As a key element in performance management, coaching in sales and service operations can lead to significant gains in customer satisfaction, revenue, and productivity. Unfortunately, in many operations today, coaching is not managed strategically. Here are three considerations to help you take a more critical eye to your operation's current coaching practices.

Examine your coaching "culture": Far too often coaching in many operations is more intuitive than it is based on fact and data.  This typically results in a lack of guidance on specific actions for improvement. Take a step back and ask yourself, "Is coaching in my operation tuned and empowering? Does it force accountability? Is it tied directly to overarching company goals?" If you answered "yes" to these questions, then your organization is probably receiving positive returns on its coaching strategy. If you answered "no," your next step should be developing a true "coaching culture" in your operation focused on improving employee performance, reducing attrition, and increasing motivation.

Consider how you target agents for coaching: Is your organization targeting the right population of agents to coach? Or is your operation spending a disproportionate amount of time on the typically smaller populations of "best" and "worst" performers, rather the largest population of agents- the "mid" performers, who most often have the greatest potential to improve? Even the most motivational of coaches can be ineffective if they don't coach the right agents on the right metrics at the right frequency.

Evaluate the training and resources available to coaches: Do your managers, supervisors and coaches have the tools and resources they need to be effective? Does Management have visibility into coaching activities to help steer strategic enterprise goals? Supervisors and managers need easy access to comprehensive performance data, and a clear set of best practices to develop their teams. But they also need a consistent follow-up strategy to evaluate agent progress and the impact they're having as coaches. Finally, with quick access to the information and tools needed to coach effectively, coaches across your entire operation will become more efficient, and thus have more time to spend developing their team.

While we hope this helps you shape your path to improved coaching practices, the first step towards operational success is to develop and commit to a true coaching culture at all levels of the organization - ensuring that both managers and employees comply with standard coaching practices, that coaching sessions happen with clockwork regularity, and that progress can be accurately measured so credit can be given where credit is due.