Advice from a Call Center Geek!

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I was asked to talk to a class of pre-startups on the topic of Marketing and Branding at Gannon University where I am vice chair of the Erie Technology Incubator.

In this presentation, I talk about what I do every day to create content at scale to grow my personal and business brand.

Marketing, branding, sales... these are the pillars of new business and community building.  I get many questions from BPOS on "How do I get new clients" and I see many of you out there trying to advance your personal brand.

I hope that this episode inspires you to start your branding or take it to the next level.

 Through Expivia Digital, Tom works with contact center leaders on CCaaS platform selection, AI implementations, and NICE Studio and integration services. 

Same honest, vendor-neutral advice you hear on the Call Center Geek podcast, applied directly to your specific operational challenges. 

Schedule a consultation at ExpiviaDigital.com to discuss your contact center technology strategy. 

Click here:

expiviadigital.com

Follow Tom: @tlaird_expivia
Join our Facebook Call Center Community: www.facebook.com/callcentergeek
Connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tlairdexpivia/
Follow on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@callcenter_geek
Linkedin Group: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/9041993/
Watch us: Advice from a Call Center Geek Youtube Channel

OttoQA: try.ottoqa.com

Expivia: Expiviausa.com

Send us Fan Mail

In this episode of Advice from a Call Center Geek, we take a look at the three pillars of contact center metrics, efficiency, quality, and sales.  We discuss our favorite metrics in each category and how you can maximize all three!



Check out our Free ACG NFT drop currently happening on Opensea. The link is here:
https://opensea.io/collection/acg-access-token

These tokens include: 

Two 15-minute video calls with Tom Laird about any call center or contact center topic you have issues or questions about per year.

Access to a special email address for only holders where I will answer # any question at any time within 24 hours.

A private Linkedin/Discord group just for holders.

Private AMA and Webinars just for holders.

One 30-minute staff training session / AMA on any contact center topic you would like me and my staff to talk about.

Drawing once a year for access to Veecon (1/25 chance) and dinner with me and the staff at the show.

Free ACG Hoodies/Tshirts

Whatever else we can think of to add value.

 Through Expivia Digital, Tom works with contact center leaders on CCaaS platform selection, AI implementations, and NICE Studio and integration services. 

Same honest, vendor-neutral advice you hear on the Call Center Geek podcast, applied directly to your specific operational challenges. 

Schedule a consultation at ExpiviaDigital.com to discuss your contact center technology strategy. 

Click here:

expiviadigital.com

Follow Tom: @tlaird_expivia
Join our Facebook Call Center Community: www.facebook.com/callcentergeek
Connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tlairdexpivia/
Follow on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@callcenter_geek
Linkedin Group: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/9041993/
Watch us: Advice from a Call Center Geek Youtube Channel

OttoQA: try.ottoqa.com

Expivia: Expiviausa.com

Send us Fan Mail

Token Address:
https://opensea.io/collection/acg-access-token

We have a FREE NFT project for anyone that is a call center supervisor or manager.  These 20 (4 are already gone as of this typing)tokens that give you the utility of:

Two 15-minute video calls with Tom Laird about any call center or contact center topic you have issues or questions about per year.

Access to a special email address for only holders where I will answer # any question at any time within 24 hours.

A private Linkedin/Discord group just for holders.

Private AMA and Webinars are just for holders.

One 30-minute staff training session / AMA on any contact center topic you would like me and my staff to talk about.

Drawing once a year for access to Veecon (1/25 chance) and dinner with me and the staff at the show.

Free ACG Hoodies/Tshirts

Whatever else we can think of to add value.

We will have 5 Tokens as well called Mentor Tokens that cost .75 Eth.  These come with all of the above PLUS 30-minute video calls once a month with me to help in any way I can with your contact center.

 Through Expivia Digital, Tom works with contact center leaders on CCaaS platform selection, AI implementations, and NICE Studio and integration services. 

Same honest, vendor-neutral advice you hear on the Call Center Geek podcast, applied directly to your specific operational challenges. 

Schedule a consultation at ExpiviaDigital.com to discuss your contact center technology strategy. 

Click here:

expiviadigital.com

Follow Tom: @tlaird_expivia
Join our Facebook Call Center Community: www.facebook.com/callcentergeek
Connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tlairdexpivia/
Follow on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@callcenter_geek
Linkedin Group: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/9041993/
Watch us: Advice from a Call Center Geek Youtube Channel

OttoQA: try.ottoqa.com

Expivia: Expiviausa.com

Send us Fan Mail

In this episode, we welcomed Nick Corso AKA Corso, Community Success Lead at Veefriends, one of the most popular and largest NFT projects on our Advice from a Call Center Geek Podcast.  

We have an in-depth conversation discussing how to create and moderate a community as it relates to NFT projects through ups and downs.  Community moderation will be a new channel that brands will need to service as they venture into Web3.

Veefriends is Gary Vaynerchuck NFT project.  It currently has over 360k community members in its discord.

Great discussion on topics such as:

Can you explain what Veefriends is and how you got involved?

Take us through a normal day in what a moderator does.

Do you as a moderator define the culture of the community, or do the members do that?

Do you see a role for more interaction channels than just primarily IM?

Do you track influencers and bad actors in the community?

What is the policy for when you act on someone in the community causing issues?

Talk about training for mods?

Where do you see the concept of community moving to, discord really was not meant for this.

How are you seeing brands moderate community compared to an inde project?

Follow Tom: @tlaird_expivia
Join our Facebook Call Center Community: www.facebook.com/callcentergeek
Connect on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/tlairdexpivia/
Follow on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@callcenter_geek
Linkedin Group: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/9041993/
Watch us: Advice from a Call Center Geek Youtube Channel

 Through Expivia Digital, Tom works with contact center leaders on CCaaS platform selection, AI implementations, and NICE Studio and integration services. 

Same honest, vendor-neutral advice you hear on the Call Center Geek podcast, applied directly to your specific operational challenges. 

Schedule a consultation at ExpiviaDigital.com to discuss your contact center technology strategy. 

Click here:

expiviadigital.com

Follow Tom: @tlaird_expivia
Join our Facebook Call Center Community: www.facebook.com/callcentergeek
Connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tlairdexpivia/
Follow on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@callcenter_geek
Linkedin Group: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/9041993/
Watch us: Advice from a Call Center Geek Youtube Channel

OttoQA: try.ottoqa.com

Expivia: Expiviausa.com

Send us Fan Mail

I got this question Dmd to me in Linkedin.  This episode is my in-depth answer on setting up new tech in your contact center.

"Tom, 
We talk a lot about how much tech can help us in the contact center space, but I find that many tend to think that tech is some kind of magic button (just deploy it and it works, and people are disappointed that it's not that easy). 

You mention a good bit of trial and error and testing (especially on your last speech analytics podcast). It may be good to understand things like...how do I determine what to test/build/deploy, how do I prioritize...basically how should I product manage and what type of team/roles/SMEs do I need to do this (product managers, project managers, scrum masters, etc). 

Do I need a SME for reporting, one for WFM, one for QM, one for speech, one for CX, one for AX, etc, etc. Hope that makes sense. I work mostly on the tech side...but often I find it difficult to set expectations and convince others that we need help determining what to build :). Hope that makes sense! Thanks! "

Follow Tom: @tlaird_expivia
Join our Facebook Call Center Community: www.facebook.com/callcentergeek
Connect on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/tlairdexpivia/
Follow on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@callcenter_geek
Linkedin Group: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/9041993/
Watch us: Advice from a Call Center Geek Youtube Channel

 Through Expivia Digital, Tom works with contact center leaders on CCaaS platform selection, AI implementations, and NICE Studio and integration services. 

Same honest, vendor-neutral advice you hear on the Call Center Geek podcast, applied directly to your specific operational challenges. 

Schedule a consultation at ExpiviaDigital.com to discuss your contact center technology strategy. 

Click here:

expiviadigital.com

Follow Tom: @tlaird_expivia
Join our Facebook Call Center Community: www.facebook.com/callcentergeek
Connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tlairdexpivia/
Follow on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@callcenter_geek
Linkedin Group: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/9041993/
Watch us: Advice from a Call Center Geek Youtube Channel

OttoQA: try.ottoqa.com

Expivia: Expiviausa.com

Send us Fan Mail

Sanas is a startup in Silicon Valley that has developed software to make offshore accents sound more "American" or as some say, "more white".

I have done a ton of research on the company, took the demo at CCW, and have read and watched as much as I can on both sides of the contact center controversy.

In this episode, I give my raw take on what I think is going on.

Follow Tom: @tlaird_expivia
Join our Facebook Call Center Community: www.facebook.com/callcentergeek
Connect on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/tlairdexpivia/
Follow on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@callcenter_geek
Linkedin Group: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/9041993/
Watch us: Advice from a Call Center Geek Youtube Channel

 Through Expivia Digital, Tom works with contact center leaders on CCaaS platform selection, AI implementations, and NICE Studio and integration services. 

Same honest, vendor-neutral advice you hear on the Call Center Geek podcast, applied directly to your specific operational challenges. 

Schedule a consultation at ExpiviaDigital.com to discuss your contact center technology strategy. 

Click here:

expiviadigital.com

Follow Tom: @tlaird_expivia
Join our Facebook Call Center Community: www.facebook.com/callcentergeek
Connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tlairdexpivia/
Follow on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@callcenter_geek
Linkedin Group: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/9041993/
Watch us: Advice from a Call Center Geek Youtube Channel

OttoQA: try.ottoqa.com

Expivia: Expiviausa.com

Send us Fan Mail

The use cases for using speech analytics are endless when you really put the tool to the test.  In this episode, we talk about 10 ways that we are using analytics in our call center to maximize its use!

1.    Proactive Customer Service

2.    Rewarding Associates for Great Sentiment 

3.    Generating Marketing Data

4.    Finding Out the Why

5.    Noting Frustration

6.    Learning What the Real SLA Variance Should Be

7.    Tracking Silence 

8.    Fraud Protection

9. Tracking competitors

10. Expanding Channels

Follow Tom: @tlaird_expivia
Join our Facebook Call Center Community: www.facebook.com/callcentergeek
Connect on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/tlairdexpivia/
Follow on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@callcenter_geek
Linkedin Group: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/9041993/
Watch us: Advice from a Call Center Geek Youtube Channel

 Through Expivia Digital, Tom works with contact center leaders on CCaaS platform selection, AI implementations, and NICE Studio and integration services. 

Same honest, vendor-neutral advice you hear on the Call Center Geek podcast, applied directly to your specific operational challenges. 

Schedule a consultation at ExpiviaDigital.com to discuss your contact center technology strategy. 

Click here:

expiviadigital.com

Follow Tom: @tlaird_expivia
Join our Facebook Call Center Community: www.facebook.com/callcentergeek
Connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tlairdexpivia/
Follow on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@callcenter_geek
Linkedin Group: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/9041993/
Watch us: Advice from a Call Center Geek Youtube Channel

OttoQA: try.ottoqa.com

Expivia: Expiviausa.com

Send us Fan Mail

This was taken from a talk that I gave to a group of Wisconsin Customer Service Professionals back in 2020 on a range of contact center operational topics.

This is a 13-minute segment from that talk and one of my favorite pieces of content I have ever created.   

I have been looking for this for over a year!

I think you will enjoy the topics engagement topics that span from games to play, leadership committees, and some other unique ways that we have fun with our employees in our contact center.

Follow Tom: @tlaird_expivia
Join our Facebook Call Center Community: www.facebook.com/callcentergeek
Connect on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/tlairdexpivia/
Follow on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@callcenter_geek
Linkedin Group: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/9041993/
Watch us: Advice from a Call Center Geek Youtube Channel

 Through Expivia Digital, Tom works with contact center leaders on CCaaS platform selection, AI implementations, and NICE Studio and integration services. 

Same honest, vendor-neutral advice you hear on the Call Center Geek podcast, applied directly to your specific operational challenges. 

Schedule a consultation at ExpiviaDigital.com to discuss your contact center technology strategy. 

Click here:

expiviadigital.com

Follow Tom: @tlaird_expivia
Join our Facebook Call Center Community: www.facebook.com/callcentergeek
Connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tlairdexpivia/
Follow on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@callcenter_geek
Linkedin Group: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/9041993/
Watch us: Advice from a Call Center Geek Youtube Channel

OttoQA: try.ottoqa.com

Expivia: Expiviausa.com

Send us Fan Mail

Buying a new contact center platform is a HUGE decision for any organization.  In this episode, I give you all the tips that I can think about that I give to my customers when consulting or as a referral partner for them.

If you are just starting on your path or even if you are already down the road before you sign any deal you need to listen to this episode.  It will save you money.

Some of the topics we talk about:

• Pricing
• Negotiating Everything 
• Using a Partner
• 3rd Party Implementors (to use or not) 
• Scoping out Your Needs vs Wants
• Now is the time to Dream!
• Platform Pricing
• Should you do an RFP

And many more tips.

Follow Tom: @tlaird_expivia
Join our Facebook Call Center Community: www.facebook.com/callcentergeek
Connect on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/tlairdexpivia/
Follow on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@callcenter_geek
Linkedin Group: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/9041993/
Watch us: Advice from a Call Center Geek Youtube Channel

 Through Expivia Digital, Tom works with contact center leaders on CCaaS platform selection, AI implementations, and NICE Studio and integration services. 

Same honest, vendor-neutral advice you hear on the Call Center Geek podcast, applied directly to your specific operational challenges. 

Schedule a consultation at ExpiviaDigital.com to discuss your contact center technology strategy. 

Click here:

expiviadigital.com

Follow Tom: @tlaird_expivia
Join our Facebook Call Center Community: www.facebook.com/callcentergeek
Connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tlairdexpivia/
Follow on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@callcenter_geek
Linkedin Group: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/9041993/
Watch us: Advice from a Call Center Geek Youtube Channel

OttoQA: try.ottoqa.com

Expivia: Expiviausa.com

Send us Fan Mail

When you are working in the contact center environment, there are many people and personalities that you need to engage with in a positive way, sometimes that is easier said than done.

Issues between associates or supervisors unfortunately will happen. 

In Episode 159 of Advice from a Call Center Geek, we talk about what to do when there is an issue that happens on a team in your contact center and more importantly some tips on how to avoid them in the first place.

Follow Tom: @tlaird_expivia
Join our Facebook Call Center Community: www.facebook.com/callcentergeek
Connect on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/tlairdexpivia/
Follow on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@callcenter_geek
Linkedin Group: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/9041993/
Watch us: Advice from a Call Center Geek Youtube Channel
Text Me: Text "CCW" to 814-247-0633

 Through Expivia Digital, Tom works with contact center leaders on CCaaS platform selection, AI implementations, and NICE Studio and integration services. 

Same honest, vendor-neutral advice you hear on the Call Center Geek podcast, applied directly to your specific operational challenges. 

Schedule a consultation at ExpiviaDigital.com to discuss your contact center technology strategy. 

Click here:

expiviadigital.com

Follow Tom: @tlaird_expivia
Join our Facebook Call Center Community: www.facebook.com/callcentergeek
Connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tlairdexpivia/
Follow on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@callcenter_geek
Linkedin Group: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/9041993/
Watch us: Advice from a Call Center Geek Youtube Channel

OttoQA: try.ottoqa.com

Expivia: Expiviausa.com