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!

Merry Christmas everybody, People seem to like my stories, I can hardly get through a training program anymore without telling a few. This story is true and I used it in a newsletter this Christmas. (Maybe I will put it in my next book. that’s the one I am writing for Oprah so I can get on the show with my LAMA Technique) Here is a sample. After you read it, share your “how did you handle hard times at Christmas?” Inspire us all. We all love to hear a real true hard luck story with a happy ending. Please, will you write one for us all? Maybe I’ll put your story in there, too. I know you have one….put it down on paper.

Dear Judy,
Everybody is so plugged in about money. Is that all there is? Everybody talks about it but like the weather they don’t do anything about it. Here is the Christmas Season, we are supposed to be Happy but all I hear is “I hate this, and I don’t have that…I have to pay this, my check is too small and my pocketbook is empty.” “They” blame the President, the mortgage companies and the banks, etc. yada yada. You get it? Don’t you? How can we have the Christmas spirit when it’s hard out there and everybody is scared?
Yours truly,
Down and out in Beverly Hills

Dear Down and Out,
It is hard out there and that is why you have to look in here…..(point to your heart) Do you know the only Christmas my kids remember is the one we made candles ? (yes, they were big in the 70’s. too, we also had madras blankets over our bare light bulbs) They remember the fun of using old crayons to color the wax we put in empty milk cartons, the fun we had and it cost practically nothing. We decorated a rubber tree plant with the old lights from the year before and went to Grandma’s for Christmas Dinner.

I was making about $108 a week with three kids . I was one of those single, working MOMs they all talk about. We got some food stamps and my eldest is still embarrassed about that. Anyway, it is still the only really meaningful Christmas absolutely all of us remembers vividly. Why is that?

Because we didn’t stress over money, we worried about if we had enough old crayolas to color the candles with multiple colors. We were too broke to worry about it and so we created a mood of giving. We created a plan of making gifts. It’s always hard out there for somebody, so instead of hoping “they” will all change, you do it. YOU CHANGE and you will see that the world will reflect it immediately. Your happiness doesn’t’ come from out there, it never has, it never will, it always comes from in here, (point to your heart again.) So start pointing and stop complaining that the world will not align itself to make you happy. Bring the HAPPY to It. What’s your Christmas memory? Let us all know how you made it in tough times, it may be an inspiration to someone. M e r r y C h r i s t m a s – Happy Holidays

Dear Friends, associates, bloggers and clients,

This is our favorite time of year. Sally is on-site a lot and I am here creating e-learning sessions and webinars.
This is has been a wonderful year with time to create and re-brand ourselves. Instead of TrainYourCallCenter, we are now The Positive Coach Approach.
We thank all those of you who helped us by telling us that you love the book The Positive Coach Approach .

We have so many wonderful clients and customers and we are grateful for all we have. Our goal is always the same, make your contact center more productive and you have given us the chance to that so often. We are thankful for so many things.

We do this Thanksgiving List every year and it keeps us in check with the gifts we are given and the opportunities we have had each time we write it all down. Make a list for yourself, your company, your agents, your family. You will see how blessed you are. Happy Thanksgiving.

List of Things We Are Thankful For:
Living in America, the land of the FREE
• Our good health so we can keep working.
• Client’s who all believe in us.
• The many Coach-Training jobs all over the USA
• People who use our L-A-M-A Technique and WIN!
• Sally’s Book sales all over the world.
• Webinar Attendance – It’s catching on!
• Quick Fix Friday was a winner. Do again in 2010
• Judy’s Book “Sales Survival Guide” Sales are good
• Affirmations CD made one of our clients $10,000.00.
• Sally’s Long Term Programs with three companies.
• Client’s Contributions/Ideas for our Training Programs
• ATA, The DMA and their Constant Support
• The acknowledgment and letters you send that make us feel so good about what we do. We feel honored.
In general we are thankful for a new President and send all of our blessings and hope for our country’s future with our prayers and wishes for his good judgment on behalf of the USA.
Send lots of Love and Thanks to our troops all
over the world. God Bless America.
Happy Holiday Season

A group of trainers with Sally and me, See how happy we all are? Have a great Turkey day, a Holiday, a Thankful season from both Sally and myself. We are joyous to have you in our database. We hope you like it, too.
Picture of Trainers at Uni-syn.com

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

Let’s say you had 50 reps on the phone.
They earn $10.00 an hour x 8 hours x 20 days a month = $80,000 a month. (AND with dead air, bad scripts and an attitude)
That doesn’t even count health and accident, SS, or other perks,what about lights, technology, phone bill?

Now let’s take results???? Whatever they are doing now and with the L-A-M-A and Coaching, they sell 5% more, have 20% increase in Customer SATS, or Retain 1 more client a day per person….and they have a great ATTITUDE, Motivated and Inspired.

Retention: Save one customer per day. (How about give back less money? We helped those Info-mercial people save millions on their celebrity products..)
Sales: Each Rep adds L-A-M-A technique and goes from 4 sales a day to 6. (50% increase – at an insurance company the top reps went from 8 insurance sales a day to 12) …Hello.
Sales: B – 2 – B Each Rep offers an add-on or a cross sale on every call say 47% of the time. (a certain bank called us a GOD-SEND – a catalogue company added-on with 30% of their calls because they offered the right product and used the L-A-M-A technique. Years ago Word Perfect increased sales by $5,000 a day. Their president came down to the training room and wanted to know what I did to his people. We charged them (back in the day) $3,000 a one time fee.
Customer Service: Cross Selling on every call. We teach three soft skilled ways to do this.

If it cost you $5,000 a month, to increase the orders….by 5% – Let’s say average sale is $50, increase it with L-A-M-A and Coaching, to $52.50 per hour x 8 x 20 x 50 = $80,000 more income. $2.50 per hour more, (conservative) = $20,000.00 per month. This is a very conservative effort.

WE guarantee that. Call us. 760-738-8200

If you will not spend $5000 a month on the best technique and coaching program for a year $60,000.00 even if you could make $240,000.00 Why wouldn’t you?

I say never drop a dollar to pick up a dime…I also say, if I spend 2 to make 10…I am there. Let’s not hear anymore of that “budget excuse” This is getting old now….not true. The world is buying, there is plenty of money, I just saw an ad that said the Bank of America lends out 3 Billion dollars a day! A DAY!

Let us hear your scripts and we will fix them, customize a course and watch over it for year. You will make your money back in the first 60 days….we guarantee it.

That’s the mind of McKee for today.
Now I am going to set my goals for 2010 and plan it out.

Have a great weekend.
Okay, I’ll be nicer tomorrow.
Judy

http://tinyurl.com/mdact9 A session about money. Learn how to talk about it.