’ll discuss will be:

The real way to find true root cause for any issue How to listen to anybody How I prepared and trained the supervisors to utilize GOPHER How we rolled out and instructed the agents about every aspect of GOPHER and how to hold

their Supervisor’s accountable for consistent coaching

During the next coaching session:1. Talk about something other than work. Relax. 2. Praise and thank them for what they have accomplished. Show them the positive trending.3. Address new metrics that need improvement.4. Listen and observe.5. Refine your root cause and specific actions if needed based on what you hear and see. 5. Ask them for their suggestions. Add or amend.6. Get their buy in.7. Set their goal.8. Praise their efforts.

During the next coaching session:1. Talk about something other than work. Relax. 2. Praise and thank them for what they have accomplished.3. Address the metrics that have not trended positive. 4. If they followed your specific actions without success, apologize and go over new specific actions based on your revamped root cause analysis.5. If they did not follow your specific actions ask them why and either amend them if they are unreasonable or let them know if they continue to not follow your specific actions they may step to a disciplinary action plan.6. Ask them for their suggestions. Add or amend.7. If so document and refine areas of improvement. If there are new metrics that need addressed.8. Get their buy in.9. Set their goal.10. Praise their efforts.

Limiting specific action items A disciplinary action plan that is no surprise to anybody if it happens How the technical aspects of the GOPHER coaching system was implemented How often coaching occurs and the cycle used to determine developmental action plans and

disciplinary actions How GOPHER evolved to coach the coach – the evolution of SMAILS where senior managers

audit the Supervisor’s GOPHER coaching

I’m excited about sharing my success with this plan but it certainly wouldn’t have been possible without a multitude of IT/systems analyst support and the buy in of the manager’s who use this system. It’s a lot of work but now it’s old hat. Everybody is used to it and every week there seems to be fantastic recommendations to improve and fine-tune the system.