Contact Center Perspectives🎙️

In this episode, Shmuel Saklad talks about leadership, burnout, mentorship, and the growing pressure of AI adoption in contact centers. After working his way up from frontline agent to senior leadership at B&H, he shares honest insights on building trust with teams, supporting new managers, and why strong leadership matters more than ever in the age of AI.

In this episode, Dan Smitley shares practical insights on how WFM leaders can better balance business goals, customer expectations, and employee needs. We also discuss collaboration, leadership, and where AI is taking Workforce Management next.

In this episode of Contact Center Perspectives, host Tracy Weinger speaks with Florian Raschbichler from HiveMQ about how AI agents are transforming customer success. Florian shares how AI is being applied across the entire customer journey, helping teams scale operations, improve efficiency, and focus more on delivering real customer value. The conversation explores how customer success is evolvi...

Jackob Alaluf, VP of Customer Experience at Bridgewise, explains why CX is the ultimate business differentiator. Drawing on 35 years across B2B and B2C, he shares how people, satisfaction, and retention drive long-term success. His perspective reframes how companies should define growth in highly competitive markets. “At the end of the day, the customer experience representatives are the ones who...

Mark McKercher, VP of Global Customer Support at Sovos, explains why most AI efforts fail before they begin. He reveals how unrealistic expectations and weak foundations derail success. He shows how AI can turn support into a revenue driver through cross-functional collaboration. He closes with why change management defines long-term success. “It’s about being deliberate in the technology you choo...

Simas Tamosaitis, Director of Customer Service at Mastermind.com, outlines a mission-driven CX framework that shifts teams from transactional to transformative. He explains how mindset, mission, and clear KPIs create consistent customer outcomes. He shows why empowered agents turn edge cases into advocacy. He closes with a call to build leaders at every level. “Customer service teams do not succee...

Tracey Djordjevic, Director of Customer Service at Clarion Medical Technologies, explains why embracing constant change defines effective service leadership. She connects personal mindset with team stability through transitions. Tracey cites the principle that growth demands continuous improvement and learning. She details how her approach helps teams adapt smoothly during ongoing change. “You nee...

Marcia Daniel, Chief Client Officer at Ferrilli, explains why reliable data is the backbone of customer experience and growth. She connects NPS, CSAT, and help desk insights to business outcomes leaders can trust. Marcia shows how consistency and cybersecurity protect brand credibility and donor confidence. She closes with a blueprint for turning data into stories that align stakeholders. “Your da...

Brie Clements, Senior Director of Customer Service and Support at For The Record, details a practical shift from reactive fixes to proactive services. She maps roles, builds a skills matrix, and stabilizes operations. Brie demonstrates how proactive inspections can generate recurring revenue. She closes with metrics that accelerate trust. “Every interaction we had with a customer was not only an o...

Amber Scott, VP of Customer Experience at Serta Simmons Bedding, explains why basic empathy is now table stakes. She shares how clear expectations and promise-keeping create trust. Amber connects hospitality with measurable business outcomes. She closes on aligning CX to company objectives for growth. “Customer expectations and behavior continue to evolve, so I encourage leaders to read, stay info...

Daniela Linero Gamez, Chief Customer Officer at Ontop, shares how to bridge the empathy gap by moving beyond surface requests to real needs. She explains the price value paradox, the hospitality mindset, and the power of vulnerability. Daniela demonstrates why ICP knowledge and cultural nuance are essential globally. She closes with practical steps to turn support into growth. "The ICP must be in...

Silke Robeller, Director of Global Customer Care at Rainforest Alliance, explains why customer service is a company’s business card. She demonstrates how a 95 percent satisfaction rate indicates a significant impact on growth. Silke shares tactics to overcome the label of being a cost center. She maps practical steps for proactive cross-functional influence. “Your support is the business card of y...

Jaakko Jutila, Vice President of Customer Support at Basware, explains how support teams escape the cost-center trap. He details how CSAT improvements are linked to retention, providing a defensible business case. He outlines a seamless journey architecture across sales, services, support, and success. He shares a pragmatic approach to AI that starts internally and scales on solid processes. “When...

Mazen Moustafa, Director of Customer Service at Reliance Health, Egypt, shares two decades of cross-market customer operations and customer experience leadership. He introduces Then AI Happens, outlining practical AI use cases and workflows. Mazen also spotlights his security-awareness game Mission I.H.I., teaching youth to protect personal data. He closes with a personal note on travel and lifelo...

Karen Lam, Director of Customer Support at Top Hat, outlines a context-driven leadership style grounded in storytelling. She traces her path from retail to EdTech, culminating in managing support and shaping customer dialogue at Top Hat. “Every single company should have a Voice of the Customer program because it's the one way you're going to get a good pulse on not only your customers and your pr...

Kimberly Agin, Head of Business Performance and Enablement, Voice & Chat Automation/Contact Center at KeyBank, traces a career across financial services and explains why the contact center is a live window into client needs. She details how journey data and recorded conversations reveal rich behavioral insights. She pairs this with enterprise data for full context. She shows how these insights...

Cynthia Patterson, Vice President of North American Customer Support at Antech Diagnostics, outlines a new customer support model that blends empathy with business metrics. She explains how aligning value propositions with customer experience creates both loyalty and executive buy-in. Cynthia discusses her team’s extraordinary results: 6% turnover, 93–98% CSAT, and decades of employee tenure. She...

Katalin Fritz, Chief Customer & People Officer at Marley Spoon, reveals how pairing rock-solid reliability with well-timed surprises secures weekly reorders. She shares why proactive outbound calls transform contact centers from cost drains to revenue engines and shares how to connect empathy, data, and empowered teams for sustainable retention and scaling surprise without sacrificing consiste...

Mark Bernardo, VP of Customer Success at IP Fabric, unpacks the Champion Growth Model from naming outcomes and navigating with empathy to building trust through consistency and showing up in emotionally charged moments. He illustrates how every touchpoint can forge champions who drive upsell, renewal, and advocacy. His real-world examples reveal why emotions matter more than data alone. “The Champ...

Senthamizh Selvan Pandian, Head of Customer Success at SAP South-East Asia, explains how a people-first mindset transforms customer experience. He connects employee engagement to retention and revenue growth. Selvan details customer-centric innovation and proactive success practices. His insights deliver a complete blueprint for modern CX leadership. “Focus on both the customers’ needs and your ow...

Sanjeet Kaur Bali, SVP of Global Customer Support, outlines why organizational dysfunction quietly erodes scale, service, and innovation across every function. She explains how support leaders can surface root causes through data and constructive confrontation. She also describes the power of transforming support into a strategic growth engine. “We need to reassess and thoroughly evaluate what’s a...

Kel Kurekgi, Director of Support at Zapier, delves into the transformation of customer support teams, focusing on how to drop the victim mentality and gain a seat at the table. Kel discusses his journey from media to customer experience, sharing insights on overcoming challenges in the customer support sector. He emphasizes collaboration, empathy, and strategic storytelling as key elements in tran...

Ken Mogensen, Vice President of Sales & Marketing at Sneed Coding Solutions, discusses why treating BPO partners as direct reports transforms customer support into a sales engine. He explains vetting criteria, training approaches, and KPI alignment to ensure partners reflect the company’s values. Throughout the discussion, Ken shares lessons learned from scaling globally. “Our partners should...

Peter Mullen, Strategic Brand and Growth Leader at Simply Systems LLC, discusses how customer experience can pivot from a cost center into a growth driver. He highlights a $3.7 trillion opportunity resulting from poor customer experience (CX) and explains why AI-driven personalization is now the new baseline. Peter outlines how immersive brand storytelling and C-suite alignment fuel BPO success. “...

Tim Wilbourn, SVP Support and Customer Success at Crexendo® Business Solutions, unpacks the challenge of linking CX metrics to revenue in a Wall Street-driven world. He outlines strategies for establishing clear expectations and promoting long-term initiatives. He also explains why short tenures hurt CX leaders and how to build sustained success.   “The first thing investors look at is r...