Dennis Hauser, Solutions Architect / Customer Experience
As a former contact center manager, I’ve seen firsthand the challenges of training agents through traditional methods. One of the top techniques we relied on was side-by-side coaching, which, for its time, was one of the most effective ways to onboard and develop new agents.
Here's why it worked so well:
Immediate Feedback: Supervisors or senior agents would sit beside new hires, listening to both sides of the conversation and offering real-time guidance. They could point out key details on the screen, suggest immediate corrections, and help agents adjust their approach to better engage with the customer.
Real-World Experience: This method provided exposure to actual customer interactions. New agents weren’t role-playing with scripts; they were handling real issues under real pressure. This gave them an authentic understanding of the job's challenges and expectations.
On-the-Job Learning: Side-by-side coaching combined theory with practice. New hires learned on the go, but with the added safety net of having a mentor next to them. It allowed for immediate application of training principles.
Personalized Training: The one-on-one nature of this method meant that training could be highly tailored to the individual agent. Supervisors could focus on an agent’s specific strengths and weaknesses, providing a customized learning experience that accelerated development.
Despite its effectiveness, side-by-side coaching had its limitations. It was manual, time-consuming, and expensive. Each new agent required hours of dedicated time from a senior agent or supervisor, making it difficult to scale. It was labor-intensive, and only a limited number of agents could be trained this way at once.
Today, technology has radically transformed how we approach agent training. With the rise of AI-powered tools, we can replicate, and even improve on the benefits of side-by-side coaching at a fraction of the cost and effort.
Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS) platforms leverage real-time AI guidance, enabling agents to receive immediate support during live customer interactions. Here’s how AI compares and improves upon the traditional method:
Real-Time Guidance: Just like a supervisor offering live tips, AI provides real-time suggestions during calls. This includes prompts for next-best actions, responses to customer queries, and tips for improving the tone or sentiment of the interaction. AI tools excel at guiding agents based on the context of the conversation, surfacing the most relevant prompts without distracting from the flow of the call.
Scalability: AI can support multiple agents simultaneously, providing the same level of personalized feedback that was previously only available through one-on-one coaching. This allows supervisors to scale their influence, monitoring calls and intervening when needed without being physically present at every desk.
Consistent Feedback and Continuous Improvement: AI-driven systems are always analyzing data in real time, continuously refining which techniques work best in certain situations. With win-rate analysis, for example, AI can assess which phrases, rebuttals, and de-escalation techniques are most successful and share those insights across the team. This enables continuous improvement, something that is difficult to achieve manually.
Impact on New Hires vs. Top Performers: The most significant benefits of AI-based guidance are observed among new hires and lower-performing agents. Research indicates that new agents using AI tools can achieve up to a 50% reduction in ramp time,
enabling them to reach full productivity much faster than traditional training methods allow. Moreover, AI can boost close rates for new hires by as much as 47x, offering instant, context-sensitive prompts that help them maintain
focus and confidence. This reduces errors, enhances decision-making, and minimizes missed opportunities during customer interactions.
For top performers, the advantages are more incremental but still impactful. These experienced agents, who already possess strong instincts and refined skills, generally see modest performance improvements. However, AI proves invaluable
in streamlining repetitive tasks such as information retrieval and multi-tasking, allowing top agents to allocate more energy to complex or high-stakes scenarios. Additionally, AI provides strategic next-step guidance during challenging interactions,
ensuring consistency and reinforcing proven best practices. Even seasoned agents can benefit from this support, especially when navigating intricate or evolving customer demands.
By catering to the unique needs of both new and veteran agents, AI creates a balanced and adaptive training ecosystem that enhances performance across the board.
Customer and Agent Satisfaction: AI assistance has been shown to improve customer satisfaction scores (CSAT) by 25% while reducing average handle time (AHT) by up to 53 seconds per call. It also enhances agent satisfaction by reducing cognitive load and frustration, giving agents more confidence to handle calls efficiently, which can improve retention - a critical issue in the contact center industry.
While side-by-side coaching will always have a place in my heart as a highly effective training method, the future is undeniably AI-driven. AI tools not only replicate the benefits of traditional coaching but also add scalability, consistency, and actionable insights that were previously impossible to achieve at scale.
By equipping agents with real-time assistance and advanced performance-boosting tools, contact centers can transform not only new hire onboarding but also elevate the effectiveness of the entire team. The result? Delighted customers, who benefit from seamless interactions; motivated employees, who feel empowered and supported; and a streamlined operation, driving efficiency and business growth.
