Recorded for Quality Assurance Podcast

Today Jakob Mattice and Thomas Laird talk about the role that AI will play in the call centers of the future. Question: Do we really think Artificial Intelligence is going to take out the role of the contact center agent? Answer: It already has, but there is no way AI can replace agents completely.

Throughout social media, there is a lot of corporate speech that presents a fake perception of how a company runs. It’s easy to posts if you're a successful business, but how do you become one?

Getting buy-ins is everything in CX leadership, so it follows that it would also be the #1 problem that CX leaders struggle with. Today, with the help of Dave Seaton, we will be explaining how to build buy-in and how to appeal to your stakeholders.

Today we are talking about the growing expectation from that market that our companies are bringing value to the world. There is a demand for ethical businesses that make the world a better place. Value-based businesses truly reach their customers. With labor being sourced off shore what are our opportunities and responsibilities as companies?

We just witnessed the Southwest Airlines holiday meltdown of 2022. Due to winter storms, 60% of Southwest’s December flights were canceled, leaving over one million customers were affected. Now, with the help of Brannon Stacy, Global Business Development Manager at Fusion, let’s take a closer look at what Southwest did right.

Welcome to the show! Today we’re diving right in with two real life customer service calls we recently had in our personal lives as customers. Let’s talk about what makes a helpful and seamless experience versus a frustrating experience. Let’s talk about tools, policies and responsiveness.

Back in front of the mic today to talk about agent satisfaction and how to effectively compensate and motivate our most important assets.

Jakob Mattice sits down with Kory Kostecka from RemX to discuss his insights into the ways we are staffing our call centers and how we can improve our hiring. Our standard screening questions when hiring new call center agents focus on hard skills instead of the soft skills that really move the needle with brand loyalty.

Let’s welcome Fred Stacey back to the podcast! Today we’re discussing the unique challenges related to the global nature of CX in addition to the improvements we’re seeing. We’re just always encouraged by the data which time and time again proves that positive agent experience directly correlates to high performance and profit growth. It’s just the reality. This is why we are creating a metric to measure agent experience so that companies can leverage employee support programs even more.

You’re going to love our guest Leslie O’Flahavan and her refreshing take on the way we empathize with customers. She’s passionate about shifting the burdens off of CX agents so they can focus on connecting with the customers.

Delighted to introduce you to Dave Seaton of Seaton CX. Dave’s consulting firm works with B2B companies to measure, manage and improve their customer experiences. He focuses on leadership, emotional intelligence and getting buy-in for CX. His weekly newsletter CXPRESSO is for brave CX leaders who want to learn about how to score buy in, how to spur executives to action, how to cultivate a customer-centric culture and how to wrench your funding from the jaws of budget cuts all without arguing or begging.

Talking with Jakob Mattice today about the amazing themes from the ICMI Contact Center Expo in Orlando. Meeting in person, building community and networking with so many great colleagues was so inspiring. Let’s dive in to some of the ideas we share at the conference, namely our focus on Agent Satisfaction as our main metric.

In CX when issues aren’t resolved quickly it’s a lose-lose situation. The CFO wouldn’t be happy about the amount of time invested in trying to fix the problem and the customer actually becomes more determined to leave the brand. Long term, multiply this out and think of the outcomes facing your business. What is the fate of your market share?

Dovetailing nicely with our Agent-Centric Call Center Philosophy is the objective today to discuss Employee Experience. What can we still do to enhance the work life of our employees? How can we engage with them and support them? Today we are talking with Fred Stacey about his experiences in call centers, both helping to build them and helping them in recovery.

We’ve got a special episode for you today! We recorded this conversation on October 4th, the 10th annual CX Day! Meet our fantastic guest Jim Tincher who is the author of the book Do B2B Better which is available now. Jim is here to talk to us about activating employees in ways that truly benefit them. Call center work is so important and we know that, first hand, as consumers in our lives outside of work. The role of an agent is the most important factor in our customer service and our customer satisfaction. So let’s dive into how to activate our agents!

Customer service tops the in-demand skills list. We need agents with these skills to take care of our customers. And, then we need to take care of our customer service agents in return, or they’ll leave. They will. They have other options in the employment market. Start to see the agents as long-term fixtures and assets in your business. Offer them career development opportunities and invest in them. Feature agents' accomplishments. People want to be recognized, not just compensated.

There is a lot of rhetoric in this industry surrounding buzzwords like digital transformation and value proposition, and we need to comb through that chatter to get back into the agent’s chair. Leaders and management should go down to the call center floor and take a call or answer a chat to remind them what it’s like. This will give them the perspective they need to make a qualified decision on what the agent and consumer need to get the job done.

The shift in labor dynamics that we’ve seen over the last two years has given call center agents the advantage of being able to work from home, take new jobs without having to relocate and elect better opportunities as they come along. Contact centers have been impacted by this new power dynamic.

Today we welcome Martin Anderson cofounder and CEO of Lemon. Lemon is a BPO is that different approach to its employees and their careers. Today we are talking about improving the lives of our CX agents so that they have supportive training, work-life-balance, and a safe place to vent so that we can extend and elevate their roles in the company promote the longer success of the business.

The VP will have an opinion. The C-suite will will want a say. IT’s recommendation will ring heavy in the air. Those in charge of operations, training, marketing and quality assurance will each have their own goals in mind. When it’s time to buy CX technology, though, we believe strongly in keeping the agents in mind. The agents’ use and satisfaction with the technology will affect customer experience every step of the way. Today we welcome Joe Rice founder of CXponent for an in-depth discussion of the technology buying process. Exponent helps companies build or reset their tech stacks for CX organizations.

When most people think of trauma, they think of people who fought in wars or who have witnessed crimes. This is not always the case and most often, trauma can be found in any extended period of stress, including being a CX Agent. We are grateful to be joined by Jeremy Hide, in today’s episode where we will be discussing how trauma can be caused in the workplace, along with how to positively work through the trauma and the related triggers agents face.

You’ll say you have competing priorities and you’re right. On one hand we have profitability and the other we have people. We can’t deny the importance of revenue and profitability, but, we’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: we believe in focusing on the agent. Today we welcome Hui Wu-Curtis from supportU to talk with us about the all-important business buzz-word: company culture.

Jeremy talks about the main priority, as he sees it, regarding technology in a contact center: It should boost customer self-service. Data shows that customers would rather not call a contact center to resolve their problem, preferring any option that enables them to solve the issue independently. When he’s evaluating contact center technology he’s looking for ways to boost self-service.

In many ways our call center agents act as our brand ambassadors all day long, talking to our customers and we believe in taking care of these agents. We need to provide them with effective training to set them up for success. They are holding up important positions on our front lines! Let’s build a solid foundation relationship with them so they represent us well. Let’s offer them a work environment where the departments of our business function cohesively. Let’s integrate their training right into their work seamlessly. Most importantly let's have their back and stand by them so they can thrive.

The call center agent is the single most important asset that you have. Training, technology buying, and positive team dynamics should all promote the well-being of the agent. Call centers are facing new labor and economic problems. Agents now often work from home and can change jobs easily in search of the best company culture. Data shows customer experience is suffering and a recession is looming. We need to improve customer experience while being mindful of these financial demands. The answer is the agent. With the right training, tools and connection with your company the happy and fulfilled agent can keep your customers, produce more and contribute to the long-term success of your business.

On this episode of Recorded for Quality Assurance, we welcome CX Trend Expert, Stephen Loyn. In this in-depth interview, Stephen gives expert insight into where the industry is headed with the implementation of technology to enhance customer experience, the current role of the contact center agent and how to improve the CX experience starting on the contact center floor and more.

This episode of Recorded for Quality Assurance features Steve Weston, Managing Partner at SKWeston & Company. Tune in as Steve gives expert insight into the key considerations when choosing a BPO partner, the 3 main areas to focus on when creating a contact center from scratch, how blockchain can transform CX and more.

On this episode of Recorded for Quality Assurance we welcome Customer Experience Executive, Erica Mancuso. In this rich episode, Erica gives expert insight into the importance of having a CX function representative at the C-suite level, how to break down organizational silos to increase customer satisfaction, the technology we provide our agents and more.

This episode of Recorded for Quality Assurance features Michele Rowan, President of the Work From Home Alliance. Tune in as Michele gives expert insight on how to best hire, train and retain agents in the work-from-home environment and more.

On this episode of Recorded for Quality Assurance we welcome CX subject matter expert and CRO of LiveExchange, Terry Rybolt. Terry gives expert insight into the impact of agent attrition on an entire organization, the transformation of moving agents to a WFH model, and the benefits of GigCX.

This episode of Recorded for Quality Assurance features Jenny Dempsey, Consumer Experience Manager at Apeel Sciences and FruitStand.com. Tune in as Jenny gives expert insight into improving agent morale, important communication strategies, what the ideal agent technology toolbox looks like and more.

On this episode of Recorded for Quality Assurance, we are joined by Nate Brown, the Senior Director of CX at Arise and Co-Founder of CX Accelerator. Tune in to hear him speak on the key to truly delivering excellent customer service, how we set agents up for success, the most important metrics to be focusing on and so much more.

This episode of Recorded for Quality Assurance features Matt Beckwith, Director of Customer Experience for Clark Pest Control and the man behind the popular blog, "The Contact Center Geek." Tune in to listen to Matt share his unique take on contact center technology, how he has successfully created a 100% work-from-home contact center, and how he is tackling agent attrition.

In this Episode of Recorded for Quality Assurance, we interview Co-founder and Chief Technologist of Vistio, Sean Murphy. Tune in and listen as Sean shares his journey of how he became an innovator of contact center software and what he believes are the elements that are needed to truly have technology improve the customer experience.

This episode of Recorded for Quality Assurance features Hui Wu-Curtis, COO and Co-Founder of SupportU. Tune in and listen as Hui discusses her unique BPO organization and where she sees gaps in the BPO industry. She also shares the critical steps for finding the right talent to complement an organization's CX goals and the factors to consider when choosing CX technology to enhance the agent experience and ultimately aid in delivering excellent results customer service.

On this episode of Recorded for Quality assurance, we are joined by Mark Hillary, renowned author and leader in the CX space. Tune in to hear about his unique career journey, his original view on CX technology, and how the CX industry is often on the cutting edge of implementing emerging tech.

On this episode of Recorded for Quality Assurance, we welcome Joe Rice, CEO of CXponent. Tune in to hear Joe share his insights on CX technology implementation, stakeholder participation, the importance of organizational alignment, how to drive the benefits of contact center technology and more.

This Episode of Recorded for Quality Assurance features Tom Benton, the Head of Operations at Vistio. Tune in and listen as Tom shares his unique insights into the main pain points from the perspective of the contact center agent, manager, and risk management professional. He also delves into some of the failsafe solutions to these pain points that he has developed over his long career in the industry.

On this episode of Recorded for Quality Assurance, we are joined by Rod Jones. Tune in to listen to this pioneer of the contact center industry discuss the importance of setting clear processes for contact center agents, the importance of executive participation and how Henry Ford would have made a brilliant contact center operator.

On the pilot episode of Recorded for Quality Assurance, we're joined by Peter Ryan, Principal at Ryan Strategic Advisory. Tune in to listen to this CX expert discuss the importance of providing contact center agents with the right solutions, understanding their needs and tailoring the solutions to suit their requirements; the future of CX and practical career advice for contact centers leaders.