FISH! Philosophy in the Call Center

[JPalkowski]

Has anyone out there used the so-called "FISH! Philosophy" in your call center?

For those of you that are not familier, the "FISH! Philosophy" comes from a book entitled: "FISH! A Remarkable Way to Boost Morale and Improve Results" by Lundin, Paul, and Christensen.

The concept involves making work fun and seem less boring or stressful in 4-steps: Play, Make Their Day, Be There, Choose Your Attitude.

The philosophy has been used by a number of companies, so I was hoping that anyone who has used this in their call center, would be willing to share some of your experiences. We are looking to do something with this concept in the near future.

Thanks,
Jeff

[carterl]

Our call center was just introduced to the Fish Philosophy last month. The call center is separated by team, so each team watched the video and was served, gold fish crackers and gummi worms. After watching the video, each CSR and manager had to fill in the blanks and answer the following questions:
"I usually sigh and roll my eyes when.."
"The most unpleasant part of my job would become my favorite part of my job if I got to.."
"My current favorite part of my job is.."
"I think our customers would love it if every time they called we.."
"I think our team song should be.... and we should sing it every time we.."
"How do you usually start your day?"
"Envision yourself as someone who makes people's day. How would you do this? What difference does it make to people?"

We went around the room and shared our answers which of course generated a great team discussion. It made each of us evaluate how our attitudes effect our customers and those we work with. The method is still a work in progress, but we now are equipped with 4 tools to help us get the most out of our work day: Play, Make Their Day, Be There & Choose Your Attitude. Some teams have gone as far as hanging helium filled fish balloons in their department as a reminder of the FISH Philosophy. Hope this helps.

[JPalkowski]

Sounds like your center really adapted to the FISH! philosophy with some great ideas!

We are looking to roll this out with some similar ideas. Since all of us have already viewed the video, our next step is going to be hanging up banners (fish nets) with the 4-steps listed: Play, Make Their Day, Be There, Choose Your Attitude; and ask the agents to come up with ideas to incorporate these actions in their daily environment. They will be putting up their ideas on colored fish cutouts to help bring these ideas to everyone's attention.

Thanks again for the feedback!

[ghorrocks]

I have facilitated the fish theory in the largest call center in world. First you have to ask yourself what is your desired outcome?
How does this fit into your business goals? Example customer satisfaction, attrition.
What are you hoping to accomplish?
How much time will you and management invest in it?

Once you have considered all of those and ready to dive in you can have a lot of fun with it and accomplish your goals.

Fish is more then a movie, book or seminar. It is a culture change! Is your company ready for the change?

[Alan Clayton]

Our training division wrote an entire section of training dedicated to FISH...

I would be interested in also finding out more about the largest call center in the world

regards

[sharon douglas]

Our call centre has been living the Fish Philosophy for about 8 months. At first our management group was not sure if our reps would buy into this new way of thinking. We first introduced the Fish video to the group, then we split the reps into the four Fish group. Each group with a team leader was given the book to read then each group had 1 month to come up with ideas to present to the rest of the group how they were going to incorporate their philosophies into the day to day work. Management gave each group $40 to spend on this project. Our management team was truly amazed at some of the creative ideas presented. You should see our floor, there is Fish objects all over and we have a fish board where good deeds are noted for everyone too see.
As a Coach for call monitoring, I have seen a real improvement with client calls. The reps are really trying to be present and really listen to what the client is asking. We have received some really nice feedback from clients and agents on our service. Our fish groups meet once a week and are constantly coming up with different ideas. Last month we gave out awards for the best phone calls we have had a bowling night and still more ideas are pouring in. I really encourage other call centres to try this philosophy.

[pjcase@swbell.net]

I implemented the Fish philosophy in the call centers I managed and have seen it implemented in others. The key to doing it is getting senior management buy in and really committing to the program. We had 2500 agents it was fantastic at improving morale.

We actually hired an employee relations specialist to administer the program and established a Fish store that had company logo items in it that could be purchased or redeemed with points that reps won through a quality service program we implemented.

Through quality scores and when a customer would ask to speak to a supervisor to inform them about the exemplary service they received from a representative, agents received Fish bucks. These bucks were redeemed for the prizes.

Additionally, we implemented various daily, weekly and monthly activities decided by our 100 or so supervisors as part of the Fish program. These included candy days where supervisors would hand out candy for good quality scores, Soda days where soda's were given to reps for quality scores, etc.

We also did rep and supervisor training and did a Fish launch so that it was communicated to the centers.

I have also seen the program implemented half heartedly, and it is not effective at all. As some of the other individuals responding have indicated, it determines on what the desired results are. Our desired result was an increase in call quality and we achieved that goal with the added benefit of agent motivation.

[Sunshine]

This sound great, and just what my center is looking for.
I have found where to purchase the book, but you mention the video. Where can I find this video?

Is this a whole program, and how does one find out more?
I'm excited to hear more about this.

Thanks!

[sharon douglas]

Hi Sunshine,
There is a website called Fishphilosophy.com which will give you an overview of FISH. Since we are a Canadian based company we borrowed the video from Owenstewart.com.
Good luck and feel free to email if you have any more questions.
Sharon
(sharon_douglas@manulife.com)

[Jen91911]

We used Fish at my company. It was received well, however, it ran out of steam quickly. The Fish video is great. It's worth the time and funds if you can sustain the momentum.