Avoid Dead Air and Listen to Yourself

When I was in college, I worked for a local radio station. As a 20 year old kid, it was exciting but probably the most stressful job I’ll ever have. The thought of having possibly thousands of people listen to my voice was daunting.

I had no idea how I sounded. I wasn’t even sure if I was loud enough over the air for people to hear me because I was so nervous. Lucky me, my roommate recorded me one night and wow! I was shocked. I couldn’t believe how Southern I sounded and moreso than that, how unenthusiastic I came across. Instead of reporting baseball scores it sounded like I was reading out obituaries.

Hearing the inflection, the volume and tone of my voice gave me a wake up call. That’s why audio coaching definitely has its place in contact center training. Without hearing what they sound like, associates and agents have no idea what the customer is hearing on the other end.

Hearing the good and the bad, along with your own personal calls, can help you compare and contrast what’s really going on when you’re presenting to a customer.

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There are five ways to incorporate audio coaching in your training program:

• Listen to your own calls and see what’s working and what isn’t
• Listen to Hall of Fame presentations to get an idea of what a great call sounds like
• Listen to Hall of Shame presentations to hear what you shouldn’t sound like in a call with a customer
• Listen to inspirational messages to remind you of the great job you are doing and how far you’ve come
• Allow associates to listen to the client and hear what it is they are most pleased with

If you can hear something going on in your presentation skills, you can more easily fix it than if someone is just telling you what to do. Take a listen. You might surprise yourself.

And thankfully, I learned from my mistakes. Unfortunately, no amount of enthusiasm could make the Braves season great that season.

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