BT Business Sales dials up a customer‐focused coaching culture : Program combines new technology with tailored training

Purpose – Describes how BT Business Sales developed a customer‐focused coaching culture through training provided to its call‐center managers, first‐line managers and call‐handling advisors. Design/methodology/approach – Explains why the program was needed, the form it took and the results it has achieved. Findings – Reveals that call‐center advisors are dealing with calls more consistently, the business's 40 first‐line managers are coaching their employees more effectively and the nine call‐center managers are no longer “pushing” to achieve numbers but are striving to achieve better results by changing people's behaviors. Practical implications – Reveals that recognition at managing‐director level for top performers is driving people's pride and passion, while stronger relationships have developed between agents and their managers and between agents and their customers. Social implications – Describes an approach to training – combining new technology with “whole site” training, creating a customer‐focused coaching culture – that could have wider application. Originality/value – Claims that the program is unusual in the holistic approach it took, achieving behavioral change through combining new technology with practical, skill‐based behavioral training and with perceptional and actual performance measurements.