Flag conversations for coaching
Flagging is Monitor’s coaching primitive. You spot something worth discussing — good or bad — flag it with a comment, then revisit it later in a 1:1 with the agent. The flag persists; it doesn’t get lost in the daily noise.
Done well, flagging is the difference between coaching with abstract data (“your CSAT is down 5%”) and coaching with specific examples (“this conversation last Tuesday — let’s look at what happened around message 3”).
Before you start
- Supervisor permissions on Monitor
- A Monitor view scoped to the conversations you’re supervising (see Create a Monitor view)
- A coaching cadence — most teams do weekly 1:1s with each direct report
Steps — flag a conversation
- Open Monitor, with your supervision view selected.
- As you watch the live view, when a conversation catches your attention (positively or negatively):
Click the conversation card to open the right-side detail panel
Read enough to confirm what you noticed
Click the Flag action (typically a flag icon in the conversation header or card menu) - Write a comment explaining what you noticed:
Specific is better than vague:Great de-escalation in messages 4-6 — used customer's name, acknowledged frustration, offered concrete optionsbeatsnice job
Time-stamp if possible:tone shift in message 3 — felt dismissive
Note the action you’d want:consider escalating earlier next time - Save the flag.
The conversation card now shows a colored flag icon. The flag persists across status changes — a flagged Done conversation stays flagged.
Flagging principles that pay off
Flag good work as often as bad
The temptation is to only flag problems. Don’t — agents notice when their flag log is all critique. A 70% positive flag rate creates a coaching environment where feedback feels like growth rather than punishment.
Be specific about what
A flag with a vague comment is barely better than no flag — by the time the 1:1 arrives, neither of you remembers what specifically was noteworthy. Force yourself to point at a moment.
Flag in the moment
Flagging at the moment you notice catches details you’ll forget by end-of-day. A 30-second pause to flag is more valuable than a Friday-afternoon attempt to remember the week’s standout conversations.
Don’t over-flag
If you flag every conversation, the flag stops meaning anything. Aim for ~5–15 flags per agent per week. More than that and the 1:1 conversation becomes overwhelming.
Steps — review flags during a 1:1
For each direct report, weekly or bi-weekly:
- Open Monitor → filter to flagged conversations for this agent
- Walk through 5–10 of the flags together
- For each: open the conversation detail, read the moment together, discuss what worked or could improve
- Decide on one or two action items the agent will focus on next week
- Mark the flag as Reviewed (or unflag) so it drops out of the queue
The action items become next week’s flag focus — “I’m going to flag any conversation where you handle a refund question, so we can compare your approach over time.”
Steps — agent-visible flags (when configured)
Tenants can configure flags to be visible to the flagged agent. When this is on:
- The agent sees a notification when a flag is added
- They can read the comment immediately
- They can leave a response on the flag (acknowledgment, question, context)
This creates a continuous feedback loop without waiting for the 1:1. Good for fast-iterating teams; some teams prefer flags to stay private until the 1:1 conversation.
The visibility is a tenant-wide setting in Monitor configuration.
Patterns that work
- One-week review — flag through the week, review all together on Friday — Stable teams with predictable rhythms
- Just-in-time — flag and discuss within 24 hours when it’s a clear teaching moment — New agents in their first 30 days
- Theme weeks — focus flags on a specific topic (de-escalation, escalation timing, tone) — When working on a specific skill
- Positive recognition — flag good work and share it across the team — Building a culture of noticed-good-behavior
Anti-patterns
- Flagging without comments — just a flag icon with no context is barely useful in retrospect.
- Flagging only after CSAT scores arrive — the 1:1 then becomes “explain this score” instead of “look at the actual conversation.”
- Public-shaming flags — when visibility is on, flags should be coaching, not punishment. If something needs disciplinary discussion, that’s a separate conversation, not a flag.