Judy's and Sally's Blog

Four ways to de-tox and get rid of the Blahs, the Blues and the Stresses in the Contact Center.

Everything seems to depend on time in the call center.  No time to eat, no time to talk to your neighbor in the next cubicle, no time for a break outside by the back door, no time to be friendly. That is because time is only used to crunch numbers, check ratios from call to sale or shorten call time and lower the abandonment rate.   This sounds like no fun at all.  So, let’s see if we can open that door of opportunity even if the knocking you hear is the person in the next cube banging their head against the wall.

1 Minute

If you have only one minute to spare, you can:

• Subscribe to Comics on the Internet and read 2-3 of them – laugh – laugh – laugh!
• Spritz some Citrus Scent around you and breathe in calmly for one full minute.
• Move your shoulders up and down in a vertical motion to release tension on neck and back
• Check posture, sit up straight. Your back deserves a break, too.
• Drink a glass of water for your voice. Your body is a sponge and needs hydration.
• Make a secret list of two things that really make you mad – tear it up and throw it away.
• Billy Joel said: “she never gives in, she never gives up, she just changes her mind.”  You can too, take a moment and “Lighten Up!”  That’s what enlightenment is all about.

8 Minutes

• If you have two or three or four minutes – really eight minutes – Listen to a CD of calming music, no rap or angry stuff.  OR, put a recording on your i-pod of  soothing affirmations or positive sounds,  relax and you will handle the stress better. You can buy these kinds of CDs. (Call me.)  It’s very inexpensive and they work.  You go back to work cheerful and energized.  Why doesn’t everybody do this?
• Go outside and sit on a bench and just BE….no talking, no thinking, just SIT and BE.

4 Minutes

• Ask someone for direction.  Ask people what you should do with your life and Listen.
• If you are angry, sad, lonely, or depressed, Put on a Happy Face and pay it forward.
• Buy a candy bar and give it to someone else.
• Call a friend and say: “I miss you.”  Remember you only have 4 minutes but that’s all it takes.
• If you are worried, sit in a chair and try very hard to worry, for 4 minutes…bet you can’t do it!

From the Mind of McKee:
Happy Thanksgiving

The Coach Approach

Bagger Vance the Coach and Teacher says: “The way a man sets his hands on a club will inform you infallibly as to how deeply he’s thought about the game, how profoundly he’s entered into its mysteries.”

Lessons: The Authentic Swing

“I believe that each of us possesses inside ourselves one true authentic swing that is ours alone. It is folly to teach us another or mold us to some ideal version of the perfect swing. . . Then our task as golfers according to this line of thought is simply to chip away all that is inauthentic, allowing our Authentic Swing to emerge in its purity.”

Find what is inauthentic about the person you are coaching and chip away at it. Even better, let the agents tell you what is natural and what is unnatural or inauthentic and see if you as the coach can assist them to use their authenticity to assist your customer or sell your product.

This is the perfect coaching method. Appeal to the heart of the matter. Appeal to the agent’s sincere desire to help the customer instead of some clever or sly method. It always works and the agents will really be sincere, the customers will “feel” the sincerity and the company goals to serve will be authentic at last.
Judy McKee co-author with Sally Cordova of The Positive Coach Approach

www.ThePositiveCoachApproach.com