Next in Queue

Next in Queue

By Rob DwyerBusiness
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Next in Queue episodes

  • The Bright Side of Life featuring Matt Kendall

    Always Look on the Bright Side of Life is the comedic conclusion to Monty Python’s 1979 film, The Life of Brian. If you’ve never seen the film, the irony is that it’s sung by Eric Idle’s character to Graham Chapman’s character, both of whom are being, quite literally, crucified. It’s come to signify the “stiff upper lip” spirit of the British people and has become the most popular song played at British funerals.

    Faced with the impact AI is having on content creation, “Human Writer” Matt Kendall decided to look on the bright side of life and focus on not only becoming better at his craft, but also on AI fluency and the curation of human-generated content worth consuming. His newsletter, BPO Bullhorn, is a collection of articles, podcasts, interviews, books, events, and more that are relevant, informative, and meaningful to the BPO sector.

    We discuss:

    • AI’s impact on the BPO industry and the future of customer service
    • The importance of emotional connection in storytelling for the BPO industry
    • The ethical implications of AI and its potential impact on education
    • The role of governments in supporting the BPO industry
    • The need for AI fluency and the challenges of AI-generated content
    • The potential for AI to enhance customer service and the BPO industry

    Connect with Matt on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/cognitivematt/

    Cognitive Copy – https://www.cognitivecopy.com/

    BPO Bullhorn Newsletter – https://www.cognitivecopy.com/newsletter

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

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

    52 min
  • Looking Down the Barrel of a Gun featuring Rachel Williams
    Resilience can be embodied many ways. In the case of the Beastie Boys’ 1989 album Paul’s Boutique, which featured Looking Down the Barrel of a Gun, it’s embodied by the fact that the album, a flop on release, went double platinum in 1999, nearly 10 years after its release. In the lyrics, they mention Bruce Willis who’s come to embody resilience based on his portrayal of John McClane in 1988’s Die Hard and the resilient stream of sequels. But resilience is important for everyone, not just albums and fictional cops who celebrate Christmas differently than most.
    Rachel Williams has been looking down the barrel of a gun her entire life – Gun Barrel City, Texas, that is. She's also been designing resilience in her own life for a decade – engineered endurance that allows her to thrive in moments of change. She joins the show to discuss the five
    Pillars of Designed Resilience
    We discuss:
    • Rachel’s personal journey of resilience
    • Pillar 1: Self-Concept
    • Pillar 2: Community
    • Pillar 3: Financial Stability
    • Pillar 4: Physical Well-Being
    • Pillar 5: Personal Growth
    Connect with Rachel on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/rachel-williams-pro/
    Designed Resilience – https://designedresilience.com/
    Music courtesy of Big Red Horse – https://bigredhorseband.com/
    Brought to you by Happitu – https://happitu.com/
    53 min
  • We’re a New Wave Band featuring David Powers

    In the world of punk music, there’s probably no greater insult than to be labeled a sellout. In 1980, the Dead Kennedys were assuredly not sellouts. Invited to the 1980 Bay Area Music Awards to play their indie hit, California Über Alles, the Kennedys did exactly what you would expect a punk bank opening for the likes of Eddie Money and Huey Lewis to do – they threw up a metaphorical middle finger and after the opening chords of California Über Alles, they began playing Pull My Strings. The song is a lighthearted insult to the music industry practice of payola and the artists who sell out to become stars.

    The tech platforms that dominate the world today were once very punk – they were disruptive and had loyal followings. But not only did they sell out, in doing so, they’ve degraded the usefulness of the platforms and the only reason people stay is because there are few alternatives. There’s a name for this and David Powers joins the show to discuss how it applies to platforms from Uber to Amazon.

    We discuss:

    • The term coined by Cory Doctorow to describe this lifecycle
    • The 4 steps of this lifecycle
    • Examples including Uber, Reddit, Twitter, and Amazon
    • Whether paid platforms are the solution
    • How DRM affects authors
    • How the gaming industry has fallen prey
    • Whether OpenAI is already part of the lifecycle

    Connect with David on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidjpowers2/

    CX Riot Radio – https://open.spotify.com/show/3p4rE3csfzp7B579u3PG24

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

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

    52 min
  • Who the Hell Are You featuring Lindsay Haun

    Woody Harrelson’s best-known basketball-related film may be 1992’s White Men Can’t Jump, but his 2023 film, Champions, is a far better primer in leadership, especially when it comes to taking over a new team. He plays Marcus Marakovich, a basketball coach doing community service coaching a team of players with learning disabilities to avoid jail time. In this moment, he’s introduced to Cosentino, played by Madison Tevlin, who demonstrates the attitude many people have of a new leader – “Who the hell are you?”

    Taking over a new team presents challenges that many new leaders are unprepared for. Lindsay Haun, VP of Managed Support Operations at Netrix Global, joins the show to discuss strategies for success.

    We discuss:

    • Taking Over a New Team
    • Building a Team from Scratch
    • Navigating Age and Experience Differences
    • Transitioning to Leadership
    • Leading Teams in Unfamiliar Functions
    • Balancing KPIs with Teambuilding
    • Keys to Improving Team Performance

    Connect with Lindsay on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/haunlindsay/

    Big Red Podcast – https://open.spotify.com/show/1wGoR13jP7zqQLmbY70dmm

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

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

    50 min
  • This Doesn’t Just Happen featuring Sarah Caminiti

    In 1988’s Big, Tom Hanks brought the perspective of a 13-year-old boy, Josh, into the toy design world. It’s a jarring experience for the seasoned executive, Paul, played by John Heard. Despite all the data Paul presented in this meeting demonstrating the potential of his skyscraper bot, Josh brought a different data point – the real voice of the customer. Josh knew kids and how they thought, not just because he was one, but because he talked with them all day long.

    That same kind of insight exists in so many organizations, but just like in Big, it’s ignored by the people developing products. It exists within the Support Team who is having conversations with customers all day long. Sarah Caminiti is the VP of Customer Success at DNSimple and an advocate for Support Teams having a seat at the Product Development table.

    We discuss:

    • The importance of Support’s Voice in Product Development
    • Why surveys shouldn’t be the only source of customer insights
    • Overcoming barriers to Support Team involvement
    • Fostering open lines of communication
    • Creating a culture of communication
    • 2 Support Lessons learned from hospitality

    Connect with Sarah on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarah-caminiti-5827b784/

    DNSimple – https://dnsimple.com/

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

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

    54 min
  • Get Off of My Cloud featuring Fred Stacey

    On the heels of one of the biggest hits of all time, the Rolling Stones sent Get Off of My Cloud to #1 in 1965. While the Stones may have felt they were on cloud nine after the success of (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction, their management was immediately on them for a follow-up. Just wanting to be left alone, Get Off of My Cloud was a direct response to the pressure to never rest and continually pump out hit songs.

    Nearly 60 years later, the refrain from technologists is “Hey, You, Get On to The Cloud.” For many reasons, many companies have yet to migrate to cloud communications platforms and are still relying on on-premises legacy platforms. While the past decade has provided ample carrots for migration, the stick of missing out on implementing AI is finally beginning to move the needle. Fred Stacey, CEO of Cloud Tech Gurus, stands in for Charlie Watts and bangs the drum for companies to “Get On to The Cloud!”

    We discuss:

    • The State of Contact Center Technology
    • Barriers to Cloud Adoption
    • Exciting Advancements in AI-based applications
    • Adoption by Market Segmentation
    • How AI will impact the labor market
    • Navigating the Transformative Technological Revolution

    Connect with Fred on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/fredstaceyaincx/

    Cloud Tech Gurus – https://cloudtechgurus.com

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

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

    53 min
  • If Droids Could Think There’d Be None of Us Here featuring Luke Jamieson

    2002’s Star Wars: Episode II Attack of the Clones introduced the Kaminoans, a civilization skilled at cloning. Like many skilled at developing specific technologies, the cloners of Kamino didn’t spend much time thinking about the impacts of their work. They were skilled at genetic engineering, and they found customers willing to pay for those skills.

    Today, cloning people is still taboo but closing voices, faces, and video imagery of people is big business. Despite the glut of customers willing to pay for these new technologies, questions regarding the ethics and long-term impacts of them remain unanswered. While I didn’t head to the Outer Rim for this conversation, I did enlist the help of Luke Jamieson who lives 9,000 miles away from me. Luke is a Global Thought Leader on the topics of EX, CX, and the future of work.

    We discuss:

    • The key factor impacting AI adoption
    • The Role of AI in Contact Centers
    • Evolving communication preferences
    • Potential Security Risks of Voice Biometrics
    • The Future of Customer Service

    Connect with Luke on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/luke-jamieson/

    Voice Cloning – https://play.ht/

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

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

    51 min
  • Good Against Remotes is One Thing featuring Kaspars Kirsis

    Despite Han Solo’s skepticism in the 1977 classic, Star Wars, the Marksman-H training remote was used to train Jedi for roughly 900 years. They were quick and unpredictable just like a living opponent. They provided instant performance feedback and they could be used at scale, offering unique but simultaneous training experiences to an entire class of Padawans (Jedi trainees for you non-nerds).

    The training remote is the mock call of the contact center world, but as long as contact centers have existed, most mock calls were carried out between two people and getting everyone the practice they needed was incredibly time-consuming. But the emergence of conversational AI allows training classes to execute mock calls, one of the most effective training methods, at scale. Kaspars Kirsis is the Co-Founder and CEO of Ramplit, a company using AI to speed time to proficiency in the contact center by providing automated call simulations.

    We discuss:

    • Benefits of Mock Calls vs Other Training Techniques
    • Challenges of Traditional Mock Calls
    • Number of Simulations and Focus Areas
    • Agent Performance Evaluation and Feedback
    • The Impact of AI in Training and Contact Centers
    • The Exciting Opportunities in Agent Assist Solutions

    Connect with Kaspars on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/kaspars-kirsis/

    Ramplit – https://ramplit.com

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

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

    40 min
  • Rock ‘n’ Roll Pest Control featuring Margaret Garcia
    Seattle is known for grunge rock. But before grunge, the Young Fresh Fellows were pumping out punky power pop. And they’re still going strong today. Rock ‘n’ Roll Pest Control, from their 1984 debut is about how the power of music can help all manner of mental pests.
    But when you have pests like insects or rodents invading your home, music won’t make them go away. You’ll need actual pest control. And when actual pest control companies need help connecting with their customers, they use companies like Grit PPO, a home services outsourcer. Margaret Garcia believes that customer service skills are just as critical as pest elimination skills in the industry, so she built a team of experts to provide those skills.
    We discuss:
    • The evolving role of women in the home services industry
    • Benefits of outsourcing customer service
    • Navigating starting a business
    • Success in a hybrid and work from home environment
    • A hot take on call scripting
    • The role of AI in the pest control industry
    Connect with Margaret on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/margaret-garcia-grit-ppo/
    Grit PPO – https://www.gritppo.com/
    Music courtesy of Big Red Horse – https://bigredhorseband.com/
    Brought to you by Happitu – https://happitu.com/
    42 min
  • Who Do You Trust featuring Dawud Gordon and Ivan Milenkovic

    Last week, we explored trust in terms of leadership. But in this scene from the 1989 Tim Burton film, Batman, Jack Nicholson’s Joker is exploring a different kind of trust. When someone you’ve never met is seemingly always behind a mask, how do you trust them? How do you know who they really are and what they’re actually up to?

    As work from home has become more and more prevalent in the BPO space, that kind of trust becomes increasingly important. Companies are entrusting the access to their customer data to agents who, not only work for an outsourcer, but also work behind the mask of work from home. Dawud Gordon and Ivan Milenkovic join this week’s show to discuss the importance of security in the BPO sector and how AI is changing the landscape.

    We discuss:

    • Opportunities and Risks of AI in BPO Security
    • Identity Protection and Evolving Threats
    • Challenges of Traditional Security Measures
    • Challenges of Implementing Multi-Factor Authentication
    • The Limitations of User Responsibility in Security

    Connect with Dawud on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/dawudgordon/

    Connect with Ivan on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/ivanmilenkovic/

    Twosense – https://www.twosense.ai/

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

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

    51 min

About Next in Queue

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Hosted by Rob Dwyer, Next in Queue features Customer Experience, Contact Center, Customer Support, Customer Success, Training, Leadership, and Technology experts and practitioners from around the…