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CX Gurus
CX Gurus episodes
- Rebuilding the Floor: What Remote Contact Centers Are Still Missing
Six years ago the industry went home in two weeks. Most contact centers kept the org chart and lost the floor: the supervisor who spots a bad call, the two-minute coaching fix, the new hire learning next to someone good. Most never rebuilt it.
In this episode of the CX Gurus Podcast, host Darren Prine (CRO & Co-Founder, Cloud Tech Gurus) talks with Sameer Maini, CEO and Founder of CollaborationRoom.AI, who spent 20 years running contact center and BPO operations before building software for them.
In this episode
- What contact centers actually glued together in March 2020
- What they lost when they left the building, and what it shows up as in the numbers
- Why many remote centers are “surviving, not thriving”
- A before-and-after customer story: 33% more calls taken and 27% more revenue in 90 days (client-reported)
- What a great remote contact center looks like in 2026
- The talent a remote center can hire that a building never could
Chapters
0:00 Highlights
0:44 Welcome: how remote work lost the floor
3:25 March 2020: the scramble to go remote
6:19 What centers lost when they left the building
10:31 What is still broken in remote contact centers
13:52 What a virtual contact center floor looks like
17:57 Visible proof of compliance, and standing out as a BPO
20:12 Customer story: LMM Inc.
23:25 Supervisor alerts and agent safety
24:43 The ideal remote contact center in 2026
27:16 ROI: productivity, handle time and attrition
31:26 Raising a daughter and running a company, remote
32:45 The talent a building could never hire
36:13 Business continuity and disaster recovery
36:53 Wrap-upWant a demo or a conversation about rebuilding supervisor presence in your remote operation? Reach out to Cloud Tech Gurus: https://cloudtechgurus.com
Past episodes: https://www.cxguruspodcast.com/
Subscribe on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@cxguruspodcastResults discussed are the guest’s own, reported by his customers. Cloud Tech Gurus is a partner and distributor for CollaborationRoom.AI.
Produced by the Cloud Tech Gurus Team. Subscribe for more insights from industry leaders. Visit www.cloudtechgurus.com
38 min - The Longest Wait: What Kidney Failure Taught Me About Customer Effort
Wes Dudey spent his career designing customer journeys. Then a massive heart attack — six cardiac arrests, 55 shocks, a 1% survival odds — followed by kidney failure, put him inside a journey he didn't design.
In this first episode of CX Gurus, host Jess talks with Wes about what he learned as a patient that he never fully understood as a CX executive: what customer effort actually costs someone living it, not just measuring it.
This episode also marks Jess's own first public conversation about her kidney disease journey — making this less an interview and more two practitioners comparing notes from the other side of the counter.
Watch on YouTube → https://www.youtube.com/@cxguruspodcast
Produced by the Cloud Tech Gurus Team. Subscribe for more insights from industry leaders. Visit www.cloudtechgurus.com
34 min - Remote Work, Leadership, and the Future of Contact Centers | John Coulter
In this episode of Contact Center Journeys, Fred Stacey sits down with John Coulter, SVP of Sales at Five Star Call Centers, to talk about developing future leaders in today's remote world — and how mentorship, networking, and staying connected keep our industry growing strong.
Timestamps / Chapters:
00:00 – Developing leaders in a remote world
02:30 – John's journey through the contact center space
08:10 – The challenges and opportunities of remote culture
14:00 – The importance of mentorship and finding your network
20:15 – Fred's key takeaways and closing thoughts
Hosted by: Fred Stacey
Produced by the Cloud Tech Gurus Team. Subscribe for more insights from industry leaders. Visit www.cloudtechgurus.com
55 min - Nate Brown's Journey in Customer Experience | From Customer Service to CX Leadership
Is customer service just a stepping stone, or can it be a meaningful, long-term career?
In this episode, Fred Stacey sits down with Nate Brown, Head of Education & Enablement at Metric Sherpa and co-founder of CX Accelerator, for an honest conversation about careers in customer experience, mentorship, leadership, and why CX still matters more than ever.
Nate shares his journey from frontline customer service roles to becoming one of the most respected voices in the CX community. Together, they unpack what makes customer experience a true competitive differentiator in a world where products can be copied, but loyalty cannot.
In this episode, we cover:
- Why customer service is more than an entry-level job
- - How mentorship shapes meaningful CX careers
- - The role of human connection in modern CX
- - Automation vs personalization in contact centers
- - Advice for the next generation of CX leaders
- - What the future of customer experience looks like
Contact Center Journeys exists to inspire the next generation of CX and contact center professionals by sharing real stories from people who built their careers in this space. There are no sales pitches, just honest conversations and lessons learned.
Produced by the Cloud Tech Gurus Team. Subscribe for more insights from industry leaders. Visit www.cloudtechgurus.com
1 hr 20 min - From Insurance Agent to Running Contact Centers Worldwide | Tyler Orrell
He walked into a random job fair with no plan, and walked out with a career that took him from answering phones to running contact centers across the globe, without a college degree.
In this episode of Contact Center Journeys, host Fred Stacey talks with Tyler Orrell about the unlikely path, the hard lessons along the way, and what keeps him up at night as AI reshapes the global contact center industry.
Tyler's story is exactly why this show exists: the contact center isn't a dead-end job — it's one of the best places to build a career.
Tyler Orrell — Konnect Media Solutions: www.konnectmediasolutions.com
Host Fred Stacey on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/fredstaceyaincx/
About Contact Center Journeys
Contact Center Journeys shares the real stories of the people who built their careers in CX and contact centers — to inspire the next generation coming up. No pitches, no selling. Just the journeys. Hosted by Fred Stacey.
Produced by the Cloud Tech Gurus Team. Subscribe for more insights from industry leaders. Visit www.cloudtechgurus.com
1 hr 15 min - AI in CX: Bill Staikos on the Future of Contact Centers
Is AI transforming the contact center, or is the industry focused on the wrong things?
In this full episode of the Contact Center Journeys Podcast, Fred Stacey sits down with Bill Staikos, CEO & Managing Partner at Be Customer Led, to break down the real future of customer experience, AI, and the workforce.
Bill shares powerful insights on:
- Why companies misunderstand AI's role in CX
- - The danger of replacing people instead of augmenting them
- - How AI will reshape work, culture, and customer expectations
- - Why surveys are failing modern CX teams
- - What the next 5 years of contact centers will look like
- - The rise of wearables, multimodal AI, and agent-to-agent interactions
- - What younger professionals should do to build a future-proof career
This is one of the most grounded, forward-looking CX conversations you'll hear this year.
About the Speakers
Fred Stacey — Host of Contact Center Journeys & CEO at Cloud Tech Gurus. A veteran CX and contact center expert focused on elevating the next generation of leaders.
Bill Staikos — CEO & Managing Partner at Be Customer Led. CX/EX leader with 20+ years across financial services, consulting, and enterprise transformation.
Produced by the Cloud Tech Gurus Team. Subscribe for more insights from industry leaders. Visit www.cloudtechgurus.com
1 hr - From Agent to CEO — Gina Gibson on Matching the Right Tech to the Right Problem
Gina Gibson — CEO of Think Forward and host of The Tech Matchmaker podcast — has led digital transformations for organizations ranging from 50 to 45,000 agents. In this episode she shares her journey from agent to CEO and her vendor-agnostic playbook for future-proofing the contact center.
In this episode:
- Gina's origin story: from frontline agent to CEO
- The vendor-agnostic approach to matching tech to the actual problem
- Future-proofing the contact center without losing the human element
- Leading transformations from 50 to 45,000 agents
- Making technology work better for the people behind it
Produced by the Cloud Tech Gurus Team. Subscribe for more insights from industry leaders. Visit www.cloudtechgurus.com
1 hr 7 min - Why People Disengage at Work — Justin Robbins on Rebuilding Trust in CX
Justin Robbins is a thought leader in customer experience with a human-centric approach to workplace engagement and over two decades in CX operations and leadership. He joins Fred to unpack why disengagement happens at work — and the practical moves leaders can make to restore trust and motivation.
In this episode:
- Justin's origin story and the paper-route lesson in honoring preferences
- Why disengagement actually happens
- Removing the friction points that frustrate agents
- Using technology to support — not replace — human connection
- The leader's role in engagement, and why continuous learning matters
Produced by the Cloud Tech Gurus Team. Subscribe for more insights from industry leaders. Visit www.cloudtechgurus.com
1 hr 2 min - From Check Authorizations to AI ROI — Laura Zegar on 27 Years in CX
Laura K. Zegar is founder of Quantum CX, a customer service and customer experience consulting practice specializing in contact center transformation. Formerly VP of contact center and CX oversight at Bank of America and an Accenture management consultant, Laura got her start in 1999 in Equifax's check-authorization department — and 27 years later she's helping contact centers maximize AI and automation ROI.
In this episode:
- Laura's origin story: from approving checks at Equifax in 1999 to founding Quantum CX
- Maximizing AI and automation investment ROI
- Streamlining omni-channel efficiency
- Reducing agent attrition through a high-quality employee experience
- A 27-year view of what's changed in the contact center — and what hasn't
Produced by the Cloud Tech Gurus Team. Subscribe for more insights from industry leaders. Visit www.cloudtechgurus.com
1 hr 6 min - From Crisis Line to Call Center QA — Lorne Wood on Fixing What Technology Can't
Episode Notes: Lorne Wood, founder and managing director of Better Call Center QA, brings over 30 years in contact center quality assurance and BPO. His career began on an evening-shift suicide crisis line — and the lessons he learned there about helping people over the phone have shaped a no-nonsense approach to fixing what technology alone can't.
In this episode:
- Lorne's origin story: crisis line → outbound telemarketing → building a 300-seat center from scratch
- Why tech alone can't fix leadership gaps and cultural drift
- Building QA programs that actually move the needle
- Tackling attrition, compliance headaches, and coaching on the floor
- The three lessons from the crisis line that never left him
Produced by the Cloud Tech Gurus Team. Subscribe for more insights from industry leaders. Visit www.cloudtechgurus.com
1 hr 1 min
About CX Gurus
From the publisher's feed
We didn't study contact centers. We ran them.
CX Gurus goes inside the enterprise contact center with the operators who've lived it — from 500-seat teams to 10,000+ global BPOs. Each week, host Darren Prine and guests break down what's actually working in CX and AI, and what's just noise.
Expect straight talk on AI agents, QA, WFM, vendor selection, and the messy reality of transformation. No consultants who've never taken a call. No hype. Just the practitioner's view from the floor.
Built by Cloud Tech Gurus.