Call Center Innovation | Speaker eBook

The largest, most comprehensive call center event in the world is back for
2013. Our 70+ high-level speakers will present innovative and practical case
studies to our 1200+ attendees. To introduce you to our speakers, we
asked them to share their insights on the most pressing call center
questions. Here’s what they had to say..

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Table of Contents Editor’s Welcome
Leading Executives
Marc Bernica | Bright Horizons…………………………..…………….… 3
Shawn Castle | Valvoline Support Center…………….……………… 5 One of the great perks of working on Call
Center Week, the largest Call Center event
Lisa Church | 1st Advantage Federal Credit Union…………..…… 6
in the world, is that I get to talk with the
Alexandra da Silva | NH Hotels……………………………………….…… 7
industry’s leading executives. Every
Jamie Haenggi | Protection 1……………………………………..……….. 9 executive in our Call Center Innovation |
Toni-Ann Mills | Fenwal, a Fresenius Kabi Company…………… 11 Speaker eBook has an impressive knowledge
Lynn O’Neill | New York Life……………………………….………………. 12 set, whether it is about customer
Jane Pearson-Wray | Electrolux…………………………..……………… 13
experience, operations, marketing, technical
applications, process management or company culture.
Kevin Wilde | General Mills…………………………………….………….. 14
Jonathan Wolske | Zappos.com………………………………………….. 15 Each of the speakers in the eBook was kind enough to share their
Call Center Thought-Leaders insight ahead of their speaking engagements at Call Center Week.
Mike Ashe | Mattersight…………………………………………….……….. 17 They will share their knowledge with over 1,200 attendees, and this
John Bardamill | TMG International…………………………………….. 18 is just a small preview of the lessons you’ll take from Las Vegas.
Bradley Baumunk | Genesys………………………………………………… 20
I hope you enjoy.
Mike Burke | IQ services……………………………………………….…..… 21
- Shawn Siegel
Neil Hooper | Plantronics………………………………………………..….. 23
Umesh Jain | NowAnalytics…………………………………………………. 25
Tara Kelly | SPLICE Software……………………………………………….. 27
About Call Center Week……………………..………………….………..… 28
Sponsorship……………………..…………………………………….………..… 29

CallCenterWeek.com ● 1-800-882-8684 ● info@iqpc.com

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Marc Bernica
MARC’S INSIGHT:
VP Back-Up Care Advantage
& Contact Center
What are some of the biggest challenges of keeping employees
Operations
engaged and excited about their work?
Bright Horizons
Marc Bernica: I think how you frame someone’s job is
Fortune Top 100 Places to Work
14 straight years important. If people feel like what they do is valuable and
important, they are far more likely to invest themselves in it. In
2012 Center of Excellence,
BenchmarkPortal a vacuum, many of the things that we measure people on in
contact centers imply that they are just cogs in a call-answering
machine. Efficiency and productivity are important, but “being
productive” isn’t really the type of mission that get’s people out
of bed excited to go to work in the morning. We try to help
At Call Center Week:
people understand the important role they play in providing
Creating a Winning Call Center Culture service to our customers, explain why the products and services
our company provides are important, and reinforce this by
When families call looking for care for their loved ones, they need to be
served by people who do more than process a transaction; they need sharing examples where good service made a difference for a
personal service from someone ready to provide a customized caring customer. Additionally you can’t ask for people to be engaged
solution. Bright Horizons is a 2012 recipient of the Center of Excellence without providing an outlet for that engagement. We ask for
Award and has been on the Fortune Top 100 Places to Work for 14 their input on how things can improve for both employees and
straight years. Find out how the company’s guiding principles are customers and act on it. We ask them to use their brains, not
engrained in the culture to the point where every employee is living and
breathing its core values. You’ll hear outstanding results caused by their
just process and procedure, to solve customer problems.
employee engagement including 80% of their new hires are employee
referrals and their customer satisfaction averages 97.3%. Continued..


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MARC CONTINUED:

How does superior customer service impact your company’s
bottom line?

Marc Bernica: We can directly correlate a customer’s service
experience with both their likelihood to reuse our service and
likelihood to recommend it to others. For example, one of the
businesses supported by our call center is back-up child
care. Customers using this service are in need of spur-of-the-
moment care for their children. In many cases this means
leaving their child with someone they have not met before or at
a child care center that they have never visited. As you can
imagine, parents don’t do that if they don’t trust you. We have
found that our initial interaction with them over the phone is
the single biggest way to build their trust and
confidence. When we are empathetic, responsive, and cover all
the bases, the parent comes away reassured that their child will
be in good hands.


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SHAWN’S INSIGHT:
Has new technology radically transformed your call center in the last
5 years?
Shawn Castle
Shawn Castle: Yes, recently, we upgraded our Incident Management
Manager system that enabled us to eliminate non-value added work. Our team
Valvoline Support can function at a higher level of efficiency and can spend more time
Center with internal and external customers instead of performing
administrative tasks. Additionally, we enhanced our Computer
Telephone Integration software to included chat as an interaction
type. This has allowed us to offer additional channels to our
customers.

Call centers can be overwhelmed with analytics. How do you figure
At Call Center Week: out how to turn the data into actionable ideas?
Revolutionizing Customer Experience Across Multiple
Shawn Castle: We utilize analytics to provide direction on our
Channels
strengths and our opportunities. It is easy to get lost in the vast
majority of data that is available to most organizations. First, we listen
Discover how to deliver a personalized customer experience by to what the data is revealing. We use several sources to verify that
taking a multichannel approach to your call center. Walk away the data that we are evaluating is valid. Next, we identify sustainable
with strategies for customer data that converts feedback from trends opposed to noise. This allows us to spend our time and efforts
phone calls, e-mails, chats, and social media into actionable on big issues opposed to making knee jerk reactions that are not
insights. sustainable. After trends are identified, we choose the item that will
yield our biggest return. We may choose our top call driver or
something that will significantly reduce customer effort. Once the
target is in sight, we assemble the cross-functional team to develop a
mitigating strategy.


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LISA’S INSIGHT:
Lisa Church How much do you rely on training to ensure your employees fully buy
Chief Experience Officer into the importance of customer experience?
1st Advantage Federal
Credit Union Lisa Church: A lot! We “set the stage” on day one at our New Employee
Orientation program, where part of the day is set aside for an overview
Best Customer Experience in Spain of our core values and how they affect the way we interact with our
Amongst All Sectors
customers, vendors and fellow colleagues. We follow that up with a 2-
Best Customer Experience in Tourism day 1A Academy program that every employee attends to cover our
Sector in Spain and Latin America
core values and our “Member Declaration” in detail. This training helps
Best Unified Call Center Technology in employees understand our service philosophy and see the practical
Spain
ways it can be applied day-to-day. Each year we refresh service skills
for the entire staff with our Academy Reunion class, covering a new
approach to different facets of customer service and the member and
At Call Center Week: colleague experience. Our service values are also reinforced in all skill
Engraining Customer Experience into Culture and product sessions as well as through ongoing coaching by managers.

Have new technologies changed your approach to customer service?
Credit unions like 1st Advantage are not-for-profit financial co-
ops. The focus is on members, not outside investors, and
Lisa Church: Definitely. Technology has created brand new channels
profits are reinvested into the credit union. Find out how 1st
like mobile and tablets and improved access to customer data. It also
Advantage Federal Credit Union engages front-line and senior
caused a steady rise in online transactions and instant access to
management employees to provide exceptional customer
experience. Learn how to create the cultural environment for information that reduces the number of opportunities for us to speak
innovation through your values and the experience you want to to our customers. This has caused us to sharpen our focus on making
provide to both employees and customers. the most of every interaction. We understand that customers who do
take the time to speak with us expect more from the conversation than
they have in the past.


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ALEXANDRA’S INSIGHT:
Alexandra da Silva What does the call center of the future look like to you?
VP Reservations &
Contact Center Operations Alexandra da Silva: It seems that the trend of new call centers is
NH Hotels going more towards a self-service center without having a “real”
Best Customer Experience in Spain
agent available on the phone. We do live in a world in which things
Amongst All Sectors are changing in an extremely fast manner, and in which people
Best Customer Experience in Tourism expect to have an answer immediately at any time (24 x 7). Nearly
Sector in Spain and Latin America
everybody is nowadays connected through their mobiles or tablets
Best Unified Call Center Technology in
Spain in any place. It is for that reason that the trend and the customer
expectations are changing.

The customer of the future will be connected through social media
and therefore will not be disappointed to receive an answer from
Increase Sales in a Multi-Language, Multi-Channel
an automatic Voice. For that reason companies should restructure
Contact Center their assets with the focus on being able to decrease Call Centre
Cost: Less Employee’s, less Infrastructure, less variable & fixed cost
NH Hotels ranks third among European business hotels and
currently has 400 hotels with around 60,000 rooms in 25 etc.
countries in Europe, America and Africa. In this session, But, human intervention is still and will be really important
Alexandra will present a case study about how NH Hotels
increased sales in the contact center. How do you try and reduce employee turnover in your contact
center?

Continued..


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I’m sure every Agent feels more motivated and appreciated if his/her
ALEXANDRA CONTINUED: wishes are being addressed.
Alexandra da Silva: One of the most important points to me is to
Also creating special incentives – playing different motivating games
hire the right people, not only with the right skills but also who fit
throughout the working day will help them to achieve their goals in a
into the company culture and the existing team. I think creating a
more enjoyable environment.
positive working environment, in which the employees feel part of
the company - which in the call center is obviously quite challenging Congratulations from the manager for a team member should be visible
to do – is also an extremely important issue. How can they feel part to the whole team.
of the company?

Through communication by mailing, internal meetings, informing
about daily -, weekly -, monthly -, quarterly -, yearly results; creating
Action Plans together with the Agent and yearly appraisals so that
they know where they stand. The team leader should have an eye
for detail and a proactive way of approaching and encouraging
his/her employees. The Call Center Agents needs to understand in
which direction the company wants to go, what is important and
what are the KPI’s and their own Goals. Those Goals and KPI’s must
be achievable, but not as easy.

Another point which does not affect in any way the cost of running a
Call Center is the advanced planning of the employees holidays or
working schedule.


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JAMIE’S INSIGHT:
How does superior service impact Protection 1’s bottom
line?
Jamie Haenggi
Chief Marketing & Customer Jamie Haenggi: The strategy for our call centers is to ensure that
Experience Officer we create a differentiated customer experience that is beyond
Protection 1 what the rest of the security industry has to offer and incorporates
the “ideal experience we would want when dealing with a
company.” By keeping our strategy based on “how we would want
to be treated,” it allows all front line employees to understand why
we do certain things and creates a company-wide alignment in our
customer and employee experiences. That’s why our employees
embraced our “perfect day” measurement, which they have
At Call Center Week: met >97% of the time in 2012.
Ensuring a Clear and Consistent Message About
How customer service has delivered on the company’s bottom line
Customer Experience
is by helping to reduce customer attrition year over year while
Protection 1 has over 65 locations but actively ensures the maintaining the lowest attrition in the industry. We reduced call
company thinks and acts like one team. Protection 1’s culture volume and handle times through a Six Sigma focused approach to
can be described as a demanding, yet caring, environment. The process improvement and delivered a 4% decrease on our
company believes that setting high expectations inspires operating budget, while the company grew 11%.
employees to be the best they can be. Find out how Protection
1 has created a culture that allows for employees to reach their Continued..
true potential.


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Secondly, we engage our employees through training and coaching.
JAMIE CONTINUED:
Because of our standard of less than 10% of calls being transferred,
How do you keep your employees engaged and exicted about cross-training has been a core element of our culture for the past two
their work? years. Employees enjoy the empowerment that comes from cross
training and often seek out additional training. We enable employees
Jamie Haenggi: In all of our centers, we engage our employees to to cross train not just in other departments within the call center, but
help create the culture they want to be a part of. Through these also outside the call center in our field offices. Our Branch
efforts, we have employee led initiatives that include: Engagement programs allow selected call center representatives to
spend a day with a technician in customer homes, a day with a sales
• A welcome committee that helps new team members feel
rep knocking on doors and designing security systems or sitting with a
“plugged in” and part of the P1 family
branch administrator understanding the issues they deal with. This
• A mentor program that helps build employee leadership and cross education also helps develop a culture of “one team” vs. “center
aids the development of newer employees against field office.”

• An employee speakers bureau that provides an outlet for These efforts have led to a 22% drop in absenteeism and a 50%
employees to share their interests with others as well as develop decrease in turnover, year over year.
their public speaking and presentation skills

We also have other clubs that include interests such as local art,
biking and running—all employee led, fueled by team member
communication and support. This level of employee engagement
helps encourage employees to not just be here, but want to be
here and impact the lives of their customers and peers in a
positive way.


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TONI-ANN’S INSIGHT:
How do you keep employees engaged and excited about
their work?
Toni-Ann Mills
Global Director – Learning & Toni-Ann Mills: We are all challenged by one or more of the
Development following motivators - ego (I did it), task (satisfaction from the
Fenwal, a Fresenius Kabi Company completion of the job), social solidarity (being member of an
identified group), external rewards (certificates, gifts etc.).
We make sure that we are focusing on these motivators on a
regular basis. Publicly recognizing individual performers,
undertaking group celebrations and fun events, ensuring that
people can complete the task and it is measured in a way that
provides them with satisfactory feedback.
Competency-Based Learning and Development
What are the biggest challenges of reducing employee
Competency–based training allows consistency and standards tunover?
on a global basis, while at the same time ensuring that local
needs our met. Our distinguished speaker from Fenwal, a Toni-Ann Mills: Being able to provide personal professional
Fresenius Kabi Company, which is a diversified medical
development in the fast pace of having to get things done.
equipment company based in Germany, has over 12 years
experience managing global operations. People move on to find new challenges or a place that will
allow them to develop as individuals.


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LYNN’S INSIGHT:
turnover in the call center environment?
Lynn O’Neill
Corporate Vice Lynn O’Neill: We are very lucky and have low turnover. We
President always want to focus on our attrition levels and the key
New York Life drivers. It's important to set realistic, achievable metrics and
to ensure that employees clearly understand the
expectations. Additionally, our recognition program rewards
top performers for their achievements. This keeps all of us
focused on a common vision.
At Call Center Week: Can you discuss a successful recruiting program that New
Finding the Best Fit: Recruiting for Your Culture & York Life has initiated within the past few years?
Hiring Assessments for Talent Development
Lynn O’Neill: We typically recruit 10-20 associates at a time.
Find out how New York Life reduced turnover from 2.5% to 1% We cast a wide net to identify candidates through internal and
and firmly believes that you “should never settle” with your external recruiting efforts. We've fine tuned our interview
hiring selections. During this session you’ll learn about New
process and the questions we ask to ensure a right fit for the
York Life’s hiring assessment process and how they’ve
streamlined it for top efficiency. You’ll have a chance to see the candidate to our culture. We really want the candidate to see
actual hiring assessment dashboards used by the New York Life. the environment, understand the expectations and get a clear
Walk away with strategies for uncovering the right fit for the vision of what a real day will consist of
right jobs - all in accordance with your overall culture and
mission.


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JANE’S INSIGHT:
What are some of the biggest challenges of keeping employees
engaged and excited about their work?
Jane Pearson-Wray
CSG – Sr. Manager, Jane Pearson-Wray: Working in a call center by nature is
challenging. Most consumers are not contacting you to tell you
Continuous Improvement how great you are (although we do occasionally get those
Electrolux calls). Most are contacting you because they have an issue
requiring your attention and resolution. So this means, as a leader,
you are often faced with attrition, absenteeism and morale
issues. With this in mind, we often have team and individual
contests. We have monthly and quarterly rewards and recognition
programs. When special projects come up, we reward high
performing agents with an opportunity to work on those projects.
This presents a huge opportunity for cross-functional learning. And
Transitioning from Service to Sales when we hear or see an agent doing a good job, we make an effort
to acknowledge it right then and there
This session will focus on improving your agents’ ability to
strengthen customer relationships and drive more revenue for your
Can you briefly discuss the success Electrolux has had converting
organization. Electrolux Major Appliances, a global leader in
household appliances selling more than more than 40 million
calls into sales opportunities?
products to customers in 150+ markets, manufacturer’s strong
brands including Electrolux and Frigidaire products. In 2011, a new Jane Pearson-Wray: The obvious success was the increase in
CEO started and launched 10 “smart initiatives” with one directed to revenue. In 2012, we delivered almost $5M in revenue due to the
the contact center – generate revenue dollars for after market focus on converting calls into sales (up over $3M YOY). Agents are
needs. Find out how the company converted calls into a sales able to earn additional money through commissions. Additional
opportunity and achieved a 325% growth in consumable goods funding is provided for rewards and recognition programs.
revenue in just one year.


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KEVIN’S INSIGHT:
How do you keep your employees engaged?
Kevin Wilde
Chief Learning Officer Kevin Wilde: Engagement is a matter of connection to the job,
General Mills the company and the mission, but also the immediate
@GeneralMills manager. And we have had an initiative here for a number of
years now from going from a company with good managers to
2012 #1 Learning Elite company, CLO
magazine great. And we have done some internal studies that show the
2012 #2 Leadership Development, difference between good and great and show the enormous
Fortune
high levels of engagement. So we have been spreading the
news, and doing training and encouraging managers to take
their good skills about being a good boss and being great. We
have seen traction on that. We have seen employees
Dancing with the Talent Stars : Tapping into Talent for
reporting higher levels of having a great manager experience.
Growth
And all that translates to engagement, innovation, and extra
Wheaties is an iconic brand. The world’s most prominent athletes have motivation.
endorsed “the breakfast of champions.” Our distinguished keynote’s
primary job as a practitioner in the field of talent management has
been to nurture the internal champions – dedicated employees. This
thought provoking session will draw on Kevin Wilde’s years of
experience at two companies renowned for talent development –
General Electric and General Mills. Talent has become a natural rhythm
of the business, developing a mindset where the employees are a
product which to invest and build for the future.


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JONATHAN’S INSIGHT:
How does superior customer service impact your company’s
bottom line?
Jonathan Wolske
Culture Evangelist Jonathan Wolske: We are very lucky and have low turnover. We
always want to focus on our attrition levels and the key drivers. It's
Zappos.com
@ZapposInsights important to set realistic, achievable metrics and to ensure that
employees clearly understand the expectations. Additionally, our
recognition program rewards top performers for their
achievements. This keeps all of us focused on a common vision.

How do you go about keeping employees engaged and excited
about their work?
Zappos.com Site Tour Jonathan Wolske: We hire people who are aligned with our
company’s values and vision. We are a service company that just
Join us for a tour at the Henderson, Nevada corporate happens to sell clothing and shoes, so everyone fully understands
headquarters to learn about the Zappos Family approach to what we are all about. The culture includes the value ‘Create fun
customer loyalty, human resources, recruiting, training, and and little weirdness’, which means that our individual personalities
culture creation. During this tour, you’ll get to experience the shine through all we do, so there is the sense of ownership in the
inner workings of the Zappos Family of companies, learn the
customer experience. We also celebrate lots of ‘wins’ and share
history of Zappos.com and find out how $1 billion dollars in gross
merchandise sales was achieved in less than 10 years. You’ll also great customer responses with everyone, which helps to reinforce
experience how a values’ based organization uses strong culture the importance of ‘Delivering WOW through Service’ and reminds
to live out every day. contact center reps that we truly value the work they do.


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MIKE’S INSIGHT:
How does superior customer service directly impact a call center’s
bottom line?
MIKE ASHE
Mike Ashe: Every customer interaction is an opportunity to catapult or
Vice President damage your brand and business. Call Center Agents are often a
Mattersight company’s primary touch point for customer service needs. Agents serve
@Mattersight as the bridge between their company’s customers and the management
team, which ultimately affects the bottom line since a good or a bad
experience in the call center can have a direct impact upon
retention/renewal, additional sales, cost of service, brand loyalty or other
metrics. And with today’s social media environment, the result can be
amplified from one interaction to millions of customers and prospects.

At Call Center Week: What does the call center of the future look like to you?
Personality Matters
Mike Ashe: We see a future where call center agents have more
information to satisfy customers and avoid customer
Each person has different behavioral characteristics that
frustration. Solutions like our Behavioral Analytics are built upon the
define their world view, psychological needs and the way
premise that a multi-channel view of the customer is critical. For
they interact with the world around them. The way they instance, knowing that your caller is contacting you because he just tried
communicate and the language they use, on a second-by- to complete a mobile transaction, and failed, is important. We also see
second basis, are advertisements that provide a clear window the information at hand going beyond transactional and demographic
into their personality and behavior. Knowing how important data. It is now possible to know the callers state of mind, likely intent,
personality and behavior are to human interaction, personality and communication style. Even among friends, you engage
behavioral connection can advance Customer Relationship one person differently than another, based upon what you know about
Management to the next level. their personality. The same will be possible with callers in the future
when Behavioral Analytics is more widespread.


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JOHN’S INSIGHT:
What are the biggest challenges of reducing employee turnover in
the call center environment?
JOHN BARDAWILL
Managing Director John Bardawill: Creating a caring culture that allows for constant
TMG International growth is a critical staple in today’s call centers. Typically today,
there are three types of people working in these operations: They
are baby boomers, gen X’s, and gen Y‘s. Each of these groups has
different needs, goals and life objectives. Contact centers, as they
have become more sophisticated, need employees who are
committed for the long-term due to the need for greater product,
systems, and sales knowledge and the associated training and
At Call Center Week: related costs. In addition, over time, consumers and business
When Training Isn’t Enough: An Agent Development customers have come to expect a higher level of service, which
Methodology that Improves Business Results means that employee retention becomes even more important.

Hear how TMG International Inc. developed a unique Against this backdrop, gen x and y have greater expectations for
competency framework and methodology to help Aeroplan promotion, income, and job expectations than their predecessors
re-engage and re-orient its agents around the (the baby boomers), creating in essence a perfect storm. In
organization’s new vision and mission. Key components of
summary, while there is always a challenge to find good people, it is
this methodology will be explored including how to develop
an organizational model that allows for sufficient and ongoing going to get considerably more difficult to find great people, train
coaching. them well and then retain them.

Continued..


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JOHN CONTINUED:

What does the call center of the future look like to you?

John Bardawill: The call center of the future will be only referred
to as a contact center. It will be smaller in size, more technology
centric, and be composed of multiple channels including social
media (blogs, twitter, facebook, linkedin, etc.). In addition, it will
support sophisticated transactionally focused websites. The skill
sets of agents will be expanded to accommodate and manage
these multiple channels. All contact centers will be viewed as
profit centers and managers will be trained to act as true general
managers. Critically, these operations will have an overriding
revenue focus relative to customer experience and efficiency
which will be driven through ongoing technology enhancements
that drive lower cost, and more time-sensitive ways of
communicating.


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BRADLEY’S INSIGHT:
turnover?
BRADLEY BAUMUNK
Solution Marketing Bradley Baumunk: Pay is always important, but pay for
Genesys performance is more important. Give your employees the
@GenesysLab opportunity to earn more based on their performance and make
sure you have a solid performance review plan in place. But,
turnover is primarily driven by poor leadership. From
Supervisors to Managers to Directors, make sure you have the
right training plan in place for your leadership. Without great
leaders, you will have high attrition.
How do you keep employees engaged and excited about their
Complete Customer Experience work?
The key to taking your business to the next level in today’s
Bradley Baumunk: First and foremost, include top performers in
world is through positive customer interactions. Find out how
the decision making process. Your front line employees know
to implement solutions for winning new customers,
more about your systems and customers than anyone in your
increasing customer loyalty and achieving key business goals.
organization. Engage them early and often for their feedback to
ensure a smooth transitions to new systems and processes.


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MIKE’S INSIGHT:
What does the call center of the future look like to you?

Mike Burke Mike Burke: Though each and every C2B interaction won’t
VP Sales & Marketing have to be multi-modal, those that should be will be. My
IQ Services favorite example is “My furnace isn’t working and it’s cold
here in Minnesota – help me please!” Imagine, if you will,
waking up some January morning to discover a very cold
house & your boiler leaking water. You call your service
company and when the agent asks what the issue is, you tap
the camera icon on you smartphone and show the agent
At Call Center Week: what’s leaking, and then pan over to the boiler label so there’s
Interactive Roundtable no doubt about the age or type of boiler. The agent makes an
educated guess as to what’s needed to repair your system and
Peer-to-Peer experiences, led by subject matter experts. Mike places the order so the tech will have the right parts on the
will lead a discussion on “Optimizing Customer Experience truck, and then pushes a list of possible appointment times to
Management.”
your phone. You bring up your calendar to figure out when
you’ll be home in the next 12 hours and pick a timeslot that
fits your schedule with the tap of a finger. That’s where call
centers are going.

Continued..


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We provide the information we wanted way back when that would have
MIKE CONTINUED: made us confident we could cut a system into production without fear of
How do you keep employees engaged and excited about their a meltdown.
work?

Mike Burke: We’re really unique at IQ Services because we have a
lot of fun doing what we do every day. Our company was started
17 years ago by call center people for call center people, to provide
our colleagues in the industry with three things that were missing
in the good old days:

a) Real data from the customer perspective regarding contact
center performance under load before a new solution is put
into production

b) Factual information & real-time alerts regarding availability &
performance of customer-facing self-service solutions 7x24
post-cutover

c) The confidence that comes from knowing you can “Go live”
without the fear of catastrophic failures day 1, as well “Go
home” every day following cutover knowing you will find out
immediately when something goes sideways

Our team is pumped up every day because we know that what we
do really helps our clients take care of their customers.


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NEIL’S INSIGHT:
What new technologies have transformed call centers over the
last 5 to 10 years?
Neil Hooper
Senior Marketing Manager, Neil Hooper: Social media as both a technology and a cultural
Contact Centers phenomenon created new threats to companies’ brand value. The
Plantronics social media monitoring tools which emerged in response have
enabled companies to spot and constructively engage in ill-
informed or potentially damaging public discussions, protecting
their brand. The net result has been to morph the role and
heighten the importance of the contact center in the context of a
company’s highest level business goals.
The shift of analytics capability from retrospective to real-time has
Interactive Roundtable enabled monitoring to be more effective, and prompt, proactive
intervention to become practical, helping protect the company’s
Peer-to-Peer experiences, led by subject matter experts. Neil
will be discussing “Home Agent Best Practices.” brand and improve the customer experience.

Cloud/SaaS is not a new technology, but over the last half decade
the level of sophistication, reliability and security available has
matured to the point that it has become a credible solution for
Customer Care, the most sensitive aspect of any company’s
business.

Continued..


24

NEIL CONTINUED: Sensors in equipment such as screens and headsets will enhance agent
productivity by automating processes such as updating agent login status
What will the call center of the future look like? based on if they are connected or not, choosing between screen and
voice-based agent-alerts depending on if they are looking at or even near
Neil Hooper: On a business level, the call center of the future will their terminal or not, gestures will replace common menu/mouse clicks,
be much more tightly integrated with marketing efforts, both as a and so on.
key brand promise element by delivering a competitively superior
customer experience, and as a source of information to guide A reasonable crystal ball would be to look at new interface and context
company strategy through data mining of interactions to reveal enablers that appear on smartphones and assume they will later appear
trends in customer behaviors, preferences, etc. as a business process enhancer.

Operationally, the use of remote agents will have stabilized with in-
house full-time personnel a (substantial) minority. The degree of
sophistication and empowerment of all agents will be higher.

Use of cloud-based resources, whether as a total solution or a
tactically scalable extension to in-house infrastructures, will be
prevalent. This will also drive adoption of thin-client or hybrid
agent end-point solutions.

Technically, use of wireless to provide the now more highly
empowered agent freedom of movement will be prevalent. Desk
phones will be a minority legacy choice for voice path.


25

UMESH’S INSIGHT:
What are the biggest ways technology has impacted call
centers?
Umesh Jain
CEO Umesh Jain: The biggest impact of technology in the contact
Nowanalytics center has been driven by the growth of SaaS technologies
that have created a level playing field for small and medium
sized contact centers to benefit from leading edge solutions to
improve performance and customer service. Companies no
longer have to accept manual processes for reporting and
analyzing customer and in-house or outsourced contact
center data; they can adopt the best technologies for routing
Interactive Roundtable and at-home agent support without having to spend millions
of dollars building infrastructure to support these; and they
Peer-to-Peer experiences, led by subject matter experts. can incorporate social media monitoring and servicing for a
few hundred dollars a month. SaaS based solutions with their
low cost, rapid implementation cycles and standards based
integration options, have leveled the playing field for all.

Continued..


26

UMESH CONTINUED: The third trend will be the continuing growth in the integration of social
media channels in the contact center, where the call center will be able to
What will the call center of the future look like? proactively identify an issue and resolve it based on customer’s social
network comments and interactions.
Umesh Jain: The next decade in call centers will be driven by three
primary trends shaped by changing customer
behaviors. Companies will need to embrace these changing trends
to keep up with customer expectations.

The first is the growth in integrated multi-channel interactions,
specifically the use of mobile technologies. Customers will demand
a multi-touch, multi-channel threaded interaction to resolve a
single issue. For example, the customer will start an issue by self-
serving themselves via the mobile device or web, and then expect
to continue the resolution process via chat and eventually via a
phone call. Throughout this process, they will expect the company
to be able to combine the data across these different channels and
not be required to repeat the information already provided.

The second major trend will be the use of analytics in the contact
center, where business intelligences tools will drive better
customer services by integrating the analysis into the operational
and issue resolution processes. In particular, the use of proactive
and predictive analysis will be incorporated as a part of operational
efficiency and issue resolution processes to enhance customer
experience in the most efficient manner.


27

TARA’S INSIGHT:
How does superior customer service increase a call center’s
bottom line?
Tara Kelly
President & CEO Tara Kelly: Giving good service can appear to cost more
SPLICE Software initially by adding time and complexity, but having the
patience to listen and deliver value will always save you
money in the end.

How do you keep employees engaged and excited about
their work?

Tara Kelly: Once you've worked hard to hire an A Player into
At Call Center Week: your organization, make sure that when they show up to work
Key Steps for a Successful Mult-Channel Marketing they're working with other A Players or mentoring others to
Campaign become one. Give people room to be awesome and ensure
that they understand how their job contributes to the mission
This case study will explore a real-world example of how call
center solutions play a critical role in the success of multi- and goals of the organization.
channel marketing campaigns. This presentation will
detail all the steps of a successful multi-channel campaign
from development to implementation.


28

Customer Management IQ : a division of IQPC, is a forum for sharing Celebrating its 12th successful year, the call center community’s fastest
ideas, best practices and solutions within the business community. growing call center conference returns! The 14th Annual Call Center Week,
Simply put, you can interact, share solutions to your business taking place June 10 - 14, 2013 joins call center leaders and gurus for a week
problems with an incredible network of authoritative sources and of unforgettable knowledge-sharing and networking.
practicing professionals. It's easy. It's fast. It's free.
What Makes this Event Unique
Customer Management IQ enables you to find from your peers a
method, a solution, a proven best practice that solves your specific The largest event with senior level practitioner speakers providing
problems when you need it solved. We offer a steady stream of front- real world insight on what it takes to achieve worldclass call center
line content that is timely, relevant, practical and has been validated status.
by practitioners. The event will include: 6 Keynotes; 32 Unique Tracks, 9 Workshops; 2
Master Classes, 2 Site Tours and a dozen hours of Networking
By becoming a member of Customer Management IQ you will receive Expansive Exhibit Hall, allowing attendees to better evaluate the
complimentary access to resources that will keep you at the forefront latest product & service offerings that will improve your operations
of industry change. You will receive access to our growing library of and results
multi-media presentations from industry leaders, an email newsletter
updating you on new content that has been added, and special Here is a breakdown of who attended Call Center Week 2011 and who you
member only discounts on events. can expect to meet in 2012.

Customer Management IQ and IQPC provide educational conferences,
training courses and expositions for Customer Management executives to
network and learn the latest Customer Management developments and
trends occurring in organizations today. Customer Management IQ
concentrates on creating an interactive experience featuring practical,
objective and up-to-date insight from leading practitioners.


29


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