CallTalk™ Radio

Applications like Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, and online customer communities have put the power into the hands of the consumer and customer, leaving companies at a loss for how to retain brand equity, how to interaction in these new channels and the affect of social media on their bottom-line business. Dr. Natalie’s recent research on the application of social media to customer service may be the tipping point for businesses to take Web 2.0 as a serious IT application that can literally transform a company, its customers, it culture and the bottom-line. And she’s developed an ROI model for customer service social media.

Dr. Natalie provides guidance to CxOs, IT, CRM, chief customer service officers as well as customer experience and contact center professionals. She brings extensive knowledge in helping organizations understand their customers’ changing needs and the bottom-line value of acquiring and retaining loyal customers in a very competitive marketplace. Her research, founded on being the voice of the consumer, focuses in two areas. The first is by representing consumer expectations and experiences and the second is by helping companies to create customer experiences that create magnetic brand loyalty.

Does More Technology Really Make Your Center Perform Better? Learn The Just released results of groundbreaking research.

Up to 30% Reduction in Cost per Call - through Technology alone! A new Research Report on Technology in the Call Center shows this and many other statistical ties between Technology and Call Center Performance. Download and read the Executive Summary first. Download Survey Here   »

Then tune in to our Encore Presentation on CallTalk live Wed., April 18th at 10 am PT / 1pm ET, when research team, Bruce Belfiore, John Chatterly and Dee Buell, will discuss their findings and open the floor to your questions.

Is your employee taking advantage of your medical leave policy or the Family Medical Leave Act?

No one likes to be sick, and managers hate it even more when an employee uses that card for the wrong reason.  However, there are legal issues protecting the employee and employer, and it’s up to you to know how to make the right decisions while managing your workforce.  We are joined by an expert that will help us navigate what can be some very tricky water.

Join host Bruce Belfiore and senior contact center experts as they discuss caller satisfaction, agent satisfaction and best practices. 

We gathered many top managers and executives in the contact center industry during our October event, including Matt Conant of PLATO Learning - "Small changes can and did make a big difference to caller satisfaction, but sometimes the changes you need to makerequire some careful listening"  Hear how they turned their center around, and Chuck Sartiano of Blue Cross Blue Shield Florida - "Facing up to the facts and acting on them created a 500% increase in Agent satisfaction" - How benchmarking, embracing weak points, and finding solutions on a collaborative basis united their center and boosted both morale and performance metrics.

During the"20 Ideas in 20 minutes" segment you can listen to this rapid-fire series of best practices from contact center managers of leading centers, such as New York Life AARP and Citizens Energy Group. Each "pearl" is the fruit of actual positive, proven experiences. You will certainly come away with some actionable projects you can implement immediately. Many of the tips focus on making your employees into a team of high achievers.

We call up to one of the busiest Contact Centers in the world at time of year - Santa's Workshop.  From WFM to FCR, we ask them to share their Best Practices with us.  This entertaining but informative show is a compilation of call center best practices from the diverse team of Contact Center Experts here at BenchmarkPortal.

Voice User Interface Specialist, Sondra Ahlen, joins us to talk about the continuously emerging caller base of Latino speaking clients.

Two words reveal the secret of successful employee incentive programs: feedback and reinforcement.   These are two of the four core tenets driving behaviors that affect KPI’s.  Join Special Guest Bob Cowen from Snowfly on CallTalk to learn the best ways to utilize them to promote success behaviors in your center.

IVR's are designed to route a caller to the correct agent - but not at the cost of frustrating the caller with long menus or repetitive questions.  Susan Hura, from Speach Usability, shares her insight on how to bring the IVR and agent together, creating a smooth road for the caller to travel.

Would you like to add diversity, flexibility and experience to your workforce through at-home agents?  After managing a call center for one of the largest insurance companies in the world, Dee Buell shares her thoughts on how at-home agents can become successful in almost any industry.

Customer feedback is a powerful tool to improve service levels, eliminate inefficiencies, and create more loyal customers--but like any tool, it needs to be used properly to be effective. Hear Peter Leppik, industry expert, author and founder and CEO of Vocalabs, talk about proven, scientific strategies for making customer feedback work for you.