Point out and criticise poor work - constructively

Chapter 6 of the Call Centre Motivation Workbook

Everyone has down phases from time to time and you must point out that such and such was not up to their usual standard of work. It is amazing how much a telephone agent's motivation rises shortly after this has been done.

After their initial feelings have subsided, most people claim that they are glad the matter has been pointed out to them.

When call centre team leaders tackle poor work, it is important to criticise the work itself and not the worker.

You can say something like: "Steve, this isn't up to your usual standard. What's the problem?"

Naturally the team member is likely to feel some humiliation in this situation, no matter how nice you are about it.

But you'd be surprised at how often staff thank you for tackling the issue. After all, it's rare that someone doesn't want to do a good job and when you raise the subject of a downturn in performance, it shows you care.

In order to use this as a motivational tool, you need to take action as soon as you become aware of the situation, otherwise other team members will resent the fact that you were slow off the mark.

Moving swiftly will enable the poor performer to raise his game and keep the team's motivation undamaged.

In order to maintain motivation, the Team Leader must consider his approach to the criticism because if it is vague or delivered in too submissive a manner, the agent will lose respect for him and motivation will drop.

Therefore it is important for the message to be delivered assertively.

Sometimes we need to tackle more important issues with an individual such as unacceptable behaviour or performance in order to maintain motivation in the rest of the team.

Dealing with underperformance

From time to time, you will identify unacceptable performance in one or more of your people and you will need to correct it to protect the motivation of the rest of the team.

In a call centre environment these performance shortfalls are most commonly lateness, being unpleasant to colleagues, complaints, procedural shortcuts and inappropriate telephone behaviour.

The process for tackling unacceptable behaviour is as follows:

1 - Explain what you have observed and why it is unacceptable.

At this stage, avoid accusing the employee but explain why the action is unacceptable.

2 - Ask for an explanation

Listen carefully to what the employee says, bearing in mind that they will try to justify their actions. You are likely to need to probe to find out the reason for the under performance

3 - State what you want and guide the employee to draw up an action plan.

It is up to you to define what kind of performance you expect but it is up to the employee to plan how they will achieve it.

4 - Offer to help the employee to achieve what you want.

Simply use an open question such as: "How can I help?"

5 - Reconfirm what actions each of you will take.

Ensure you both know what is to be done and by when.

6 - If necessary, apply formal discipline.

This is a worst case scenario.

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