Contact Center Insights

Learn from our experts and have fun!

Melissa Copeland – Helping Clients into the Digital Transformation

Melissa has spent many years helping contact centers run efficiently and maximize their operational performance. We discuss how she is helping them transition into a more digital platform to manage all of their channels for increased efficiency and data collection.

Implications of a Bad Hire

Join my discussion with Murphy Fraser, when we discussed the implications of a bad hire — it’s not always due to the hiree being a bad fit.  Murphy currently works as a Contact Center & Customer Experience Consultant at Avtex.

The Impact COVID has had on Frontline Workers and Their Treatment

Neal DLin from Chorus Tree Inc did a great job of walking through how COVID has brought to light how poorly frontline workers have been treated. Employees in contact centers are tasked with taking on harder tasks without an appreciation of how their job connects to the full customer experience.

Mark Wooley, Blurring the Lines of On-site & At-Home Workers

Mark knows first-hand how to manage a contact centers challenges of a hybrid workforce. His 30 years of experience shines through in our conversation about how to manage the remote workforce.

Judy McKee and the LAMA Simulation

We are excited to announce McKee Consulting and Verbal Transactions have joined together to add our ACES simulator to their well-proven LAMA technique. Judy shares with us how she came about the LAMA technique and illustrates how amazing it works — especially in our simulator.

Test drive the LAMA simulation for yourself Click here

How to Re-evaluate Your QA Scorecard

In this episode, I speak to Jeremy Watkin about the importance of reviewing what is on your scorecard and how it can help your agents support a good customer experience.

Mark Brody – Year of the Great Pivot

Mark Brody, of Brohawk Solutions LLC and I discuss how companies had to re-align their strategy quickly for COVID-19. Mark has worked for and with several industry leaders during his 30-year Contact Center career. His consultancy, Brohawk Solutions, LLC, was born out of Mark’s passion to help organizations become more effective and efficient through understanding how their people, processes, and technology impact the employee experience and ultimately the customer experience. Mark also serves as an independent consultant/evaluator for the JD Power Contact Center Practice.

After the COVID-19 Migration

In our latest podcast show, I speak to Contact Center Legend Christa Heibel from CH Consulting Group, we discuss what organizations did once they rushed to get agents up and running remotely and what to look for in the coming year.

The Impact of the Full Customer Journey

How many times has your contact center rep taken the heat for something they have no control over regarding your brand? Probably more than you can count. In this episode, I speak with Nick Zeisler, an expert at process improvement and the customer experience. We will examine how companies need to build a CX role that will bridge the gap between all phases of the customer journey.

Rebecca Gibson – Your Frontline Employees Know Your Customer Better Than Anyone Else

In this episode, Rebecca Gibson and I talk about the various ways organizations are training the frontline contact center agents during this time of working remotely and beyond. She makes a great point that these employees have the strongest pulse on how your customers feel about the company and your brand. Bring them to the table when discussing strategy, products and systems, they will give you amazing insights.

Thomas Cardella, TLC Associates

Thomas was a fantastic guest and reminding us that being kind to your employees is not only the right thing to do but it’s the profitable thing to do as well. Tom’s insights will demonstrate that when you are committed to supporting your employees the return with commitment, dedication and loyalty.

How Outsourcing can Add Flexibility to Your Workforce During COVID-19

Join my guest Eric Sims, Co-Founder and CEO of Leading Edge Connections as we discuss how being forced to go all virtual during COVID-19 was both a disruption and challenge for all contact centers. His experience and knowledge will provide you with insights on how to make this transition and to keep an open mind moving forward into 2021

Kathleen Peterson – Powerhouse Consulting – Teach Vendors How to Listen!

In this episode, I had a great time speaking with kathleen Peterson, of Powerhouse Consulting. We’ve all had to sit through some type of vendor demo in the past some more painful than others. Kathleen has a lot of first-hand experience helping her clients select tehcnology solutions and has some great advice for how to create a better expereince.

How to Move From On-Prem to the Cloud

In this episode, I have the pleasure of speaking to Steve Bederman, CEO of NobelBiz. Nobelbiz is a full-service Telco and call center, omnichannel provider. Steve has been in the contact center space for many years and his wisdom will come through loud in clear in this episode.

Getting the Most From Your Team Is Good for The Bottom Line

In this episode, I speak with Jeffrey Stiles Culture Architects, LLC who formerly worked for State Farm Insurance. He shares with us his wisdom and insights as to how to get the most out of your employees even in these trying times.

Josh Streets – Holistic View

In this episode, I speak with Josh Streets who has over two decades of experience working with Fotune 500 contact centers. He emphazies the importance of ensuring top leadership is involved in making any changes in the contact center and to ensure all aspects of the impact these changes are taken under consideration. Be sure to keep an eye out for his book he will be publishing in 2020 or visit his website at https://www.scoreboardgroup.com/

Moving to the Cloud? What you Should Know

Michael Conti and I discuss what contact centers need to know when moving their operations to the cloud. The change is invevitable as you will hear from our discussion. Michael’s expertise gives some great insight into what pitfalls to avoid and how to create a solid plan for migration.

My interview with the Benchmark Portal Show – Agent Performance & Quality Training

Bruce Belfiore, and I had a great time talking about the importance of consistent, realistic and engaging training for the contact center. With over 28 years of experience building and delivering training, we can now leverage the same voice technologies used in the production tools right into the training technology.

Brian Flagg Maturity Models

In this episode, I speak with Brian Flagg who really brings to light the value of using Maturity Models in your contact center. His book Contact Center Excellence: Standing Out Fromt The Crowd, should be a handbook for any contact center executive.

Setting Up Your Work From Home Team

In this episode, I speak with Michele Rowan, of Customer Contact Strategies. It makes perfect sense for your contact center to hire work from home reps. Michele speaks about the benefits — of which are many!

Benefits of Using Visualization and Gaming in Your Contact Center

In this episode we speak to John J. Ruby CEO of GCOM. Johan and discuss how using visualization tools like VisualCue can bring a quick ROI to the contact center and provide agents with immediate vs. delayed feedback on how they are handling their calls in real-time.

Jeff Toister – How to Use Customer and Agent Feedback to Build Best Practices

You may have heard Jeff speak at a contact center event but now I get to have a more intimate conversation with Jeff to discuss he way to leverage your customer and agent feedback to continuously improve your service and systems.

How to Hire and Retain Your Top Executives

In this episode, I speak with Pat Calvert of Career Search Associates on how to recruit and retain your top talent in this tough labor market.

What Technology Trends Should Contact Centers Follow or Not Follow

In this episode, I speak with Scott Sacks of SJS LLC. Scott has years of experience working with contact centers and explains that many times, the leadership in a contact center isn’t fully understanding the reasons why they should or should not adopt a new technology.

Sue Duris, Director of Marketing and Customer Experience M4 Communications

In this episode, I speak with Sue Duris Director of Marketing and Customer Experience at M4 Communications. She has years of experience working with clients to help them develop their customer journeys and to truly understand how to best serve and keep customers.

Turning Your Support Center into a Profit Center

Linda Ruffenach is the Executive Vice President of Customer Care at GlowTouch

Glow Touch is a leading provider of contact center, business process, and technology outsourcing services. GlowTouch helps companies find the right channels, locations, people, processes, and technologies, so organizations can transform customer satisfaction into customer loyalty. Linda has extensive experience working at all levels within the contact center.

Have you thought of transforming your contact center into a profit center? If not then you may change your mind after listening to Linda’s insights as to how this can be a very strategic and profitable move.

Your CX Personalities – Minding the Gap

In this episode, Nate Brown speaks to us about how to assess the mix of personalities and skills on your CX team and how organizations like T-Mobile took a hard look to identify the gaps in order to make a well-rounded team with the right skills for your customers. Nate brings up a great article written by Matthew Dixon published in the HBR Magazine “Reinventing Customer Service” during our conversation.

It’s certainly something to consider especially if you are building Omni-channel teams.

Shai Berger, CEO Fonolo

Speaking with Shai Berger, CEO of Fonolo, we discuss the importance of understanding the styles and differences of conversations call centers have with various channels. Interactions via messaging are very different than conversations via email or Facebook Messenger.

Mark Brody, Brohawk Solutions

Mark Brody of Brohawk Solutions speaks to about how companies should flip the hiring process upside down. Mark has over 25 years of experience working in contact centers and provides some great examples of how companies can align their core values and customer experiences to who they hire.

Michael Pace Founder of The Pace of Service

Michael Pace Founder of The Pace of Service and the Northeast Contact Center Forum, speaks to us about the five primary steps organizations should take in order to add support and customer contact to your social media channels. One take-away you won’t want to forget is the key element in interacting with customers in these channels is acknowledgment.

The Challenge of Scheduling and Workforce Management

Every call center faces the challenge of scheduling and forecasting their workforce. Randy Rubingh is a seasoned call center executive who has first-hand experience working in the trenches. Join our conversation learn tips and strategies that will ease this burden in your call center.

Elevating customer service programs in the multi-channel contact center world

In this episode, I interview Dan Coen, from Call Center Today regarding how to maintain great customer service in a multi-channel world. I almost forgot that texting (SMS) is also a channel being used by companies. Dan’s sage advice is to not try to force a best practice on each client, rather, understand the types of transactions they are conducting and determine which strategy works best.

How to Manage the Challenges of a BPO Relationship

In this episode of Contact Center Insights, Nancy speaks to Christa Heibel of CHCG Consulting. Christa has been working with the C-Suite of contact centers for over two decades and has worked both sides of the table when it comes to working with BPOs. Listen to Christas’s great advice on the importance of communication and “putting it in writing” to ensure you have a smooth sailing relationship.

Tips on Building a Solid Customer Service and Inside Sales Team

I had a blast interviewing Judy, she is truly one of a kind and has a great theory on how to train your contact center employees. In this episode, Judy explains her LAMA approach to talking to anyone on the phone, it’s all about making that person feel good and treating them with respect.

Analytics and Training

Can you predict which agents will perform better than others? In this episode we will discuss how to leverage technology for Predictable Performance.

Speech Analytics

In this episode, I interview Chris Lawson and speak about speech analytics and the in-depth thought you should invest in before implementing this technology.