As managers we have daily interactions with frontline employees and every one of those is a coaching opportunity. Observing and reinforcing how customer interactions are conducted is certainly a good start, but to truly influence results, you must first institute a successful approach that has been proven to change behaviours and then provide feedback in a way that reinforces and embeds those behaviours.
For instance, take a customer entering a financial institution and inquiring about an interest rate for a five-year mortgage. We know that customers commoditize our products by focusing on rate comparisons so, as managers, we often limit our feedback to the obvious elements of the employee’s interaction with the customer – their courtesy, their professionalism and their accuracy. All are elements that impact the overall customer experience, but not necessarily ones that drive a successful conclusion such as a referral or sale.
‘How’ the conversation is conducted will determine the outcome. In our ever increasingly commoditized environment, the really important part is how the frontline employee moves past the rate discussion (for example), engages the customer and matches their needs with the available solutions.
And what constitutes effective coaching is when we can provide concrete suggestions on ‘how’ an employee’s next customer conversation could be handled in a more effective manner – suggestions that reinforce a verified methodology or activity that improves results.
My belief is that we should provide the tools that enable all frontline employees to systematically engage customers in conversations designed to utilize the time available during any interaction and significantly contribute to the overall sales effort at every stage of the sales process.
And we should provide managers with the coaching systems and skills required to build the foundation of a truly robust Coaching culture.
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