Next in Queue

Have you ever had a customer experience that made you think, “There’s got to be a better way?” An over-priced oil change did that for Adam Alfia and it led to him opening his first company. His entrepreneurial spirit led to a variety of businesses, including a concierge service and a variety of restaurants and night clubs.

Increasingly, he realized customers stopped engaging when there were service issues and simply took to reviews to express their displeasure. Once again, he thought, “There’s got to be a better way.” How do you facilitate a dialogue between the customer and management in real time so issues can be resolved?

This week on Next in Queue, we discuss at:

· The most important lesson when dealing with customers

· Why customers avoid engaging when there are problems

· How he leveraged technology to begin the conversation

· How instant feedback can improve workforce management

· How instant feedback can improve Employee Experience (EX)

Connect with Adam on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamalfia/

https://www.realtimefeedback.com/

Music courtesy of Big Red Horse – https://bigredhorseband.com/

Brought to you by Happitu – https://happitu.com/

Nearly every startup wants to grow. At certain milestones of growth, however, the structure of customer support must change to successfully support the business. And while change is never easy, knowing what and when you’ll need to change as you scale can help smooth out the process.

Over the past 13 years, Reagan Helms has grown from the solo support agent in a start-up organization with less than 10 employees to the Director of Customer Experience leading a support organization of 30 agents.

This week on Next in Queue, we discuss:

· The required shift from being an individual contributor to a leader

· The change in support recruiting that comes with scale

· The new problems in support organizations that come with growth

· Why you need to introduce structured processes before they feel necessary

· Maintaining culture with team growth

· The impact scale has on training new support agents

Connect with Reagan on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/reagan-helms/

Music courtesy of Big Red Horse – https://bigredhorseband.com/

Brought to you by Happitu – https://happitu.com/

There’s a tendency to see mental health issues through a different lens than physical health issues. Whether it’s depression, anxiety, PTSD, or neurodevelopmental disorders like ADHD, mental health challenges are often hidden from even close friends and family members. Because of the stigma around them and the fact that they often manifest with no outwardly visible signs, they are often not addressed until a breaking point with severe and potentially dangerous consequences.

This week, I’m talking with Erika-Taylor-Beck, the VP of Client Support at Relias. Her own personal journey dealing with mental illness inspired her to advocate for others and lead with authenticity and vulnerability.

This week on Next in Queue, we discuss:

· The fear and stigma around discussing mental health issues

· Why she decided to discuss this publicly

· The specific challenges in Contact Centers

· Tips for identifying vulnerable employees

· Ways to foster connection in a remote work environment

Connect with Erika on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/erika-r-taylor-beck-relias/

Need help?  https://www.cdc.gov/mentalhealth/tools-resources/individuals/index.htm

Music courtesy of Big Red Horse – https://bigredhorseband.com/

Brought to you by Happitu – https://happitu.com/

The chasm between the promises of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the reality of what AI can accomplish is closing faster than ever. Whether it’s creating uncanny images, writing poetry, providing better information in a chatbot, writing code, or creating original video from text prompts, the output of AI is increasingly disrupting long-established domains relegated to humans.

This week, I’m talking with Boris Cergol, the Regional Head of Data at Endava. He has spent over a decade in the AI and Machine Learning (ML) space, and we discuss:

· The attention-gathering abilities of AI

· Use-cases for AI and ML in Business

· The risks that AI technology poses

· Balancing centralized and de-centralized AI systems

· The challenge of overcoming bad or lack of data

· How AI could change the “attention economy”

Connect with Boris on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/boriscergol/

Music courtesy of Big Red Horse – https://bigredhorseband.com/

Brought to you by Happitu – https://happitu.com/

Perhaps you’ve heard the phrase, “The contact center is not a cost center.” The idea behind that is great contact centers drive customer loyalty and revenue by creating great experiences. But that doesn’t mean that they shouldn’t be efficient or that they should be immune to cost-cutting measures. Every company should be mindful of costs. But cutting costs for the sake of cutting costs can end up *costing* a lot more in the long run.

To discuss how to cut costs responsibly, I talked with Brad Cleveland, author, speaker, and consultant known globally for his expertise in customer strategy and management. Brad was a founding partner of ICMI, International Customer Management Institute, and served as the CEO for more than a decade.  His most recent book, Leading the Customer Experience: How to Chart a Course and Deliver Outstanding Results, is a guide to shaping experiences that win loyalty and deliver outstanding business results.

Brad and I discuss:

· Customer Access Strategies

· The value of cross-training / pooling

· Deflection beyond self-service

· Different methods to listen to Voice of the Customer (VOC)

· How Workforce Optimization relates to organizational culture

Connect with Brad on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/bradcleveland1/

Free Resources to help your organization thrive – https://www.bradcleveland.com/

Leading the Customer Experience – https://www.amazon.com/Leading-Customer-Experience-Deliver-Outstanding/dp/1789666872

Music courtesy of Big Red Horse – https://bigredhorseband.com/

Brought to you by Happitu – https://happitu.com/

NPS® (Net Promoter System℠ / Net Promoter Score℠) was originally designed for B2C (Business to Consumer) as a predictor of loyalty. After working at Satmetrix Systems, the originator of the research behind NPS®, Steve Bernstein helped found Waypoint Group to tackle how to use NPS® in a B2B (Business to Business) environment.  B2B has a significantly different buying cycle (both in length and complexity) from B2C, and often, many stakeholders influencing the buying decision.

Steve joins Next in Queue this week to discuss:

· The difference between Net Promoter System℠ and Net Promoter Score℠

· Sampling Strategy and why Response Rate is a critical metric

· The issues with “transactional” NPS®

· When and how often to engage with customers on NPS®

· Why he hates the term, “survey”

· And why NPS® should not be part of an agent scorecard

Connect with Steve on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/sbernstein/

Failure Sucks – https://www.amazon.com/Failure-Sucks-More-Your-Customers-ebook/dp/B00N9DCDAA/ref=sr_1_1

Music courtesy of Big Red Horse – https://bigredhorseband.com/

Brought to you by Happitu – https://happitu.com/

Net Promoter®, NPS®, NPS Prism®, and the NPS-related emoticons are registered trademarks of Bain & Company, Inc., Satmetrix Systems, Inc., and Fred Reichheld. Net Promoter Score℠ and Net Promoter System℠ are service marks of Bain & Company, Inc., Satmetrix Systems, Inc., and Fred Reichheld.

Remote work is not a COVID-era invention – it has been evolving for decades. But the COVID era forced many companies to adopt remote work with little preparation. Today, the debate rages inside companies – do we bring people back to the office? Do we continue with remote work? Is there a workable middle ground?

Anne Bibb has spent the better part of the last decade advising companies on remote work strategies and this week, she joins Next in Queue to discuss:

· How new remote work tools can contribute to mental health issues

· How work from home has impacted productivity

· Keys to leading a remote workforce

· The two things employees want

· The most important considerations before outsourcing / hiring off-shore

· What fractional workers are and why you might want them

· The future of remote work

Connect with Anne on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/annebibb/

https://www.remoteevolution.com/  and Coming Soon: https://annebibb.com/

Music courtesy of Big Red Horse – https://bigredhorseband.com/

Brought to you by Happitu – https://happitu.com/

Customer Experience is impacted by the decisions companies make, the systems they build, and the people they hire. A fully formed CX strategy requires buy-in from the C-Suite because it affects every part of the business. To drive CX projects forward, practitioners need to be able communicate in “C-Suite Speak” to have an impact on the business. Diane Magers has worked with some of the most recognizable brands in the world and this week she helps us think about the ROI of CX and how to communicate it effectively.

This week on Next in Queue, we touch on:

· Customer Experience vs. Experience Management

· CX Indicators vs. CX Measures

· Why Employee Experience affects Customer Experience

· Why a formalized decision-making process is critical to success

· What journey mapping accomplishes and who should be involved in the process

· The power of questions and change leadership

Connect with Diane on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/dianemagers/

Music courtesy of Big Red Horse – https://bigredhorseband.com/

Brought to you by Happitu – https://happitu.com/

Much like cooking, company culture is an art. It requires a lot of ingredients, time, and tools. But a culture with the wrong ingredients can leave a bad taste in everyone’s mouth. Growing up in a successful family business in the service industry, Jill Raff is very attuned to the importance of both Customer Experience (CX) and Employee Experience (EX) and has made her business to help companies with both.

This week on Next in Queue, we touch on:

· Why company culture matters

· Visible signals of culture issues

· How EX impacts CX

· How to gauge company culture during an interview

· Strategies to improve your company culture

· The one ingredient to company culture that you can never have enough of

Connect with Jill on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/ex2cx-advisor/

https://www.jillraff.com/

Music courtesy of Big Red Horse – https://bigredhorseband.com/

Brought to you by Happitu – https://happitu.com/

Chatbots are about as popular as cable companies, but every new technology needs time to mature. The continued evolution of Conversational AI (Artificial Intelligence) and NLP (Natural Language Processing) is making both “low-code” and “no-code” chatbot deployments successful, both from a customer standpoint and a business standpoint. But a successful deployment requires a solid strategy, appropriate measures of success, and great conversational design. This week, I talk with Jim Rowe, who has been helping businesses with their chatbot deployments for years.

This week on Next in Queue, we touch on:

· Why people hate chatbots

· What Conversational Design is and why it matters

· How Conversational AI has allowed the chatbot to evolve

· Chatbot mistakes to avoid

· When you should and should not name your chatbot

· The biggest opportunities for chatbots

Connect with Jim on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/jimrowebot/

Music courtesy of Big Red Horse – https://bigredhorseband.com/

Brought to you by Happitu – https://happitu.com/