Advice from a Call Center Geek!

Send us Fan Mail Ultimate Guide to Contact Center Outsourcing Episode This is one of the best episodes of value/content we have ever created. If you are looking to outsource your contact center this is a MUST listen. 25 minutes of why you should outsource, why you shouldn't outsource, what are the red flags to watch out for, what you should expect to pay, what you should not pay for, the tech...

Send us Fan Mail One of the best ways we have been able to create stars in our contact center is by doing a weekly 15-minute agent review with our contact center agents.   In this episode, we give you the five detailed steps in creating this in your contact center. Review Address Goal Planning Progression Documenting  Through Expivia Digital, Tom works with contact center leaders on CCaaS pla...

Send us Fan Mail In looking into my crystal ball, I wanted to talk to you all about three technology predictions that I see for 2023 as it relates to the contact center.   I want to focus on where I see AI really having the biggest impact in not only assisting agents but in how it will be changing the internal working of our contact center operations as well.  Through Expivia Digital, Tom wor...

Send us Fan Mail Most of us, as call center managers want to create a culture of fun and enjoyment in our contact center environments.   How do we do that, it is organic games, gamification, motivations...and what do we do when we have the "bah humbugs" that don't want to play or think games are beneath them. In this episode, we talk about how to use games and motivations as positiv...

Send us Fan Mail I was asked to talk to a class of pre-startups on the topic of Marketing and Branding at Gannon University where I am vice chair of the Erie Technology Incubator. In this presentation, I talk about what I do every day to create content at scale to grow my personal and business brand. Marketing, branding, sales... these are the pillars of new business and community building.  I get...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of Advice from a Call Center Geek, we take a look at the three pillars of contact center metrics, efficiency, quality, and sales.  We discuss our favorite metrics in each category and how you can maximize all three! Check out our Free ACG NFT drop currently happening on Opensea. The link is here: https://opensea.io/collection/acg-access-token These tokens include: ...

Send us Fan Mail Token Address: https://opensea.io/collection/acg-access-token We have a FREE NFT project for anyone that is a call center supervisor or manager.  These 20 (4 are already gone as of this typing)tokens that give you the utility of: Two 15-minute video calls with Tom Laird about any call center or contact center topic you have issues or questions about per year. Access to a special e...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, we welcomed Nick Corso AKA Corso, Community Success Lead at Veefriends, one of the most popular and largest NFT projects on our Advice from a Call Center Geek Podcast.   We have an in-depth conversation discussing how to create and moderate a community as it relates to NFT projects through ups and downs.  Community moderation will be a new channel that brands will...

Send us Fan Mail I got this question Dmd to me in Linkedin.  This episode is my in-depth answer on setting up new tech in your contact center. "Tom,  We talk a lot about how much tech can help us in the contact center space, but I find that many tend to think that tech is some kind of magic button (just deploy it and it works, and people are disappointed that it's not that easy).  You me...

Send us Fan Mail Sanas is a startup in Silicon Valley that has developed software to make offshore accents sound more "American" or as some say, "more white". I have done a ton of research on the company, took the demo at CCW, and have read and watched as much as I can on both sides of the contact center controversy. In this episode, I give my raw take on what I think is going...

Send us Fan Mail The use cases for using speech analytics are endless when you really put the tool to the test.  In this episode, we talk about 10 ways that we are using analytics in our call center to maximize its use! 1.    Proactive Customer Service 2.    Rewarding Associates for Great Sentiment  3.    Generating Marketing Data 4.    Finding Out the Why 5.    Noting Frustration 6.    Learning W...

Send us Fan Mail This was taken from a talk that I gave to a group of Wisconsin Customer Service Professionals back in 2020 on a range of contact center operational topics. This is a 13-minute segment from that talk and one of my favorite pieces of content I have ever created.    I have been looking for this for over a year! I think you will enjoy the topics engagement topics that span from games...

Send us Fan Mail Buying a new contact center platform is a HUGE decision for any organization.  In this episode, I give you all the tips that I can think about that I give to my customers when consulting or as a referral partner for them. If you are just starting on your path or even if you are already down the road before you sign any deal you need to listen to this episode.  It will save you mon...

Send us Fan Mail When you are working in the contact center environment, there are many people and personalities that you need to engage with in a positive way, sometimes that is easier said than done. Issues between associates or supervisors unfortunately will happen.  In Episode 159 of Advice from a Call Center Geek, we talk about what to do when there is an issue that happens on a team in your...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, we have a detailed discussion of my 5 1/2 favorite call center and contact center metrics that we look at and benchmark.  Some tell the story as key benchmarking metrics, and some can tell you if something is a little off. When you put all of them together, you have a great idea of what is happening in your contact center. The metrics discussed are: Service Level...

Send us Fan Mail To kick off the second half of 2022 from an ACG perspective, we play a game of Overrated, Properly Rated, or Underrradted with different call center and contact center topics. For example, are these tools, metrics, topics OR, PR, or UR? CSAT/NPS Sentiment AI in the Contact Center WFM Average Talk Time as a Metric Dress Code in the Office And a couple more topics to get you thinkin...

Send us Fan Mail With the forecast of some rough economic waters ahead, let's take a look at some things you can do to help your contact center get through this unscathed.  In this episode, we give seven ways or tips that you need to think about to help your center get through. Some are obvious like focusing on efficiency tools and retention efforts to customers, and some are not, like how I...

Send us Fan Mail Here is my honest assessment of CCW 2022 (June)  The Good: The technology is getting better and better with each show, the industry is strong with many tech leaders showcasing amazing uses for Ai, gamification, augmented reality, WFM, voice authentication, and gamification. The Bad: Very few end-users at the show.  It was more of a technology showcase than a place to do real busin...

Send us Fan Mail On this weekly "Advice from a Call Center Geek" Ask me Anything we talk about a range of topics. In this episode, I give my first thoughts on running your contact center during an economic downturn, what to focus on and how to make sure you stay as efficient as you can. I get questions on using Analytics to in cent reps, what I look for when buying contact software, and...

Send us Fan Mail I am personally really excited about all of you listening to this episode! In this episode of Advice from  Call Center Geek,  I sit down and have a conversation with Ashish Nagar,  CEO of Level_AI  on the state of AI in the contact center. We define Ai as it relates to the contact center, and talk about where Ai in the contact center will be in 24-36 months. We dig deep into speec...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of our weekly Linkedin live AMA that we do every Friday from 1-2pm EST I talk about: Contact Center Conferences and where I see them going. The state of the economy and how that will be affecting contact centers and technology purchases. How to ensure consistency of service overall agents in your contact center Engaging reps over IM tools  Measuring Agent Sentiment...

Send us Fan Mail For this of you that don't know him,  James Dodkins used to be an actual, real-life, legitimate, award-winning rockstar. He played guitar in a heavy metal band, released albums, and tore up stages all over the world, James is now the CX Evangelist at Pegasystems where he researches the mindsets, principals and philosophies of companies that deliver ‘Rockstar Customer Experien...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of our weekly Advice from a Call Center geek AMA office Hour I answer questions on: A day in the life of a call center supervisor Changes in the digital channel landscape Tip for lowering AHT KPIS for agents to self govern and more... Follow Tom: @tlaird_expivia Join our Facebook Call Center Community: www.facebook.com/callcentergeek Connect on LinkedIn : linkedin....

Send us Fan Mail My case for why blockchain technology will be the number one disrupter of the contact center and CX over the next 10 years. Blockchain will be: Streamlining payments Taking away processing fees Making Warranties seamless Contracts will be written on the chain with If/then statements Customer data will be encrypted overhauling how we verify customers Customer loyalty plans will be...

Send us Fan Mail Every week we do an Advice from a Call Center Geek "Office Hour" which is a one-hour-long AMA on Linkedin Live.  Any question you have and want to ask I am there to try to help you and see if I can give you some value. Topics/questions in this week's episode were on the topics of speech analytics, the power of sentiment, creating content for B2b, and our plans for W...