Why most contact centre coaching fails - and how to fix it

Have you ever walked out of a coaching session wondering if it actually made a difference? Many contact centre leaders think they’re coaching, but what if they’re just giving feedback?

Coaching is one of the most powerful tools a contact centre leader has to improve performance, yet in many organisations, it’s inconsistent, ineffective, or treated as an afterthought.

The problem? Many leaders think they are coaching when they’re actually just giving feedback or managing day-to-day performance. Without structured, high-quality coaching, frontline teams struggle to develop the skills they need to handle increasingly complex customer interactions.

YakTrak + GRIST are fixing this.

Why traditional coaching falls short

Coaching in contact centres is often a game of chance. One agent gets coached every week, while another goes months without a session.
Despite good intentions, many coaching programs fail to deliver real impact because:

• Coaching is inconsistent

  Some agents receive coaching weekly, while others go months without a meaningful development conversation.

• It focuses on metrics, not behaviours

  Leaders try to ‘coach to the numbers’ (AHT, FCR, CSAT) rather than the skills and behaviours that drive those numbers.

• There’s no structured follow-up

  Even when coaching happens, there’s often no way to track progress or ensure behavioural change sticks.

"If coaching isn’t structured, it defaults to being reactive. Coaching needs to be a habit, not a last-minute fix." - Peter Grist, YakTrak + GRIST Managing Director

The shift: from coaching to capability building

The best-performing contact centres treat coaching as an ongoing process of capability development, not just a reactive response to performance issues.

YakTrak+GRIST ensure coaching is structured, consistent, and tied to measurable performance improvements by:

• Embedding coaching into leadership rhythms so it becomes a non-negotiable priority.

• Defining micro-behaviours that drive great customer interactions, ensuring leaders reinforce the right skills and behaviours consistently, rather than just addressing performance gaps after they occur.

• Tracking coaching frequency, quality, and impact, so performance improvement can be measured over time.

Now: GRIST ensures coaching is built into daily leadership, helping managers coach consistently and effectively.

Future: AI-powered coaching insights will help leaders identify coaching patterns, measure the effectiveness of feedback, and refine their leadership approach based on real-time coaching data.

The impact: coaching that drives real performance

GRIST and YakTrak worked with an Australian energy provider to implement a structured and continuous coaching program, leveraging YakTrak data to assess coaching frequency and goal-setting quality. The data tells a clear story:

• Coaching frequency increased by 60% within the first two months, ensuring agents received timely development

• YakTrak data shows that out of 18,000 goals set in the last 12 months, only 50.3% were specific, 34.1% measurable, 47.1% behavioural, and 49.5% focused. Poorly defined goals lead to scattered efforts, difficulty tracking progress, and lower engagement. By improving goal-setting quality, leaders can drive more effective coaching and performance outcomes.

• Structured coaching led to a measurable improvement in CSAT and agent confidence, reinforcing the link between coaching effectiveness and customer outcomes.

For leaders, this isn’t about doing more coaching—it’s about ensuring frontline teams have the skills they need to succeed. Capability-building must be embedded into everyday operations, not treated as an occasional training event.

The future of coaching: smarter, data-driven, and proactive

The contact centres that thrive in the future won’t just measure coaching frequency—they’ll measure coaching effectiveness. YakTrak + GRIST are leading this shift, ensuring coaching isn’t just happening, but driving real behaviour change.

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