Kicking off 2023 we are in the contact centre and getting a coaching and leadership masterclass with Barry Cooper - loved chatting to Barry !

At this years Call & Contact Centre Expo in November I was lucky enough to host a panel with Sandrea Morgan of Oner Active, Dan Fretwell of The Cotwolds Company and James Revell of Air France/KLM. At the Expo this panel really drew the crowds and it their were people stood as all the seats had gone ! The panel cover the main challenges they see for our industry next year and share tips and thoughts as well.

With circa 20 years behind him leading contact centres after starting on the phones Clayton made the jump to start his own business in leadership coaching. If you know Clayton you know what an awesome human he is and how much sense he talks on leadership , if you dont know him then after listening to this I bet you send him a message on Linkedin.

A brief summary of whats next for me and the podcast plus some industry news and details about the next three guests.

Andy Watts is a subject matter expert when it comes to some of the best cutting edge technology in our industry and in this episode I get to learn loads from chatting to him and I hope you do too.

Eugene Neale of Loveholidays chats chatbots...or rather digital assistants and the impact they can have on your contact centre.  It was a pleasure to speak to someone who is at the forefront of conversational AI and technological development in our industry.  The stuff loveholidays are doing with Sabio is fascinating and Eugene brings it all to life in this episode.

Jeanette comes on the show and talks all about her career and about some of the cool stuff Jabra are doing to help agents wellbeing and provide coachable information in the moment.  Jeanette comes from the phones and knows her stuff, her passion for our industry is known by many and I loved chatting to her on this episode.

Francesca Randle, Kelly Bristow and Josh Homans of Cactus Search discuss volume recruitment and how its changed post covid, brexit and amidst a talent shortage.

They share thoughts and great tips on;

Candidate Attraction prior and current

Challenges now and how they advise their clients

What the key drivers are for candidates.

What processes they use on these campaigns and what they look for in recruiting good sales advisors.

Plus much much more and as I've come to find out if you work at Cactus you work hard but have fun and this comes across in this episode.

Peter Krykant is an amazing human being who through his efforts in helping those in need of help in our society namely homeless people and those struggling with addiction has been recognised and interviewed by the BBC and met the Queen.

It wasnt always like this and Peter's passion in helping others is born out of struggling to rise out of this awful situation. His rise was helped by a contact centre taking a chance on him.

In our industry peter thrived and learnt skills he still uses today and started to enjoy life again.

This is an emotional, uplifting episode and not to be missed.

Phil Anderson of The Forum is an awesome guest and true advocate of our industry and is someone truly passionate about learning. 

Join me as we hear from Phil on;

1. Why should you listen to this - what will you gain?

2. Phil's career starting with 4 years on the phone, being a Team Leader, moving into WFM and undertaking training with the Forum before eventually joining them.

3. How to learn & what is learning ?

4. What stops learning ?

5. How to build learning habits and rhythms.

6. Tips for being a better person.

I was so motivated after hearing Phil speak and I am sure you will be too !