Customer Management IQ  

In this podcast you will hear the golden rules of developing your webcare team to assist with customer-to-customer and employee-to-customer interaction. Vermaat, the Customer Care Operations Director at UPC, a provider of bundled cable television, internet adn telephone services to countries like the Netherlands, Ireland, Poland, Switzerland, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary and the Czech Republic. Vermaat will be speaking at the Customer Experience Exchange on Friday October 30th at the Sheraton Airport Hotel, Brussels, Belgium.

Interview with one of the world's top business social networking thought leaders and practitioners, she created the first business application on Facebook and leads salesfore.com's partnership with facebook. Shih systematically identifies your best opportiies to use social networks to source new business opportunities, target marketing messages, find the best employees, and engage cusotmers as true partners throughout the innovation cycle.

Andrew Knight does much more than write the Case-Mate blog. Case-Mate which is a leading manufacturer of cases, holsters, skins, covers and accessories for Apple iPhone, BlackBerry, iPod, MacBook, cares about its customers and is navigating the social web to let them know. Online surveys, email, blogs, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube all represent new ways for customers to express what they think and how they feel about your brand. In this increasingly digital age, new media is becoming mainstream, creating new challenges and opportunities for brands to communicate with their customers. Knight discusses how he is leveraging new media to listen and interact with customers and how he considers the customer experience a competitive advantage on the same level as the Case-Mate products.

Steve Brubaker, Senior Vice President of Corporate Affiars for InfoCision Management Corporation, a leading provider of call center solutions, specializing in political, Christian and nonprofit fundraising, and sales and customer care. Brubaker never thought he would find himself in the telemarketing industry. Brubaker has been with InfoCision since 1985 and has been with the company to witness its explosive growth. He talked with Customer Management IQ’s Blake Landau about call center talent management and best practices in dealing with regulation and compliance in the call center. Brubaker knows that when regulators decide to address a problem, rather than using a “scalpel” they come in with an axe causing sweeping regulations. This takes navigation and investment from a company’s standpoint. This includes training and resources to make sure your call center is compliant. Brubaker knows all companies and call centers deal with call center talent management. He wants to teach you how to engage employees on a personal level, be part of the process, and help call center contribute to the company’s success.

Judy McKee, co-author of The Positive Coach Approach and co-founder of McKee Consulting LLC, knows call center talent management and how to turn your cost center into a profit center through positive coaching. To improve call quality and in turn customer experience, managers and coaches must understand and embrace the philosophy and background of the process as outlined in each foundational block which she describes in this podcast interview. Hear about these four principles as well as what McKee will be presenting at the ATA National Convention in New Orleans this October. McKee believes that call center representatives inherently want to do a good job but encounter challenges on their path which prevent them from achieving success. The gaps in communication between call center management and call center staff cause call center nightmares. McKee knows these nightmares are preventable and teaches listeners how to address key call center talent management issues in this podcast. With her daughter and co-founder Sally Cordova, McKee designs development plans to set call centers up for success. McKee expects the call center representatives to self-correct and wants you to “listen for what isn’t there.” She encourages you to monitor the calls but avoid wasting your time by listening for the right things. This is time consuming but crucial. Measuring the call by how the customer reacts to the call center representative is critical. Rather then only listening to the call center representative when measuring performance, McKee asks that you listen to the customer and their reaction to the call center representative. Judy Mckee will be presenting at the American Teleservices Association’s annual convention on “Agent Retention Through Positive Coaching” on Tuesday October 6th at 1:30pm in New Orleans.

In this podcast Stephen Dawson, Director of Communication and Strategic Planning for the Heritage Company, a full-service non-profit agency, talks with Customer Management IQ’s Blake Landau on how to improve call quality and customer satisfaction. In recent years, the drive for efficiency has been a major factor in business decisions throughout the United States, and perhaps nowhere has this trend been more evident than in call centers. The economic downturn has made the need for efficiency and quality more important driving call centers offshore and increasing the use of self-service tools and technology as means to reduce costs. Such moves are key to remaining viable in times such as these, but if not done properly, they could yield short-term gains and long-term losses through a loss of customer trust and acceptance. The call center may serve multiple purposes for its customers or parent companies—inbound/outbound sales, customer service, etc. While it is vital that the call center operate efficiently in all aspects of work, it is vital that the call center keep in mind the goal that the American Teleservices Association has described in recent years as delivering the Ideal Customer Experience (ICE). Reducing call center costs today at the expense of the long-term relationship with the customer is a sure way to guarantee that companies will not reap the benefits from a broader economic recovery in a manner the call center hopes to achieve. In this podcast Dawson talks about how he has achieved jaw dropping results with a focus on quality within the call center. Dawson will be presenting at the American Teleservices Association’s national convention on “Using What We Learned from the ATA: A Case Study on Agent Performance & Quality” on Monday October 5th at 11am in New Orleans.