CallTalk™ Radio

Unless we're in a churn and burn business, customer retention is critical to achieve long term profitability. But how do we know what drives customer retention? We may have lots of anecdotal data, but can we be scientific to identify those customers are very likely to return and to give good word of mouth?  Dr. Fred Van Bennekom of the Northeastern University's Executive MBA Program, joins us shed some light on those questions!

Recently, several key metrics have arisen to measure customer sentiment. The Net Promoter Score (NPS) is the best known, but the Customer Effort Score (CES) is a new entrant in the field. Both are controversial. In this first presentation of two we will discuss NPS. Specifically, we will look at the research basis behind NPS and ask whether there are other metrics that might better indicate a loyal customer. Or, perhaps more importantly, might identify a customer in need of some service recovery event to move them toward loyalty.

Dr. Fred Van Bennekom founded Great Brook to help organizations collect and apply customer and employee feedback. Great Brook conducts workshops on survey practices along with advising clients on their surveying practices. Fred authored Customer Surveying: A Guidebook for Service Managers and he teaches operations management in Northeastern University’s Executive MBA program. He served as an information systems consultant for Digital Equipment’s field service organization before earning his doctorate.

We will be discussing the reasons why Support Organizations choose to go virtual, advantages to leverage, roadblocks to avoid, and some lessons learned from out in the field.

Jesse Hoobler is the Director of Worldwide Software Support at Pitney Bowes Inc., a $4.9-billion company that provides technology solutions for small, mid-size and large firms that help them connect with customers to build loyalty and grow revenue.While at Pitney Bowes, Jesse has been on a five year journey to transform the support organization into an award-winning business service, driving excellence through customer experience. By focusing on customer adoption and realized value, his support organization has seen dramatic improvement in customer satisfaction and loyalty. Prior to joining Pitney Bowes, Jesse led the support organization at Chronicle Technologies, an industry leader in management software for the restoration and construction industry. During his tenure, Jesse virtualized Chronicle’s support center, cutting costs and driving efficiency gains through a 100% work-from-home agent model. Jesse holds a Masters in Computer Science from The College of Saint Rose.

Bruce talks with Greg Van Zandt about the up and coming generation of contact center employees - The Millennials aka Generation Y.

Understanding Millennials:

Who Are They? How are they different from those before them? What drives them? What are their social attributes? What are their strengths?

Leveraging their Strengths: Considerations when managing this Generation,

Implications on: Recruiting, Screening and Training, Scheduling, Work

diversity, Training / Coaching, Contact Center and Corporate culture, Leveraging technology, Leveraging Millennials’ unique characteristicsRevving up for Gen Y: Dynamic Scheduling, Acknowledgement and Motivational Feedback and Coaching, Tinkering, Incentives.

Greg Van Zandt is a Customer Service professional with over thirty years’ experience in developing and managing customer service organizations for predominately Fortune 1000 consumer products companies. Professional services experience includes projects across many industries: financial, insurance, hotel/travel, automotive, utility, consumer and business products industries, and federal government with a focus on customer service operations. Greg has significant experience in multi-site contact center and field service management, rules based routing, and customer focused multichannel handling optimization. Greg is a founding member of the Board of Directors of the Center for Customer Driven Quality, Purdue University, past member National Board of Directors, Society of Consumer Affairs Professionals, past Executive Chair Electronics Industries Association Consumer Affairs Counsel, and is a Chicago Regional Coordination team member of the Contact Center Networking Group (CCNG).

Do you want to improve your performance and the performance of your staff?  Of course, the answer is yes. We all do.  But first we need distinctions between managing and parenting--as well as managing and leading--so managers (and everyone else) can develop both professionally and personally. 

ROSANNE D'AUSILIO, Ph.D., an industrial psychologist, consultant, master trainer, best selling author, executive coach, customer service expert, and President of Human Technologies Global, Inc., specializes in human performance management. Over the last 25 years, she has provided needs analyses, instructional design, and customized, live customer service skills trainings as well as executive/leadership coaching. Also offered is agent and facilitator university certification through Purdue University’s Center for Customer Driven Quality.

Get in touch with Rosanne!

Website:  www.human-technologies.com

Newsleter:  www.HumanTechTips.com

Emai:  [email protected]

Ed Poorbaugh, from Sysco, shares how they have improved their average quality score from 88.7% to 94%, and reduced turnover by 15%.  They are delivering service with a S.M.I.L.E. 

Ed Poorbaugh has held a number of positions in warehousing, transportation and information technology operations during his 17 year career with Sysco. Prior to his current role, he managed the IT operations for the Southwestern United States and was the project manager for several successfully enterprise-wide software development projects. Ed was an integral part of the design and implementation of Sysco’s new call centers in Houston and Dallas, Texas. Currently, he is responsible for the operational and quality performance of the support center, including the management of telephony and other technology platforms used to deliver a cost-effective and customer focused experience. Ed has a B.A in English with a minor in Environmental Sciences from the University of New Mexico.

Steve Ellis, from Eye Med, will share five key steps to designing an effective Voice of the Customer program that focuses on the customer experience and drives continuous improvement throughout the organization.

Steve Ellis is Sr. Director of Customer Care for EyeMed Vision Care.  He has over 2 decades of leadership with a proven track record to deliver outstanding results at Sprint, Florida Power & Light, Comcast Cable and EyeMed.  Steve has experience in marketing, sales, customer service, call center, strategic planning and general management leadership.  Steve is a graduate from OH University and lives with his family in Cincinnati, OH.

Special Guest, Russell Rossi, from Ney York Life, will be joining us to share his insight on transitioning a service center, into a sales center, that will provide more value to the organization as a whole.

Discussion points:

1.  Developing a strategic roadmap

2.  Key strategies to excite your organization for change and growth

3.  Importance of measuring results for success

 

Russell Rossi is the Corporate Vice President of Customer

Experience and Strategic Planning for New York Life Tampa Operations.  Russell’s responsibilities include all customer touch points and technology of the Customer Experience Program comprising the internal Quality Teams, Learning and Development Team, After Call Survey, Speech Analytics, Voice of the Customer, and Voice of the Agent programs.  Additional responsibilities include oversight for all Strategic Planning and Project Management for key Member Services technologies, initiatives, and enhancements.  

Russell possesses over 25 years of management experience in a wide range of industries with core competencies in Strategic & Tactical Business Planning, Project management, Quality & Process Engineering, Revenue Generation, Customer Service Satisfaction & Retention and Business Growth Development. He holds a BS Degree in Business and Marketing.

"Call" centers are now "Contact" centers, with multiple channels a client can connect with you and your business.  Special guest, David Raia, will be joining us as we examine this new world and discuss the following:

Identifying and selecting Key Performance Indicators for multiple channelsTracking Multichannel Metrics - Tools and TricksEfficiency (Cost) and Effectiveness (Quality) Balanced Scorecard Groupings in a multichannel CenterCalculating Multichannel Occupancy and Utilization to avoid Double CountingRobbing Peter to pay Paul - Utilization overlap and the impact of OvertimeCost per Contact - The Final Frontier

David Raia bio:

Mr. David Raia is highly regarded in the industry as a Contact Center Operations Improvement Specialist. He began his consulting career in 1995 and has spent the past 15 years successfully driving a variety of complex Contact Center Optimization engagements across Federal Government and Fortune 500 companies in the United States and Canada.

He has successfully delivered People, Process and Technology Improvement projects for Contact Center functions that include: Sales and Service, Credit and Collections, Campaign Management and CRM Strategies and Tactics. He and his project teams have met or exceeded Business Case commitments in each completed engagement. His areas of expertise include Virtual Consolidations, Market Segmentation, Contact Management, Quality Assurance, Agent and Supervisor Training, Reporting and Performance Management and related workforce optimization.

Mr. Raia has been a featured speaker on many of these topics at a variety of national Contact Center and Management Seminars.

Transitioning your call center from a typical “customer service” environment to a “sales” environment can be a challenging, however, in today’s competitive environment, it is critical to have everyone in your organization focused on upselling or cross selling products/services.

My topic of adding sales to your customer service culture will provide you with strategies for making this transition and ensuring your call center is a revenue generator for your company. These strategies allowed our call center to begin to pay for our own operating expenses within three months, improved the morale of the employees and providing more opportunities for all center personnel.

Susan Wolski Bio:

Sue is a Performance and Metric Manager with TXU Energy. She has a long history in call center (sales and service) performance driven success. In her current role Sue measures, monitors and provides direction to a team that drives sales and service execution through more than 700 agents. Sue has held positions as call center performance consultant and has worked for fortune 500 corporations as setting up new call centers as well as improving performance of current sites. Sue is well regarded in the industry as a person who can step in to a center and find and solve for performance gaps resulting in unprecedented performance. Sue recently presented and served as a panelist at the IQPC’s Call Center Performance, Productivity & Metrics conference. She delivered a presentation on “Strategies for Driving the Sales and Service Team to Some of their Highest Metrics.”

Kimberly Parish Barrett,  Director, Florida Abuse Hotline,  Department of Children and Families,  joins us for a disscussion on how Government Call Centers are using industry leading technology to empower the front line, manage in real time, and streamline processes to improve service levels and customer service. 

Kimberly Parish Barrett, Graduated Florida State University with a Bachelor's in Business and a Master's in Public Administration.  Director of the Florida Abuse Hotline for 2+ years, previous experience as the Verint/Workforce Management Administrator, Data Analyst, and Call Floor

 Supervisor (5 years), Certified Public Manager.