Increasing CSR Productivity and With Coach Joe Gilliam: The Secret to Call Center Performance Improvement

Joe Gilliam believes there is a customer service problem in this country. The problem, according to Gilliam, is lack of training and leadership. And he thinks he can fix this problem.

His remedy is a simple behavioral formula: All thoughts become behaviors, which become actions.

Have you ever been waited on by someone who seems to hate their uniform, the world and you, the customer? Have you ever spoken to a rude call center representative who doesn’t seem to have any urgency in addressing your customer service problem? Gilliam makes the bold claim that this customer service problem is a "self-esteem" issue. He doesn’t want to be waited on by a frontline service representative who has low self-esteem.

Gilliam keynoted the 2009 American Teleservices Association’s New Orleans National Convention and told a room full of leaders, "In America we give people a title and a position and we think that will change them." The room agreed.

This leadership problem, according to Gilliam, is the reason for abominable customer service. He sees the biggest problem being the lack of training for management. Most companies don’t focus on extensive training for leadership or customer service representatives. Gilliam is interested in changing the thinking and in turn the behaviors.

In this podcast with Customer Management IQ’s Blake Landau, Gilliam provides surprising insight into how to better your business and your call center.