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The Evolving Contact Center Podcast Series

Welcome to The Evolving Contact Center, a podcast for Contact Center Managers, Executives, and Developers, brought to you by Interactive Softworks. In this podcast, you'll hear business and technology discussions related to how the modern contact center is becoming the hub of customer interaction and brand perception, and how smart outsourcers and telemarketers are evolving from the proprietary, siloed operations of yesterday to the extensible, agile enterprises of tomorrow. The series is hosted by Albert Maruggi.

Jump to:
Episode 8: Desktop Unification to Simplify Agent Interactions and Practical Ideas for Agent Staffing and Workforce management
Episode 7: Congress & Teleservices, Flammable Customer Moments & Speech Analytics, Evaluating Speech Analytics Technologies
Episode 6: Award-Winning Customer Experience, Hiring "A Players", and the Art and Science of Contact Center Staffing
Episode 5: Best Practices in Employee Retention and IVR Menu Design
Episode 4: Customer Loyalty and the Power of One
Episode 3: Creating the Excellent Customer Experience
Episode 2: The 2006 ATA Convention & Expo, Part 2 of 2
Episode 1: The 2006 ATA Convention & Expo, Part 1 of 2

 

Episode 8: Desktop Unification to Simplify Agent Interactions and Practical Ideas for Agent Staffing and Workforce management

Length 25:07

Episode 8 features a new segment on The Evolving Contact Center podcast, called "Ask the Expert." In this episode, Robb Duke of Interactive Softworks discusses the benefits of desktop unification for the contact center and its customers. Penny Reynolds of The Call Center School offers tips on reacting to ups and downs in staff levels throughout the day.

Contact Center Desktop Unification (14:09)   |  Transcript


A single, unified application interface for all contact center interactions

Is it possible to connect disparate data sources and back-end systems (think legacy and 3rd party applications) and bring that information into a single interface to simplify agent interactions and improve productivity? You bet it's possible, and efficiency-minded contact centers are moving to the unified desktop with gusto.

Robb Duke, Sr. Director of Marketing for Interactive Softworks talks to the Evolving Contact Center about how outsourcers are beginning to simplify and improve the quality of agent interactions by optimizing the agent desktop.

Robb talks in layman's terms about the core technology components of systems integration and process automation and points out the business benefits that can be gained in a better connected, more agile contact center.

Strategies for Managing Staffing Levels (15:30)   |  Transcript


Reacting to Ups and Downs in Contact Center Staffing Levels

Hey contact center managers, ever had this problem before: some of your staff didn't show up to work as scheduled? We're pretty sure you'll say yes, and for that Penny Reynolds of the Call Center School describes methods of reaching that "just right" number of contact center staffing.

Penny offers several smart ideas in personnel and technology management for maximizing contact center productivity. Included in her suggestions are the SWAT (Sometimes We Answer Telephones) strategy where ancillary staff can augment staffing levels to handle fluctuations in call volume.

Episode 7: Congress & Teleservices, Flammable Customer Moments & Speech Analytics, Evaluating Speech Analytics Technologies

Length 33:26

Tim Searcy, CEO of the American Teleservices Association (ATA), joins us again to offer insight on how Congress and regulators will affect the teleservices Industry. Anna Convery, a Nexidia VP, tells us how "flammable customer moments" can be extinguished with speech analytics technology. The Call Center School's Maggie Klenke offers ideas on "picking out the pearls" of an abundance of recorded audio.

News Headlines Segment (11:46)   |  Transcript


What Impact Will Congress Have on the Teleservices Industry?
The changing climate in Washington and the status of self-regulation in the industry, according to American Teleservices Association CEO Tim Searcy. We also cover the return of the universal agent as technology puts the contact center front and center for most companies.

Interview Segment (13:07)   |  Transcript


What Are Your Customers Saying? Speech Analytics Will Tell You
Today's speech analytics systems offer businesses considerable value to every department, not just within the contact center. Anna Convery, Senior VP of Marketing and Product Management explains that in a world where a contact center call can appear on the web in minutes and picked up by mainstream media the next day, scouring your company’s spoken interactions using keyword flags is critical.

News Headlines Segment (8:04)   |  Transcript


Evaluating Speech Technologies
Save time by focusing on the key functions of speech analytics technology and what is needed in your center. Maggie Klenke, a senior partner in the call center school and nationally recognized speaker, walks us through the criteria for evaluating speech technologies.

Episode 6: Award-Winning Customer Experience, Hiring "A Players", and the Art and Science of Contact Center Staffing

Length 36:46

Beauty is not skin deep: it goes all the way to the contact center. Episode 6 is loaded with surprises and delight. Listen close and you might be able to win a $25 gift certificate to Bath & Body Works. You’ll also get tips on the how to hire 'A players' for your contact center. The Call Center School segment features the art and science of scheduling representatives in the contact center.

News Headlines Segment (13:52)   |  Transcript


Award Winning Customer Experience
An interview with Pati Crowley, director of customer experience for Bath and Body Works. This year, Crowley's organization won the 1to1 Impact Award for Technology Optimization: Service. Crowley shares some of her team's methods for delighting the customer from within the contact center. BB&W's approach includes a three-pronged strategy to achieve a 360 view of the customer: Voice of the Brand, Voice of the customer, and Voice of the associate. Give this one a listen and you could win a $25 gift certificate to be delighted by Bath and Body Works.

Interview Segment (15:33)   |  Transcript


A Roster of "A" Players
John O’Brien is general manger of Hire Direct. O’Brien has reviewed thousands of resumes and candidates for contact centers using a disciplined methodology from Topgrading. In this conversation, O’Brien highlights the steps to finding A Players. This is the full-version of the interview.

News Headlines Segment (14:17)   |  Transcript


The Implications of a Poorly-Staffed Contact Center
Penny Reynolds and Maggie Klenke, co-founders of the Call Center School, discuss the art and science of staffing a contact center. "If you get it (call center staffing) wrong, there are serious implications for your center," says Penny. "Too many agents means needless lower productivity and higher costs. Too few agents in the center can affect customer service, employee job satisfaction, and again, higher costs related to lost orders or additional telephone call expense." Also check out the Call Center School's training and book series, "Call Center Staffing - The Complete Practical Guide to Workforce Management." Listen to episode 6 and you could win a free copy of the book.

Episode 5: Best Practices in Employee Retention and IVR Menu Design

Length 25:28

In this episode we offer an insightful interview about identifying the best candidates for your contact center using a proven process and software. The interview is with Jennifer East of Knowlagent which guides a company in the candidate interview process so to provide key assessment information for both the company and the candidate. The goal is to find the right fit for each. It also highlights ways to expedite quality training of the candidate so the contact center is getting results faster.

News Headlines Segment (2:33)   |  Transcript


Turnover Turnaround
With staggering turnover rates in the contact center industry, the associated costs of attrition can cripple a business. Hiring and placing the wrong agent is a costly mistake. Jennifer East, product development manager at Knowlagent, talked to the Evolving Contact Center about how contact centers determine the best profiles for different jobs so that HR teams can place agents where they will be the most productive and effective.

Interview Segment (14:46)   |  Transcript


Tasty IVR Menu Ideas
While technology provides a wonderful self-service option for many customers, countless others don't have a very good experience. Listen to Penny Reynolds and Maggie Klenke from the Call Center School as they discuss the most common mistakes in implementation, design, and scripting of a voice processing system.
Check out the Call Center School's web seminar about this topic:

Making the Most of IVR: Design, Scripting, and Creative Uses of IVR

• Outline the basic categories of voice processing technology and which capability best suits each application.
• Describe the service and cost tradeoffs of a “back-end” versus “front-end” design.
• Outline the basic rules of creating IVR menus and scripts.
• Describe real-life examples of poor menu designs and bad scripting and learn how to prevent these mistakes.
• Identify recent advancements in voice processing technology, including speech recognition.

Episode 4: Customer Loyalty and the Power of One

Length 27:39

In today’s podcast we have a recap of the IQPC Call Center Summit from the conference chairman, Fred White of Interactive Softworks. Jeff Marr of Walker Information discusses the contact center’s role in building, measuring and maintaining customer loyalty. Penny Reynolds and Maggie Klenke share the art and science of call center staffing.

News Headlines Segment (2:25)


Post-Show Wrap-Up: Fred White on the IQPC Call Center Summit
Fred White served as chairman of the recent IQPC Call Center Summit in Atlanta. The International Quality and Productivity Center sponsored this major forum, which brought in more than 40 industry speakers. White, VP of services at Interactive Softworks, led this group of industry notables as they dealt with two major tracks of critical decisions for contact center executives: measuring contact center performance and evaluating contact center technologies.

Interview Segment (9:49)   |  Transcript


The Contact Center's Role in Customer Loyalty
Walker Information is loaded with great customer loyalty information, and Jeff Marr is one of the thoughtful leaders behind that group’s work. In today’s interview segment, Jeff discusses the role the contact center plays in creating and maintaining loyal customers.

The Real World Segment (16:07)   |  Transcript


The Art & Science of Contact Center Staffing
School is in session with Penny Reynolds and Maggie Klenke of The Call Center School. They share with us the art and science of call center staffing, including tips on managing fluctuating call volumes and planning for appropriate staff levels.

Episode 3: Creating the Excellent Customer Experience

Length 33:55

Today’s episode of The Evolving Contact Center features Toni Portman of Stream . She discusses the details of matching human energy and call center technology to produce a better customer experience. Penny Reynolds and Pam Trickey of the Call Center School continue their lessons in the verbal makeover, discussing the importance of word choice. And Interactive Softworks’ Fred White, chairman of IQPC’s 2nd annual Call Center Summit, gives us his view on the happenings at that important conference.

News Headlines Segment (1:45)


Report from the Field: At the IQPC Call Center Summit
Fred White, vice president of services and solutions for Interactive Softworks, was chairman of this year’s Call Center Summit, which took place in Atlanta Jan. 22-25. After the second day of the conference, we spoke with Fred to get his take on the workshops and sessions at the summit.

Interview Segment (3:48)   |  Transcript


Call Center BPM
Toni Portman, CEO and president of Stream. Toni gets into the details of matching human energy and call center technology to produce a better customer experience. A key component of this chemistry is constant evaluation and refining of the contact center process.

The Real World Segment (17:59)   |  Transcript


Call Center Agent Performance: A verbal make-over
Penny Reynolds and Pam Trickey of The Call Center School give us their version of “what’s in a word.” This is a portion of their verbal makeover that can help change the tone and outcome of every conversation in your contact center.

Episode 2: The 2006 ATA Convention & Expo, Part 2 of 2

Length 28:04

In today’s episode, we give you part two of our review of the American Teleservices Association's 2006 Convention & Expo that took place in Orlando, Florida in October 2006.

Interview Segment (2:25)


A New Optimism in the Contact Center Industry
Today’s we’ve got the second half of our interview with Tim Searcy, CEO of the American Teleservices Association. Tim talks about “call centers” becoming “contact centers” and the idea of the “universal agent.”

You can find more about the ATA. Also, you can comment on the industry on Tim's ATA blog.

Interview Segment (6:27)   |  Transcript


Business Process Management in the Call Center
The keys to better call handling can be found in your business process management. Find out what we mean in our interview with Teresa Jones, senior research analyst at the Butler Group, a division of Datamonitor.

The Real World Segment (17:05)


Call Center Agent Performance: A verbal make-over
Penny Reynolds and Pam Trickey of the Call Center School provide a snapshot of a vocal makeover, how to improve customer service reps’ delivery on the phone, and how to uncover some of the annoying vocal habits that can slip into anyone’s speech – what they call verbal viruses.

News/Headlines Segment (24:46)


“Contact Center Outsourcing Vendors Provide Benefits When Properly Selected”
In a Dec. 8, 2006, article on TMCnet.com, contributing editor recommends that any company seeking to outsource a call center become a customer of that potential vendor by doing a blind test. Try them out as one of your customers would, and see how it goes.

“How to Staff for Text Chat”
The December issue of Call Center magazine ran an excerpt from a book by Brad Cleveland called “Call Center Management on Fast Forward.” Brad says the service level metrics for text chat should be different than other types of interaction. It’s not just about speed.

Episode 1: The 2006 ATA Convention & Expo, Part 1 of 2

Length 23:42

In this first episode, we give you part one of our review of the American Teleservices Association's 2006 Convention & Expo that took place in Orlando, Florida in October, 2006.

Trends Segment (2:56)


Past ATA chairperson, and current CEO of KPI Group, Tom Rocca also weighs in on his experiences on-site and conulting with his contact center clients. Tom is also known for his appearance on Talk About Service's "Take it Outside" with Tom Rocca podcast.

Interviews Segment (9:33)


We talked to Tim Searcy, CEO of the American Teleservices Association, who lit a candle for the future of the Teleservices industry. In part two of this episode, we’ll hear more from Tim as well as some of the dynamic and energetic featured speakers at the ATA show.

You can find more about the ATA. Also, you can comment on the industry on Tim's ATA blog.

The Real World Segment (13:56)


Interview with Loyd Olson, COO of Interactive Softworks who exhibited at the ATA Expo. Loyd echoed other's comments about optimism in the contact center industry. Loyd also describes a challenge in a healthcare organization that involves integration of data, business process functions, and customer service objectives. 

News/Headlines Segment (19:55)


Quick! Dial 311 (for non emergencies)
Besides the three-digit 911 emergency number, America's telephone companies and the FCC have adopted other three-digit numbers, including 311. It was first implemented locally by the Baltimore (Md.) Police Department on Oct. 2, 1996 to handle non-emergency police calls. The 311 number was then approved for nationwide use by the FCC on Feb. 19, 1997 after President Bill Clinton endorsed the idea during a 1996 Sacramento (Calif.) campaign speech as part of his community-involved policing program.

Contact Center Benchmarking
In his Reality Check column, Paul Stockford of Call Center magazine highlights a new benchmarking study by Verint Opus Solutions that he says goes beyond the typical Average Speed of Answer, Abandon rates, and first call resolution metrics that are the industry standards.