As the father of three young children I often find myself asking my kids if they “need” a time out. Now, this “ask” is usually preceded by some misbehavior, like painting the walls with glittery blue fingernail polish (true story!). And the purpose of the time out is to give my child some time to think about what they’ve done, recognize that it was a bad choice, and, hopefully, not repeat it again. In a nutshell, a time out is just that: Time. Out.
Truth be told, though, the idea of a time out actually sounds pretty good to me. I mean, how many times have I wanted to take two or three minutes to just catch my breath, re-focus, and then get back into whatever I was working on before?
At this broad level, could you apply the concept of a time out to your frontline staff members?
I mean, let’s face it, the role of a rep doesn’t afford many chances for time outs today. From the moment a rep clocks in until they leave at the end of their shift we control just about every minute that they’re not taking calls … when to take lunch … when to take breaks … when to go to training or coaching sessions. Sure, reps can pop up to use the restroom if they need to, but we want them to minimize that “not ready” time as much as possible. In fact, in some companies we incentivize them to keep this time down … hmm …
But what about those moments when reps really need a time out? You know those times, like right after an irate client told them in so many words where they could put their customer service. And if we’re being honest, we know that these calls don’t occur all that often—but when they do, it can have a really negative impact on that rep’s performance for the next several interactions.
So what can we do to help our reps prevent this post-irate call letdown? In my years of working with service leaders around the world I’ve seen a lot of approaches to helping reps deal with the post-call trauma that can emerge after a tough call. And given the ever-increasing complexity of service requests this has become more and more deserving of attention. I’ve seen:
- stress balls
- inspirational posters
- desktop reminders to “Smile” because “They’re not mad at you, they’re mad at the situation”
But what about just giving reps a time out? How many of you give your reps permission to take a self-imposed time out after a really difficult call? It’s probably as easy as telling reps that they have permission to take a 2 or 3 minute “time out” after a really challenging call.
Loading ...Could this simple solution really be the answer? Just giving reps permission to take a few minutes to cool off and re-focus shows reps not only that you care about their well-being but also that you trust them, and who doesn’t want that?
Loading ...Tell us what you’re doing to help your reps combat the post-call blues.
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[...] Management Questions From “Do Your Reps Need a Time Out?” Does your company have a formal “time out” policy for [...]