“The Man in the Mirror” by Michael Jackson. Let’s All Listen Once Again!!! It’s in that new movie “Joyful Noise” and yesterday it set my heart on fire once more.
The “WOW” factor is hard to understand. People who are inspired themselves give that “WOW” right over to the customer. How do you “WOW” someone? It is like “love” so undefinable yet we all know it when we “feel” it or the lack thereof. I like the comment from Lark Will, a very powerful woman Call Center Director. She wrote on LinkedIn all about reinforcing the good stuff with coaching and training, etc…AND I agree, still, I really think we need to build the self-esteem of the agents themselves. As David Stuart, another giant in the industry, said: “Make sure the agents know what’s expected of them.” I agree with that as well. Here is where I think we fall short…we need to make sure the agents know that we know they know…get it?

We can talk and we can talk and we can talk. We can make rules. We can announce expectations; we can even hire the people who match the profile…if that is so? Why is there still a problem? Whenever we do anything to push our beliefs down the throat of an agent, we just said: “We know you don’t get it.” That’s why we work so hard to push it on to you.

How about working on what’s inside and making sure it’s a Call Center world that works for everybody.
The Customer, the Manager, the Leadership, the Agents ALL have to agree that whatever we do we do for the good of all with no one left out. What will it take for us to get it? Check out “Man in the mirror.” (MJ’s song) “If you want to make the world a better place…take a look at yourself and make a change.” Look in the mirror and ask questions…don’t worry about answers. Everybody is crazy for answers but the questions are all wrong. What to do to make them get it? What form? What test? What motto? What mission statement? What training? What incentives? Until we look into the mirror and ask ourselves the serious questions…Could I ever believe in them? Could I ever WOW them? Could I ever understand why they want this job in the first place? Could I forgive them for choosing this gig? What am I thinking? My mother once said to me: “Judy, if you think you are so smart, you’ve got another think coming.” I sure hope so; I am working on thinking newly…How about you?

Don’t look at solutions….figure out how to get out of this vicious circle? I think there is only one way out…Change YOUR mind! Okay…I’ll get off the soapbox now and go look into the mirror.