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Home of the Original
LAMA Training

(818) 945-5141
Call us–We’re in the
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Home of the Original
LAMA Training

(818) 945-5141
Call us–We’re in the
phone business!

2018? It’s here now? How did that happen so fast?

YEAR END Goal Setting – LAMA LESSONS in Money, Time, and Energy

All our training classes begin with “INTENTION” and a short definition is “Being Determined in Advance.” A question I get at all training classes is: “Judy, what is the difference between Goals and Intention?”

Thanks for asking because the response is very important, and it can change the way you think about goals. Since, the Universe always says YES…you better get those goals right! There is a Universal Law at work, and it’s just like gravity.  So, at the end of every year, we talk about year-end goals, New Year’s Resolutions, and Next Year’s Goals.  This will be quick to learn.  The most important thing about goals is that they are specific and measurable.  Intention is general and imaginative, creative and the vision from 40,000 feet.

Here is the “kicker.”  All goals need to be based on INTENTION.  There are no hidden meanings, no hidden agendas, and no fooling the FORCE.  Therefore, you need three things:

  1. Purpose for your INTENTION- WHY do you want what you want?  Don’t set a money goal unless you have an Intention in mind.  Example:  I want to make a $50,000 goal. (BOLDLY stated.)  What for?  AH YES…for College tuition.  It is my Intention to put my kids through college.
  2. Goal- Sell $50,000 worth of training programs to pay for college fund.  (Now we’re talking.)
  3. Discipline- Discipline yourself to follow the plan in two ways. Daily and Monthly, I will be determined in advance […]
2018? It’s here now? How did that happen so fast?2021-03-11T22:17:08+00:00

How do you say, “Thank You” in LAMA?

Maybe you would like some ideas this year on words and ways to say them, that really acknowledge another person.  When I want to say something wonderful, I usually start blubbering like a baby because, I start to seriously think about what someone means to me instead of taking them for granted.  When I am coaching in a call center and the agent says, “Thank you for calling,” or “Thank you for being our customer,” I always want to thank the Agent for the good job and embellish it.  Most agents find me a little on the corny side, but the wonderful thing is, they GET IT!  If you are teaching Customer Manners, or Company Goals with Customer Affairs or Quality Care, it may be part of your responsibility to listen for how we express our thanks.  I will LAMATIZE a couple of Thanksgiving expressions for you when you are the Coach, the Manager, or the Trainer.  This will start you thinking about how to say “Thanks.”

  1. The Customer asked for something. The agent completed the job. Here is what you can say:
  2. L – This is what you heard…Agent did a nice job and thanked the customer for calling.
  3. A – Corey, you really helped that customer and you did it fast.
  4. M – When we teach etiquette we say the usual things, but you didn’t just say the usual things. You were kinder, you offered even more education if the customer […]
How do you say, “Thank You” in LAMA?2021-03-11T22:17:08+00:00

Quotas Never Work – Intention Does

Training in Contact Centers is all devoted to RESULTS based on Goals! HA! That’s funny…

To learn that words don’t teach is the hardest lesson that I know. The world’s management seems to think that the numbers they generate, and the words they use to express those numbers, work. Well, here is the bad news for them, but the good news for you. Words DO NOT TEACH…Only Experience, and Emotional Experience at that actually teaches.

Now, you understood that. So, how would the training department, the marketing department, the Supervisors, the Managers, the Coaches, and the Agents relate to that? I spent my life teaching agents to come from their experience and intention. It never fails to be successful because these words never rely on the STATS. I never have the Agents Set Goals. “First Intention Then Enlightenment.” I teach through experience of personal stories, relationships, and train the Agents to find the emotional need of the customer, the buyer, and even their own. This works because it’s the experience that teaches. When the Agent relates, they own it…they own it because it is theirs.

There is no substitute for Aliveness or the Experience of Agent Satisfaction. There is no substitute for Intention. What you call goals isn’t it! There is no substitute for The Experience of the Customer.

The Customer Experience is so big in all discussions today yet it appears that all the work is being done on the level of technology and not on the level of the HUMAN BEING EXPERIENCE. Doesn’t that […]

Quotas Never Work – Intention Does2021-03-11T22:17:08+00:00

What is all this talk of LAMA™

It is a Skills Training Course on Communication that works!  That’s all!
The L-A-M-A Technique™

When you know the difference between “What Works and What Doesn’t Work!” you can create a Contact Center Learning System that is FANTASTIC! REVOLUTIONARY! AND one that Cannot and Will Not fail.  It is based on the same principle of gravity, and you never doubt that do you?  Judy McKee started in 1979 generating so many appointments, to sell or list real estate, that she was made a manager, then a trainer for a large Real Estate Company.  She said. “What’s so hard about getting appointments?  I get them all the time.”  The Independent Agents would not do what she said. Lesson Number One in the LAMA Training.  PEOPLE WOULD RATHER BE RIGHT, THAN RICH.  When she got the job of training the new hires, they didn’t know any better.  They just wanted to sell real estate, so Judy asked them to put their manuals under the desk because the manual said, “How to hold an open house.”  Judy said, “Who cares if we hold houses open…we just want to sell them.”

This seemed like perfect logic to her and to the new hires. This is when the LAMA Training was born.  It was called the Statement/Question Technique until Discover Card took our training and penned the acronym LAMA. Judy McKee trademarked the name, and the rest is history, as they say.

The LAMA Technique™ is born to WIN!

Why won’t it ever fail? Because it is built […]

What is all this talk of LAMA™2021-03-11T22:17:08+00:00

Words Don’t Teach – And All That Jazz!

Words are only symbols of something else.

OMG…I am not a team player…now what do I do?  Don’t I fit in? (NO…) Don’t I play well with others? (YES, I do!)  Should I just say… “I am a team player!” Will I be more accepted then?  Being a TEAM player is acknowledged by the best companies as The Way To Be.  Often you hear, or see, great presentations about the word TEAM and what those letters stand for.  Another one I’ve heard is “There is no I in T-E-A-M.”   This is a very old paradigm.  The word team teaches nothing…the Experience of Being on a team can teach you everything…I like to use the very ancient words from the HAGAKURI. “Learn one thing, learn a thousand.”

My favorite way to put a TEAM together would be to use the analogy of JAZZ.  Each single person is an I AM or I WILL kind of person.  A person who can hold his own, alone if necessary, yet allows others to play as well to the best of their ability.  If you watched and heard a Jazz quintet play together, you would hear each musician do his or her own “thing.” It becomes a thing of beauty, and it’s called JAZZ.  Each player can SOLO as well as join in the tune with accompaniment.  It’s a joy to  be in the presence of this type of TEAM.   The Piano man, the percussionist, the base, the horn, and the guitar – WOW!  Put […]

Words Don’t Teach – And All That Jazz!2021-03-11T22:17:08+00:00

Digitize Those Defining Moments! LAMAtize the chats, texts, and twitters!

 

It’s an idea whose time has come

Life Lessons in the Call Center are very real.  Here is a quick story about how one company used their new Salesforce Program (NO I am not a Salesforce salesman) to save a very upset customer!  (I am always looking for defining moments on a phone call, email, or chat.)  THINK L-A-M-A, then call us.

Here is the story about how one call center discovered that a customer had contacted their company four different ways, in just one hour.  And Salesforce did all the work.  The CX manager was pinged with a customer issue, and when he put in the information, Salesforce created a list of all four contacts, and the text of those issues. (Could this happen to you?)  Here is what happened.

  1. The customer contacted the company by chat…and hung up after waiting.  Unsure of where the agent had gone.
  2. The customer tried chatting again – was still left on hold…hung up again!
  3. The customer sent an e-mail, and received a terse, yet accurate return response.
  4. The customer received a CX survey.  They proceeded to send it back, blasting the company for terrible service but a great product.

The Coach/CX Manager gave the original Chat Agent a pass…she was handling so many chats at once, and he thought the customer could have been a little more patient.  The Coach also gave the e-mail agent 100% for accurate information and a speedy response. Although the agent got good grades, the customer wasn’t happy.  Are […]

Digitize Those Defining Moments! LAMAtize the chats, texts, and twitters!2021-03-11T22:17:08+00:00

Mystical? Magical? Vicious? 

Are you caught in a Vicious Cycle that damages your self-esteem or the self-esteem of your Agents? The cycle can look like this.

This is a Vicious Cycle of Negativity

I hear something wrong on a call, I get Quality to Agree it is bad.  I send out a graded form that tells the Agent what is wrong with the way she handled an issue or a person.  I set up a feedback session disguised as a “coaching” session.  In the meeting, I make sure the Agent sees the error of her ways.  I tell her how to do it right, or how we did it in my day.  I tell the Agent to fix this for their next evaluation. I hope they are repentant and willing to take the constructive criticism well and mend their ways. I watch and listen for improvement and wonder why I don’t hear or see much improvement. I am frustrated. (BTW so is the Agent and now lacking self-esteem)

This is a Vicious Cycle of Positivity

I hear the Agent make an error on a call. He said something that doesn’t please the Customer.  I ‘think’ that Agent needs more confidence and maybe a lesson on Handling the Upset Customers. I am the COACH and I am responsible to help the Agent improve. AND, to give him acknowledgment and show my “confidence in him.”  I set up a time to meet with the Agent for a coaching session. We listen to the recorded call.  I mention that […]

Mystical? Magical? Vicious? 2021-03-11T22:17:08+00:00

FEEDBACK SUCKS!

The biggest cause of turnover in the contact center industry is Negative FEEDBACK and everybody still does it!  Why ? ? ?

Usually I do not use words like “sucks” but I want your attention on my intention. Thank you for opening this blog. I want to help you be able to help the agents enjoy their jobs more.  I want companies to retain their agents and have much less turnover, and of course, I want everyone to use The Positive Coach Approach.

Feedback simply doesn’t work when it is negative.  Agents don’t ever quit their job. They quit their supervisor, their manager, their coach, or their quality call checker.

It seems people would rather be RIGHT, than happy.

Supervisors are racking their brains for a new formula, a new way to correct, a different way to “hold people accountable.”  What they really want are results that work for everyone; the Customer, the Company, and the Agent.  When applying feedback or monitoring using computer based bots, or when supervisors threaten with bad grades or poor quality assessments, they have forgotten that the agent is one of the three components to the equation.  I do know that they mean well…

This type of simplicity is very difficult for complicated minds. The technical methods are holding us hostage.

What do we want?

  • A happy atmosphere where people thrive and create a safe environment for the customers, and are wide open for the opportunity to sell something of value to the customer. This way everyone thrives; […]
2021-03-11T22:17:08+00:00

Get Clicking
Creating a team that clicks requires more than a data dump

     When it comes to creating a successful training session, much of the weight centers on the person delivering the information.  Delivering information in an entertaining way, that won’t put attendees to sleep, is only one measurement of success.  The media used, the data presented, and, of course, the enthusiasm of the trainer all impact what agents retain and, ultimately, employ on the call center floor.  However, no matter how skillfully a trainer delivers information, if they can’t inspire and motivate attendees, their efforts are wasted
     Training programs must be designed to deliver solid, useful materials and skills that trainees can readily use to enhance their performance.  An element of training that is often neglected is the addition of inspiration.  Dispersing information without adding ways to motivate and inspire reps ends in lackluster performances.  As trainers or call center managers, it is important to impart these contagious emotions to the entire call center team.  Doing […]

2021-03-11T22:17:08+00:00

Three Steps to Certification in The Positive Coach Approach

In every Contact Center in the World, there is a “Coach who has a tremendous responsibility to improve the skills of their coachees.”  Brain Training, Consciousness Movements, and Behavioral Styles all help to support better communication. Until the Coach Can Create a “Safe Environment” and give the Agent a chance to Self-Correct…all you have the same old thing.

There are THREE STEPS to Becoming Certified in a whole new methodology.  And these steps never fail!

Step 1: Discover Where You Are Now.  Check your results over the last year. Ask your Agents how they like the coaching and if they feel they are getting what they need.  Ask your Customer, “Do you enjoy talking to our Agents?”  And ask the Coaches if they passionate and happy to be coaching.  (Okay, I know that’s a lot for one step!)

Step 2: Admit you have a list a mile long of why any new program won’t work.  In fact,  write down all the reasons you can’t afford it, don’t have the time for it and think it’s just a new “thing” that will go away if you just ignore it.  You can never actually “get” your intention when it opposes anything else, so it’s best to get all those doubts and fears out there…look them over and simply decide.  So what if I thought that? Really, the TRUTH will set you FREE!

Step 3: Call the Authors of the Positive Coach Approach and say: “What is so different about your program, and what evidence do you have that […]

Three Steps to Certification in The Positive Coach Approach2017-03-23T18:20:04+00:00
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