Contact Center Show

Bob, it has been a while since we have talked to the contact center show audience, and there are some rumors that I want to put to bed. Bob, the word on the street is we got rich and famous and we stopped putting out new show. I've gotten some responses from our fans. Can you put these rumors to bed? What actually happened here? Bob Well, as you can see, I'm calling you from my yacht. So the rumor...

Amas and Bob take a look back a their third season of the Contact Center show.    "I plan to spend the offseason doing nonprofit, keisha Warrior Princess, we aims to educate women on the importance of self exams and of gynological appointments annually."- Bob I'm increasingly getting feedback from people who are not deep into the contact center, but are contact center adjacent. Whether they be lik...

Bob and Amas discuss how you should prepare for CCaas:   Three out of four contact centers today have not yet made the move. Every vendor is telling companies to make this move. The improvements are happening in their new cloud system. We're getting close to the point where this would be a baseline requirement. CCaaS allows agents to use all of their channels in one interface. It adds some user ca...

Amas and Bob tell you how to separate the hype from reality with GPT:   - AI will eliminate 75% of call center jobs. AI will even make your bed. These are some of the real headlines about what generative AI things like Chat GPT will do to the contact center. - I think the next knowledge will be the impact. It's going to affect the way that we write knowledge articles. Marketing is an example of ho...

Bob and Amas discuss the world of knowledge. "I'm going to date myself that we had knowledge on paper in binders at every desk." - Bob "In fact, I believe that if used correctly, knowledge or technical product content in this case is and should be seen as marketing." - Mike "So we have this issue. There are 1400 page PDFs running out there. How would you think about the problem and and how? How ha...

Amas and Bob discuss the role of the CFO in the Contact Center: "Yeah, there is a the metric but there reason your are measuring FCR, repeat call rates, average call rate, they should lead somewhere." -Amas  "I gotta be ready to tell the story of the history, the real-time and the future." -Bob  

Amas and Bob discuss the outbound call center: "This is giving me flashbacks of my teenage years when I was doing telemarketing." - Amas    "Time is money! Interactions to Sales matter - from a cost perspective." -Bob "Well first of all it's a tough job, in that job I was talking about I called 60 people maybe 20 talked to me, that's a lot of negativity." - Bob

Bob interviews Amas about his latest book "Waiting for Service" "If our industry could get the waiting part right before worrying about the quality of service..." Amas  "So if you are listening to our podcast, he is not talking about you, he is talking about the other contact center professionals." - Bob 

Amas and Bob welcome Caryn Fried and Glen Stoffel to the Contact Center Show to discuss the reality of soft skills. Quotes "People drive the success of contact centers. I had someone say to me this week - I think people are going away in contact centers. ChatGPT and the future of voice bots and digital bots will replace the human. But I disagree. Technology will never replace the humans in contact...

Do you use social media to address your complaints or concerns with companies?  What are the pros and cons of social service? Does anyone do it well? It is quite overwhelming to monitor the entire internet so where do you start?   "how would you feel if every decision you make privately on a contact center ends up on the front page of a newspaper or on facebook?" "If it is written information, it...

Bob and Amas continue the conversation about Social Service: "You know that quote from 10-15 years ago 'if you do something good your customer will tell 3 people and if you do something bad they will tell 10' now customers are like 'let me tell my 100 followers, 500 followers...." - Bob   And much more  Contact Amas and Bob. http://linkedin.com/in/amastenumah/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/bobfurnis...

You dial a 1800# and it tells you someone will hold your place in line and call you back when it is your turn? Is someone actually holding your place in line? Key Quotes: "It allows you to not have to listen to Michael Bolton sing "when a man loves a woman for the thirteenth time." Or even worse, here the "your call is important to us" for the 25th time!" "Yes it is lipstick on a pig- but I am not...

Amas and Bob take a deep dive into the success of ChatGPT. Chatbots are not new, why is this one capturing hearts and mind? What the heck is a chatbot anyway? Why do most customers hate chatbots and will it change? Will it replace humans in the contact center? How do I start building a bot customers will want? And much more  Contact Amas and Bob. http://linkedin.com/in/amastenumah/ https://www.lin...

The contact center may be the biggest melting pot in corporate America. Bob & Amas have 60+ years in the industry What does the contact center get  right? Most incredible stories about contact centers   Memorable Quote: "Did you lose your daughter? Are you a NARC?" - Bob   And much more  Contact Amas and Bob. http://linkedin.com/in/amastenumah/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/bobfurniss/    

Join Bob and Amas as they dive deep in how to deal with escalations: "I have always been intersted in the origin of the statement "the customer is always right", they must not work in service..." "In some ways I think the organization is creating escalations..." "I would love to be a supervisor in a call center and not be able to tell a lie....." And much more Contact Amas and Bob. http://linkedin...

Join Amas and Bob as they discuss the dreaded message we all hear when calling for service. What is done with my recording and transcripts at most contact centers? Who owns the data? Three things to change about the recording and quality assurance process. Some quotes... "I don't think it's BS they are recorded but they're not listening to a lot of it..." "Here is what your agent hears after you t...

People blame most bad interactions on poor training. Is this true? The training blame game  Who is the real culprit when service goes bad What is training actually good for Is empathy a skill or an emotion? And much more... Contact Amas and Bob. http://linkedin.com/in/amastenumah/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/bobfurniss/    

Ever had 100,000 people waiting in line and angry? You know it is your fault? Have you ever made all your coworkers mad? Today Bob Furniss and I discuss Workforce Management. Why WFM deserves more empathy Why WFM is a lot of art and a lot science Wat makes WFM such a complex job  And much more ... Contact Amas and Bob. http://linkedin.com/in/amastenumah/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/bobfurniss/    

Tune in to hear... "There are lies, there are damn lies and there are metrics!" If you can't measure it, you can't manage it" - Dr Demin   Why are there so many damn metrics in a Contact Center Is chasing Average Handle Time effective? Does Average Rate of Answer really matter? And so much more!   Contact Amas and Bob. http://linkedin.com/in/amastenumah/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/bobfurniss/  

  Notable quotes " I miss my old job some days it was less chaotic. I used to be an ER Nurse and I am now a call center supervisor in Manila" " I am a manager, a leader, a therapist, a coach, an arbitrator, a time manager, a workforce manager, a teacher, a quality..." I was the best agent - I am now probably the most undertrained manager in the company with lots of responsibility and hats to wear!...

"Which is worse? What if we had a zero abandon rate? OR  What if we reduced service level?" "Marketing claims it sets half of its budget on fire and keeps getting funding."   "tell me why you matter? Tell me why we should spend more? " Contact Amas and Bob. http://linkedin.com/in/amastenumah/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/bobfurniss/

Amas and Bob continue the conversation about the evolution of the Contact Center: The heart of the Contact Center Agent  Why is it the most scrutinized job in the company? What the role should look like Strategic positioning of contact center Implications of digital/remote  to how we run contact centers? Do we need to track bathroom times

Bob and Amas break down exactly what the Contact Center is and is not: The term Call Center should be retired  Implications of Remote Agents  Quotes: "If you are still calling it a call center, I am judging you" "If the Telephone is your only channel, you are doing it wrong" "We are the contact center, the engagement center, the data center - and yes - the call center! We should have a strong impa...

Amas and Bob are back discussing all things Contact Center.  They combine their 50+ years of experience and humor to bring you actionable insights that will improve your Contact Center.  Call centers have an amazing history that is about 70 years old, hopefully you learned how we got here. Please join us   "Federal prisoners have more freedom than call center agents" "Call centers were born from a...

This conclusion to the Leadership Series offers great insights into reporting and Bob and Amas share their insights: Why the contact center is so metrics obsessed What is one of the main drivers of reporting What is the secret to calculating first call resolution  To learn more about Bob, Amas and the show visit www.contactcenter.tv