Contact Center Show

Customer surveys were once the backbone of quality programs. Today, response rates are collapsing, customers are ignoring them, and contact centers are left wondering how to measure performance without reliable feedback. Fresh from Customer Contact Week in Las Vegas, Amas shares a conversation that kept coming up among industry leaders: transactional surveys are failing. Some organizations have se...

The more important question might be: why are we still struggling with the same training problems we've had for twenty years? In this episode, we tackle a challenge facing nearly every contact center: new hire training that produces high attrition, slow ramp times, and inconsistent performance. The conversation started with a client losing roughly half of its new hires during training and anot...

Bob just returned from Italy with a story that should make every customer service leader pay attention. At train stations in Venice and Florence, there were no employees to help. Just kiosks. If you wanted a ticket, you figured it out yourself. If you had a question, there was nobody to ask. It wasn't a glimpse of the future. It was the present. That experience led us into a bigger discussion...

AI hype is colliding with operational reality. A shoe company gains $127M in value by saying “AI,” while contact center leaders are told their entire model is obsolete. The shift from CCaaS to “Customer Experience Automation” reframes everything: not just support, but marketing, sales, and service collapsing into one AI-driven layer. The problem: the foundation is broken. Knowledge is fragmented....

Exploring the future of AI in customer service, the role of agents, and how technology is transforming contact centers. AI in customer service The role of human agents vs. bots Generative AI and workflow orchestration Implications for contact center staffing Future trends in AI and automation 00:00 Introduction and Guest Credibility 01:04 The Reality of AI Agents Today 01:43 AI as a Smart Assistan...

This episode explores the transformative impact of AI on quality assurance (QA) in contact centers. Hosts Amas Tenumah and Bob Furniss discuss how AI is revolutionizing call monitoring, evaluation, and coaching, emphasizing practical steps for leaders to leverage this technology effectively. 00:00 Introduction to QA in Contact Centers 00:51 The Impact of AI on Quality Assurance 03:50 Revolutionizi...

Exploring the evolution and challenges of Omnichannel strategies in customer service, from early concepts to current practices. Insights from industry veterans Bob Furniss and Amas Tenumah on what works, what doesn't, and how to focus on the most impactful channels. key topics Origins of Omnichannel in 2010 Challenges in integrating multiple channels The importance of focusing on top channels...

key topics summary In this episode, Bob Furniss and Amas Tenumah explore the roles and goals of supervisors in contact centers, emphasizing coaching, relationship-building, and strategic management. They share practical tips for setting goals, managing time, and developing future leaders. Goals and metrics for supervisors Time management and coaching focus Building relationships with team and lead...

 summary This episode features a deep dive into contact center KPIs, exploring their flaws and how to measure customer experience effectively. Hosts Amas Tenumah and Bob Furness challenge industry norms and share practical insights for improving contact center performance.  key  topics Flaws in common KPIs like FCR, Service Level, NPS The importance of standardized measurement How to interpret and...

Summary In this conversation, Amas Tenumah and Bob Furniss discuss the complexities of performance management, particularly focusing on forced distribution and its implications on employee evaluation and coaching. They explore alternative approaches to performance evaluation that prioritize individual performance over comparative scoring, emphasizing the importance of quality conversations in coac...

In this conversation, Amas Tenumah and Bob Furniss discuss the intricacies of performance reviews, emphasizing the importance of coaching and effective feedback. They introduce the YMCA methodology as a framework for coaching conversations, highlighting the need for ongoing dialogue and employee ownership in the performance management process. The discussion also touches on the significance of cru...

Summary In this conversation, Amas Tenumah and Bob Furniss discuss the implications of AI in quality assurance within contact centers. They explore the benefits of AI, such as increased coverage and trend spotting, while also addressing concerns about accuracy and the potential for AI to replace human interaction. The discussion emphasizes the importance of using AI to enhance human capabilities r...

Summary In this episode, Amas Tenumah and Bob Furniss delve into the current state of Software as a Service (SaaS) and its intersection with artificial intelligence (AI), particularly in the context of contact centers. They discuss the recent downturn in stock prices for major SaaS companies like Salesforce and ServiceNow, attributing this to Wall Street's skepticism about the actual impact of AI...

Most customer experience goals are meaningless. In this episode, Bob Furniss and Amas Tenumah dismantle the way contact centers set annual CX metrics and explain why leaders keep optimizing numbers that customers neither notice nor value. Using insights from a John Goodman article on CX goal-setting, the conversation exposes the disconnect between executives, customers, and frontline teams—and why...

  2025 predictions — graded AI-powered knowledge Bob's 2025 prediction: AI would dramatically improve knowledge in contact centers. Result: Early but mostly wrong. The technology moved, but the data did not. Knowledge bases were too fragmented, too dirty, and too poorly governed for AI to meaningfully improve frontline work. The industry instead spent another year chasing bots, automation, and sur...

Amas Tenumah explains why customer service is not "broken" but intentionally designed to fail. Drawing on decades inside contact centers, historical research, and real corporate incentives, he argues that long waits, deflection, and automation-first strategies are features—not bugs. The conversation dismantles common CX myths, challenges executive complacency, and frames consumer behavior as the o...

Summary The conversation explores the integration of AI in sales, focusing on how it enhances customer engagement and improves sales efficiency. Bob Furniss discusses the importance of using data to empower salespeople rather than reducing their numbers, emphasizing a customer-centric approach to AI in sales.     Takeaways AI can enhance customer engagement in sales. The focus should be on empower...

Summary In this conversation, Amas Tenumah, Bob Furniss and Brad Cleveland discusses the three levels of value that contact centers create: efficiency, customer satisfaction and loyalty, and strategic insights provided by AI. He emphasizes the importance of these levels in improving products, services, and processes. Takeaways there's three levels of value that contact centers create Level one is...

Low-Cost, High-Impact CX Improvements The Power of Language: Transform "I can't" into "How can we" Shift from "I have to" to "We get to" Being "impeccable with your word" (inspired by The Four Agreements ) Words trigger emotional responses that shape customer perception Getting CX Buy-In Across Organizations The Alignment Problem: CX initiatives fail when metrics aren't shared across departments S...

Episode Summary Broadcasting live from the ICMI conference in Orlando, Amas and Bob discuss the evolving role of AI in contact centers, the ongoing struggle for strategic recognition, and welcome special guest Bianca, who shares her unique perspective on running HR as a contact center at Michigan State University.    

Host: Bob Furniss (without co-host Amos) Guest: Daniel Thomas, Informa Location: ICMI Conference Expo Floor Guest Background Daniel Thomas approaches contact center industry from a research background Surveys audiences and writes research reports Has "front row seat" to industry transformation Conducts the annual State of the Contact Center survey About the State of the Contact Center Report Compr...

Summary In this conversation, Amas, Luke and Bob explore the evolving complexity of contact centers, challenging the notion that they are becoming simpler. They emphasizes that while the intention may be to simplify processes, the reality is that sophistication often leads to increased complexity. They also highlights the reliance on outdated metrics, such as those managed in Excel, which can cont...

  Summary In this conversation, Amas Tenumah and Bob Furniss discuss the evolution of contact centers, the impact of CRM systems like Salesforce, and the role of AI in enhancing agent performance. They reflect on the historical context of CRM, the challenges faced by agents, and the future of customer service technology, particularly focusing on the Agent Force initiative. The discussion also touc...

Summary In this conversation, Amas Tenumah and Bob Furniss discuss the intricate relationship between marketing and call center operations, particularly during high-demand periods like holidays. They share personal anecdotes about challenges faced in fulfilling customer orders due to marketing miscommunications and emphasize the importance of building strong relationships between marketing and con...

Summary: For decades, leaders have debated whether the contact center should be a cost center, a profit center, or something in between. In this episode, Amas and Bob cut through the noise and tackle the question head-on: Is the contact center truly a profit center—or are we just telling the story wrong? Amas argues that the CFO decides the labels, not us, and that contact centers suffer from bein...