Advice from a Call Center Geek!

Send us Fan Mail The question that is now being asked in the call center industry is Whats Next?  Should we stay with our work at home model, move all our agents back home, or should be do both and be a hybrid center moving forward. In Episode 73 of "Advice from a Call Center Geek!" we look at these options and our host Tom Laird discusses what he will be doing in his 500 seat call cente...

Send us Fan Mail HR and dealing with corrective actions in the call center can be a very challenging issue.  In episode 72 we talk about how to deal with issues that arise with your call center workforce in both the brick and mortar and at-home model. We help you with coming up with policies that match your culture, how to create a progressive discipline policy, and give you some real examples on...

Send us Fan Mail How should you spend budget dollars on your call center? What should you prioritize and "fix"? In this episode, we take you through the thinking of how we set our call center outsourcing business up.  When we had limited dollars, what did we prioritize and what should you now prioritize with your limited budgets. For us we only invest in three main tenants of our call ce...

Send us Fan Mail Most companies are lying to you about what AI can do in your call center. In this episode, we look at what AI can and cannot do in 2020.  With many companies looking to have or visualize your customer experience, AI and the dream of a robot talking to your customers will start to permeate in the minds of many corporate executives that may be detached from the actual call center. I...

Send us Fan Mail In episode 69 of "Advice from a Call Center Geek!" we take a look at Security With At Home Call Center Operations. From policies and procedures for equipment, tips for taking credit card information, and how to maintain PCI compliance in a virtual setting we got you covered! The "Advice from a Call Center Geek!" podcast is sponsored by Expivia Interaction Marke...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of the Geek!, we give the full rundown of what we are doing and have found to be best practices to operating a virtual contact center.  Topics discussed are: Equipment Policies Associates Management and QA Supervisor Checklists Security Rep Engagement MaximizingTechology Blog Post Link https://expiviausa.com/everything-you-need-to-know-about-running-an-at-home-call...

Send us Fan Mail In Episode 64 of "Advice form a Call Center Geek" we look at that you need to prepare for post Covid-19.  What do you need to start to think through so that you are prepared for the new long term norm? Customers are going to give the industry a free pass this time, but its not going to happen again.  You need to be prepared for moving forward.  We will talk about new way...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of Advice from a Call Center Geek!, we tell the true story of the rollercoaster of operating a call center in the days of coronavirus. We give an interesting retrospective of each day from March 11 through March 25.  How we went through the phases of ignoring and denying to action. We have a 5-minute segment on some of the best practices that we are using on how to...

Send us Fan Mail In this very special episode, during these very unique times, we have the privilege to be able to spend some time with Paul Herdman, Head of Global Customer Experience for NICE inContact. In this conversion, we talk not just about COVID-19 in the call center space, but a behind the scenes look at what NICE inContact has done not just to provide customers with continuity, but the a...

Send us Fan Mail We at the Geek! want to try to do anything we can to help you through these crazy and stressful times. Operating and running a call center in the time and the uncertainty of the Coronavirus is a very difficult situation. In this very important episode, we try to give you some of the things we are doing in our call center from the new policies we have on cleanliness and hand washin...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of "Advice from a Call Center Geek!" we have our first guest interview!  We took some time with call center adviser, consultant (broker..shhh not too loud) Fred Shadding.  Fred has over 30 years of experience in the call center operations and consulting business. Topics of discussion include: What is the difference between a call center consultant and bro...

Send us Fan Mail Policies and procedures may not be a really fun topic, but they are very necessary for assuring your call center is running smoothly.  Policies are basically the call center's "constitution" or the rules that match the culture of the organization you are managing. In this episode of the Geek! we discuss 10 key call center policies that all call centers should have. ...

Send us Fan Mail A little bit of a unique and cool episode.  The Geek is a huge fan of the "Call Center Helper" website and podcast.  When we were asked to be a guest on their podcast we jumped at the invitation. While I am not going to spoil the entire episode, I do want to give you some highlights from a couple of the questions that were asked.  Really good questions and I hope you fin...

Send us Fan Mail I LOVE social media (As you all know ..lol) but I love security in my call center even more.  Go on TIKTOK and search for #callcenter and tell me if you still think it's ok for your call center associates to have cell phones on the call center floor. There is ZERO chance you are PCI compliant if you are allowing cell phones or wearable technology on the call center floor.  I...

Send us Fan Mail One of the key tasks that we talk to call centers when consulting is to whiteboard the "Call Center 22's" which are 22 questions that we ask the call center to define.   This is an exercise that we undertake internally every year as well to redefine where we stand on a bunch of call center culture questions.  If you sit down with your team and define and shape these...

Send us Fan Mail We take a deeper dive into the call center metrics that you need to be looking at daily and intraday to have the most efficient call center possible! We break down: Service Level Average Handle Time  Average Speed of Answer  Occupancy Abandonment Rate ACW/Wrap Time Average Time in Queue We show why these metrics are so important in benchmarking efficiency in your call center   Blo...

Send us Fan Mail Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp..... Do you have a digital plan for these "newer" channels?  In this episode of the "Geek" we talk about the importance of servicing customers on these channels, how to be proactive instead of reactive then it comes to social listening and best practices for digital customer service programs! Your customers are using these...

Send us Fan Mail Do you have processes and procedures in your call center to protect you, your customers, and your organization from fraud, phishing, viruses, employee/internal fraud or are you hoping and praying it never happens to you! We take a look at what you need in 2020 to have a secure contact center environment when it comes to Data, Physical and Digital Security.  We discuss tactics you...

Send us Fan Mail This bonus podcast episode was taken from a very popular 9 minute video that was posted on how our we started our call center outsourcing company, Expivia Interaction Marketing Group.  From where I came from, to being laid off, bootstrapping, making payroll, hiring our first employees to growing into a 500 seat USA call center.  Please take some inspiration from a regular guy that...

Send us Fan Mail In episode 53 of the Geek! we tackle the Top 10 Questions You Always Wanted to Ask a Call Center Outsourcer, but never have. Outsourcers get a lot of the same types of questions from those that have not outsourced before or are wondering what it all entails.  Is this episode we try to educate and demystify the call center outsourcing process. 1) Can you use our CRM / Do we have to...

Send us Fan Mail In Episode 51 of Advice from a Call Center Geek, we look at 5 ways you can engage your call center staff. We discuss strategies such as how and why to form leadership committees to utilizing Social Media to get the best out of all your call center associates and staff. We all want a highly engaged workforce, in this episode, we show you how! Blog Post Link: https://expiviausa.com/...

Send us Fan Mail A quick extra podcast episode to all the Geek! listeners out here.  We wanted to give a quick year in review and tell you where we are going in 2020. Thank you all and Merry Christmas, without you guys we would have stopped last January!   -Tom Join the Advice from a Call Center Geek texting community! Text us at 814-247-0366 and you will be able to have direct access to us for an...

Send us Fan Mail With 2019 winding down, we wanted to take a look a the technology trends that will be affecting the call center space in 2020. From AI, Analytics to the digital explosion, Advice from a Call Center Geek! gets you ready for the changes that are coming in 2020 to stay ahead of your competition. Join the Advice from a Call Center Geek texting community! Text us at 814-247-0366 and yo...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of the Geek!, we talk about why you need to be monitoring your digital channels at all times. We give you a real-life example of what happens when one of your social media assets gets attacked by a group of people (trolls) and how to respond.  This example is something that actually happened to the Expivia Facebook page over the Black Friday to Cyber Monday 2019 we...

Send us Fan Mail In Episode 46 of "Advice from a Call Center Geek!" We talk about what the Google Contact Center AI going generally available (GA) last week on Nov 14, 2019. We will look at what that means to the average call center and what AI technologies we at Expivia are working on now that correlates to Google AI going GA. If you are into call center technology, this episode is for...